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Old 08-11-2014, 04:06 PM
 
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If there were a bicyclist coming from behind you on right or left, you'd know, because you'd have already passed him as you drove up to the light. But, whatever. Better to be safe, and double-check, than sorry, I guess.
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Old 08-11-2014, 04:33 PM
 
Location: On the water.
21,619 posts, read 16,138,730 times
Reputation: 19693
Quote:
Originally Posted by NewbiePoster View Post
If there were a bicyclist coming from behind you on right or left, you'd know, because you'd have already passed him as you drove up to the light. But, whatever. Better to be safe, and double-check, than sorry, I guess.
Hmmm. Even though this isn't a real thread, I'll point out that bicyclists materialize out of thin air. Often.

You'd have not necessarily passed the cyclist who emerged from a time-warp, worm-hole, or black-hole.

Yes. They really do that. Constantly.

They also come out of driveways, off sidewalks, between parked cars -- and, of course, their classic stealth move - out of sewers. Right behind you. In your blind spot. Screaming bloody hell.
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Old 08-11-2014, 08:00 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,086 posts, read 107,144,259 times
Reputation: 115880
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulemutt View Post
Hmmm. Even though this isn't a real thread, I'll point out that bicyclists materialize out of thin air. Often.

You'd have not necessarily passed the cyclist who emerged from a time-warp, worm-hole, or black-hole.

Yes. They really do that. Constantly.

They also come out of driveways, off sidewalks, between parked cars -- and, of course, their classic stealth move - out of sewers. Right behind you. In your blind spot. Screaming bloody hell.
Wow, I've been taking a lot for granted. We don't have many bicyclists where I live, but I'll have to be careful on visits to CA. This was a useful thread just for that.
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Old 08-11-2014, 11:48 PM
 
Location: Planet Earth
1,963 posts, read 3,026,882 times
Reputation: 2429
Quote:
Originally Posted by NewbiePoster View Post
If there were a bicyclist coming from behind you on right or left, you'd know, because you'd have already passed him as you drove up to the light. But, whatever. Better to be safe, and double-check, than sorry, I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulemutt View Post
Hmmm. Even though this isn't a real thread, I'll point out that bicyclists materialize out of thin air. Often.

You'd have not necessarily passed the cyclist who emerged from a time-warp, worm-hole, or black-hole.

Yes. They really do that. Constantly.

They also come out of driveways, off sidewalks, between parked cars -- and, of course, their classic stealth move - out of sewers. Right behind you. In your blind spot. Screaming bloody hell.
And sometimes you have to slow down or stop your car (say, the car in front of you is turning right and stopped to let a pedestrian clear the crosswalk OR maybe the light was red and you had to wait for it to turn green and then the 6 cars in front of you to start moving forward OR maybe a car pulled into the street a little ways in front of you and you had to slow down in order to not hit them ...).

That's when the bikes REALLY sneak up on you. An they use their titanium fangs to eat parts of your car's body and paint while screaming. Loudly. As they stare at the bone that was fractured and is sticking out of their calf.

I routinely see people who are bicycling at 25 mph or faster - every single day. You are not necessarily going faster than a cyclist. There's a lot of "flat" around these here parts. I was once *passed* by a cyclist on Steven's Creek Blvd while doing (approx) the speed limit - 35 mph. That is something that I rarely see (?once a month?) but there ARE 'bike freaks' (i.e., avid bicyclists) who do maintain moderately high speeds (35+) on their 27-gear, 12-pound, $4000 racing bikes. And they use them to commute. They are out there - just waiting to pounce on you when you turn right. You should be afraid - veeeerrrrryy afraid.

But on a completely serious note : that ONE time I looked and there was actually a bike that had mysteriously appeared beside/behind me was worth all the thousands of times that I looked and nobody was there.
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Old 08-12-2014, 03:27 PM
 
Location: Silicon Valley
18,813 posts, read 32,322,822 times
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I've been the bike nobody saw. Fortunately, I was smart enough not to trust the car until the driver looked me in the eye. That said, one guy still knocked me off my bike and I was stopped waiting for him to turn right. He was only looking left for traffic. Then, he careened right into me without looking, and I was on the corner in the bike lane! Which he did not have to drive into at all to make his right hand turn. And this was in Davis, CA where there are more bikes than cars.

Idiota.

It's common sense to look before you leap. Some states realize they have to put it in their books for people who don't have any, I guess.
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Old 08-12-2014, 04:57 PM
 
Location: SoCal
6,418 posts, read 11,558,947 times
Reputation: 7093
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe View Post
I've been the bike nobody saw. Fortunately, I was smart enough not to trust the car until the driver looked me in the eye. That said, one guy still knocked me off my bike and I was stopped waiting for him to turn right. He was only looking left for traffic. Then, he careened right into me without looking, and I was on the corner in the bike lane! Which he did not have to drive into at all to make his right hand turn. And this was in Davis, CA where there are more bikes than cars.

Idiota.

It's common sense to look before you leap. Some states realize they have to put it in their books for people who don't have any, I guess.
Drivers are instructed to deliberately drive into the bike lane (when safe, of course) before making a right turn exactly so that a bike will not be able to drive up on their right side when they do make the turn. If he was doing it right, there would have been no space to the right of him for you to ride up into.
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Old 08-12-2014, 05:23 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
102,086 posts, read 107,144,259 times
Reputation: 115880
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe View Post
I've been the bike nobody saw. Fortunately, I was smart enough not to trust the car until the driver looked me in the eye. That said, one guy still knocked me off my bike and I was stopped waiting for him to turn right. He was only looking left for traffic. Then, he careened right into me without looking, and I was on the corner in the bike lane! Which he did not have to drive into at all to make his right hand turn. And this was in Davis, CA where there are more bikes than cars.

Idiota.

It's common sense to look before you leap. Some states realize they have to put it in their books for people who don't have any, I guess.
Wow. Stay safe, Snow. Yeah, Davis is Bike City.
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Old 08-12-2014, 06:45 PM
 
Location: On the water.
21,619 posts, read 16,138,730 times
Reputation: 19693
I have a human-powered pedal drive in my rowing dinghy. That's as close to street vehicular traffic as I'm going to pedal.
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Old 08-12-2014, 07:21 PM
 
Location: Planet Earth
1,963 posts, read 3,026,882 times
Reputation: 2429
Quote:
Originally Posted by oddstray View Post
Drivers are instructed to deliberately drive into the bike lane (when safe, of course) before making a right turn exactly so that a bike will not be able to drive up on their right side when they do make the turn. If he was doing it right, there would have been no space to the right of him for you to ride up into.
You are assuming that the car got there first, not the bike. That may be true, it could easily be true. But it could also be true that the bike got to the red light first.
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Old 08-14-2014, 03:32 PM
 
40 posts, read 62,154 times
Reputation: 55
The over-the-shoulder (or side mirrors if you have them adjusted to eliminate blind spots, but that's another thread) checks are for making lane changes -- which you are doing in the common case the DMV guide is referring to:

Visualize a common arterial street: 1-3 lanes of traffic in each direction, a center turn lane, and a bike lane.

Turning left: You first merge into the center turn lane if it exists (after checking ahead/left/right for others doing so from the other direction or side streets). You want to also check that nobody is already in that turn lane coming faster than you (e.g. you slowed and they didn't know you were turning). Even if there is no turn lane, it's still not a bad idea to look behind and to the left for a car passing, an emergency vehicle coming in the wrong lane at high speed, etc.

Turning right: You first merge into the bike lane, after yielding to any bikes in it -- that's the step that requires you to check behind, just as you would if changing lanes on a freeway. Checking, yielding, then moving all the way right, is how you avoid right-hooking cyclists. Even if there's no marked bike lane, it sure is a good idea to check and make a move to the right.

All of this is situational, and we may not all consciously realize we are doing these checks (but hopefully are, at least to an extent). But a new driver should focus on forming and showing good habits -- I got my license on the east coast 25+ years ago, and I remember being told to make a little show of adjusting the mirrors after the tester got in the car, even if I had driven there, just to show that I was serious about making sure I was doing everything correctly.
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