Near misses, caught on tape

Tired of nearly being killed every day. Gonna start keeping snippets of my commute here. Hopefully none ever result in a Face Plant.

Today, backing up.

Red light one feels pretty normal to me.... not anything blatant, just going through at the end of the yellow/start of the red which I see people do all the time.

The backing up one, though.... wtf. Good thing you were offset to their right!

With the traffic you ride in, invest in a Steble air horn.

This is one of those "damned if you do and damned if you don't" situations.
Being on the right may have saved him but its also probably the reason he wasnt seen. Many people are too lazy to check their passenger mirror but they usually check their rearview.

loud pipes....

That Benz had idiot written all over it before they started backing up...although a bit of armchairing, would have slid into the right lane immediately when they stopped with intent to take the spot as it was borderline a blind spot... the numbnuts probably has never used the right rear view mirror as they likely rely on the backup sensors which may not have picked you up. Nice restraint for not putting a size 11 boot into their door as a reminder to pay attention.

As for the red light runners, also see that all the time .....I was almost T boned by a car doing 45mph a good 3-4 seconds after my light turned green when I was a new teenage cage driver years ago (had a license a month and scared the crap out of me)... a good lesson learned without loss of life or limb... and have been in the habit of looking both ways at least one before rolling into the intersection ever since and have avoided at least 3 of 4 recent run ins with cars whose drivers...surprise!...were on the phone. Your clips make me want to document my travels via video as with the insurance companies propensity to twist the truth..yes I know shocking!

Don't you wear boots?

It's SF.. are you really surprised?

Don't bother with a Stebel, they will only last about 3-6 months before giving up with a whimper. I had one, it died, got it replaced under warranty, that one died. Said "never again", but a couple years later tried another hoping the first ones had been from a bad batch. Nope, 3rd one died within 4 months. They're crap. Nice when they work, but that won't be for long.

What do you expect form a prius driver.

Buy a used CHP m/c, use a white 3/4 helmet, wear tan=problems reduced.

Always remember... on a bike we are invisible.

Did you put a tygon hose on the air intake hose barb and run it up under the tank so it didn't have to breathe all of the crap off the road?

I kinda seems that left turn was already initiated before you came into view. All I mean to say is that this sorta thing happens all the time, and is also an interaction between two cars. Bikes are usually a bit faster accelerating, and so you run into this kind of thing more.

In any case, It looks like it doesn't induce complete rage in you, so go with the flow. It's all good! :)

You ride like your driving a car there's no need to brake there just drive around the back...

Should I wait for the video where you had to lay it down?

all of us that ride in the city have seen more stupid/crazy/insane/pointless/arrogant/pansy things that Im sure we could even ever remember. Im not sure which is worse, SF or LA but im sure they are both bad in different ways.

If I could give you any advice it would be put more lights on the front of your bike, GET A REAL HORN, and watch out for lawnmowers.

Based on your experience, more lights on the back of the bike, too.













I know someone in the greater LA area who spent a lot of time fretting over installing a Stebel on his bike. After he was rear-ended, I asked if the horn helped. He said "yes- lots of people were looking when the driver hit me."

So there's that, then.

hopefully not too much interest seeing as it was an exercise in profound stupidity. I feel somewhat enlightened and at the same time dumber as a result.... is that possible?

I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time. Twice!

oh and believe me, Ive thought about adding lights to the back of the bike....I STILL might

+1

Except for you, no one reading this thread was there. And the gopro clearly is showing things in an unreal perspective, and it may show more than what you were able to see at the time.
I am more than willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. If for no other reason, we can sit here and replay the vid endlessly and you could only react as things were unfolding.

But, just judging from the vid, I really don't see the major fail on the part of the car driver.
You are probably hidden by the last SUV on the curb. It looks like; by the tme you've completed your turn, and fully visible, his wheels are already turned left and the car is in motion. He is likley also not visible to you until you're mostly turned. There are 3 + generous car lengths between you and the turning car, if you're at a dead stop prior to the (your) turn, while that isn't a lot of room, I don't get how you had to brake that hard unless you were hard on the gas after the stop/turn.

No way to tell, but his reaction may have been "oh shit, I better get out of this guy's way", instead of "let's cut off this f*er and get parked". He likely should have stopped, but that may or may not have made for a better situation for you.
At best, he'd be stopped in the middle of the road with his wheels turned left, making for a very sketchy situation for you anyway.

As for the turn signal, so what? Yeah, it's a legal requirement, but so is driving 65 mph or under on most any road in this country. In this particular case you probably would not have seen it any sooner than spotting the manuevering which is what really counts. But, no excuse for the driver, he should have had it on.

I think the take away lesson here is that the unexpected WILL happen at any time, and all drivers need to be prepared to deal with it.

IMHO, YMMV, but I'm curious what people think.