stewmills
Serious Thumper
   
Offline

Imagination is more important than knowledge
Posts: 2646
Auburn, AL
Gender:
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Yep, another idiot in a cage almost took me out but due to my vigilance and MSC training kicking in I was able to avoid a bad situation.
Four lane inner-city street with full center turn lane. No curbs or medians thank goodness. 45mph speed limit. Light traffic. From the previous stop light, two cars on the white stripe in the L and R lanes and me in position #2 in the L lane. Light turns green and everyone (us 3) accelerate off to about 45mph. As we come around a bend there are blue light about 1/2 mile ahead (funeral) so the car in the R lane begins to slow to ease onto the shoulder. Car in front of me (and I as well) aren't sure what's going on so we maintain our speed for another 100 yards or so. Remember that I have been in MY #2 position for the last mile behind car #1 in the L lane. Well, some middle-aged lady in a shiny Maxima sped up (going well over 45mph) in the R lane behind car #1 about the time he started to slow and naturally she didn't want to go slow so she decided to make a quick and aggressive move into the L lane EXACTLY where I was riding.
Thankfully I was being cognizant of what was going on all around me and I pretty much played out what was about to happen in my head moments before it did. She pulled over literally within a foot or so of my bike (I could have kicked her car) and of course I laid on the horn. Not only did she not stop or slow down, she hammered it and tried to speed away but the car in front of she and I was slowing to respect the funeral traffic and she was pretty much trapped. And, once car #1 eased out of the way to get on the shoulder also there were police blocking all lanes of traffic and she had no choice but to pull over. All this while I had to quickly jockey into the turn lane to save myself. If there were cars turning the other direction I would have probably hit them head-on.
Anyhow, once I knew she was pinned in (I had no idea it was a female...could have been Sasquatch for all I know) I pulled up beside her and got her attention, and she did roll down the window. I politely but aggressively asked her if she realized she almost killed me and she aid she was sorry several times, etc. but I stressed to her that she needs to pay attention, etc.. and that I hoped this lesson saves the next person's life that she could possibly do the same thing to. No cursing or finger gestures, but I got my point across.
As I look back at how she reacted in speeding up as I got on the horn initially, she was trying to speed off and get away as her acceleration was not to maintain traffic speeds, it was evasive and fortunately due to the police blocking traffic she had no choice but to stop and accept what she did.
Ride safe my friends! We keep hearing these stories more and more as the weather warms up.
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