Well, so much for worrying about a broken brake cable, I should have known the most dangerous thing about going down Negley Hill is the same as the most dangerous thing everywhere - idiots in metal boxes.
I almost got left-hooked at the bottom of the hill. Luckily I had a feeling the minivan driving moron wasn't going to stop and got on the brakes early, plus I was able to see the oncoming lane was clear and swerve over there. I screamed as loud as I could "don't even f**ing think about it", although I only made it to the f-bomb before it became apparent that wasn't going to stop them. When I was clear I screamed a few choice expletives at them. I'm sure those had no effect either; I'm not sure if the people at the bus stop were amused or horrified, they probably just thought "another a-hole on a bicycle"...
Definitely not the way I wanted to start my day.
Glad to hear that you're OK.
I remember the time I felt like a twit because I dropped a loud f-bomb when I thought a car was going to turn left on ELB directly into me....aaaaand they weren't. But it's just hard to tell sometimes.
Hope your day looks up---sunny today.
That's how my accident happened, only I wasn't on a really steep hill. Old lady turned in front of me and I had nowhere to go. Glad you made it.
Glad you're ok. +1 for situational awareness. I think when you scream at somebody it's about 70% effective, just to make up a number.
The motorist was on Negley turning left to Fifth outbound? We pedants call that a left-cross, fwiw, and reserve the "hook" term for the scenario where the motorist overtakes and fails to yield when turning. So left hooks only happen on one-way streets here.
That left-cross while I'm riding down a hill at 30 mph is the #1 item on my list of worries.
So hopefully you trained someone to exhibit better judgment there. Thanks.
it always bothered me that we (pedantic) cyclists are southpaws. i've been a sinistrophobe since birth.
my only real accident was a left cross. i was luckily not going downhill, but i was still chugging along at a good clip, and a van turned in front of me. since then, i've always done a good job foreseeing these things. it's like a sixth sense now.
My friend, Kyle, hit a woman running a red light at the bottom of the hill. He had the green, was flying down the hill. Woman rand the red. He rammed into the side of her car. He was in rough rough shape.
My accident was also of the left-cross variety. I suspect many are, at least most I've heard about.
I don't know what to do to prevent it, but I definitely don't enter an intersection anymore if I even have the slightest suspicion the person facing me might be making a left turn into my path, regardless of turn lane, blinker status, or inching of the vehicle.
Once you get to the point where you think it is going to happen, it is hard to bail out. Sometimes you can bail to the left of the car like you did, but if they actually see you and are just trying to cut it real close and squeeze by right behind you as you pass in front of them, cutting to the left might screw you.
Yep, left cross was how I got hit too. Since I'm not the kind of person to filter forward too often and risk getting right-hooked when a light turns green at a bad time, this is the #1 thing I'm cautious about. It also made me realize how important it is to have a headlight as well as a taillight. The way people take left turns in this city, right after the light turns red or right before it turns green, the only way I know how to prevent these is to be incredibly visible...
I've started getting bolder about taking the lane at intersections. Yesterday, I very nearly got right hooked -- at low speed, in broad daylight, with me wearing my usual orange vest. I wasn't in the lane. I was just right of the paint line, stopped about 70 feet back of the front car, maybe three car lengths. I started moving when everyone else did, and just as I got into the cross street, a car started to turn into me, and would have caught my rear wheel square-on.
I bailed. There was an adjacent parking lot with no curb, so I just curly-cued into that, and pulled right back into traffic behind the last car pulling away from the light. This was at Perry Hwy at Bellevue Road, inbound, just north of the park & ride.
The 10 or so lights since then where something similar might occur, I've very visibly gotten in front of one car in line while still moving, and then gotten back over to the right when I've cleared enough of the intersection that the chances of a right hook or left cross are nil.
I definitely meant "left cross" not "hook". Yeah, the minivan was going S on Negley, turning outbound on 5th, and I was coming down the hill.
There was a car in front of me; of course going at that speed I keep a reasonably good gap in case I need to stop. So, I saw the left-turning minivan slow/stop for the car, then try to "sneak" between me and the car.
Somehow I just *knew* that was going to happen - which is a good thing because if I wasn't anticipating it, I'm not sure I would have made it on reaction time alone. Also good that no one was in the opposing lane (and that I could clearly see that coming down the hill), because there was nowhere else to go aside from trying to make the turn on 5th, and of course the minivan never stopped - probably a good thing in this case considering I decided to go behind it.
It's good to see you're OK.
I had never gone up or down Negley before, so last week I gave it a try just because it's mentioned on this board so often. My conclusion - both directions suck! Glad you ok.
Salty, do you think he/she didn't see you at all, or just misjudged your speed?
dwillen ("I suspect many are"), you're right. When considering only car-bike crashes where the motorist was at fault, the largest proportion are left-crosses, followed by right-hooks, then redlight/stop-sign running, drive-outs, and dooring. The exact proportions vary from study to study but the trend holds.
Commute Orlando has an article about left-crosses with some illuminating graphics.
Lyle, that Commute Orlando link is great! Animated examples - great idea. Thanks for posting.
Lyle - obviously I can't say for sure but I suspect they saw me. The car in front of me was far enough ahead (and below) me not to block the sight line - I could certainly see the driver of the minivan the entire time. It was broad daylight, and I was in the center of the lane, wearing a bright yellow jacket. It was probably just the same stupid "it's a bike, so it must be going slow" mentality that drives people to do all sorts of stupid things they wouldn't do to another car. But only the driver knows for sure - all I can say is either way it's inexcusable.
It does make me think about mounting some sort of horn on my bike, though... although I guess reaching for the horn instead of the brakes would have been a mistake. I actually thought for a split second about ringing my bell, before I realized how comically ineffective that would have been.
...or a bumper bike?
One interesting tip from the Commute Orlando site was to KEEP PEDALING even if in fact you are coasting down the hill.
If your feet are motionless, the cave man part of the driver's brain (all lobes - lol) can interpret that as a visual clue that you intend to slow and stop. If you keep pedaling even while coasting, it's one more visual signal to the driver.
