Car making a left turn in front of me

If you ride very much in the city, and you obey traffic laws, this
sooner or later happens. You approach and intersection with, say, a 4-
way stop sign. You want to go straight. There is a motorist on the
far side who wants to turn left, directly across your path. He
arrived at the stop before you so he has the right of way. You slow
down and stop. He then waves you through, even though he has the
right of way. It happens all the time, right?

Well, yesterday on my commute home a new variation on this occurred.
It was the exact same situation except it was as stop LIGHT, not a
stop sign. I had a red light, I was unclipped with my foot down, and
the motorist had a green left turn arrow. He stops in the middle of
the intersection and tries to wave me through, while other cars are
waiting behind him. He expects me to run the red light.

I pointed to the red light and motioned him to go through. He turned,
looking more than a little annoyed. I couldn't help but laugh.

In 25 years of bicycle commuting this has never happened before.

For those of you who associate behavior with car model (including me),
it was a Lexus mini-SUV.

Tom

A typical case of DWS - Driving While Stupid

SB

" wrote in message
ups.com...
If you ride very much in the city, and you obey traffic laws, this
sooner or later happens. You approach and intersection with, say, a 4-
way stop sign. You want to go straight. There is a motorist on the
far side who wants to turn left, directly across your path. He
arrived at the stop before you so he has the right of way. You slow
down and stop. He then waves you through, even though he has the
right of way. It happens all the time, right?

Well, yesterday on my commute home a new variation on this occurred.
It was the exact same situation except it was as stop LIGHT, not a
stop sign. I had a red light, I was unclipped with my foot down, and
the motorist had a green left turn arrow. He stops in the middle of
the intersection and tries to wave me through, while other cars are
waiting behind him. He expects me to run the red light.

I pointed to the red light and motioned him to go through. He turned,
looking more than a little annoyed. I couldn't help but laugh.

In 25 years of bicycle commuting this has never happened before.

For those of you who associate behavior with car model (including me),
it was a Lexus mini-SUV.

Tom

In article . com,
says...
If you ride very much in the city, and you obey traffic laws, this
sooner or later happens. You approach and intersection with, say, a 4-
way stop sign. You want to go straight. There is a motorist on the
far side who wants to turn left, directly across your path. He
arrived at the stop before you so he has the right of way. You slow
down and stop. He then waves you through, even though he has the
right of way. It happens all the time, right?

Well, yesterday on my commute home a new variation on this occurred.
It was the exact same situation except it was as stop LIGHT, not a
stop sign. I had a red light, I was unclipped with my foot down, and
the motorist had a green left turn arrow. He stops in the middle of
the intersection and tries to wave me through, while other cars are
waiting behind him. He expects me to run the red light.

I pointed to the red light and motioned him to go through. He turned,
looking more than a little annoyed. I couldn't help but laugh.

In 25 years of bicycle commuting this has never happened before.

For those of you who associate behavior with car model (including me),
it was a Lexus mini-SUV.

Tom



I suppose they think they're being helpful. The worst is when someone
stops at a bike crossing on a four lane with a median with no signal or
sign.

One driver will stop in their lane and wave you through, backing up
traffic behind them. Great except you can't see what's coming in the 2nd
lane. And the possibility exists for the "helpful" driver to get rear
ended just when your in front of their grill.

I always refuse to cross and they always get indignant.

" wrote:

If you ride very much in the city, and you obey traffic laws, this
sooner or later happens. ...

For those of you who associate behavior with car model (including me),
it was a Lexus mini-SUV.

A wierd association I have noticed of late is immigrant drivers who
dont know hand signals. Much more than once I've drifted away from
the curb to prepare to turn left. An oncoming car seems to want to
turn left 'behind' me, I want to turn 'behind' her ie after we pass.
I am going slow because a) I have only one hand on the brakes and b)
thats what the timing calls for.

I signal to indicate my intentions and to let her know WHY I am going
kinda slow. 9 out of 10 times they get the Deer-in-the-headlights
look of Total Horror look wondering why I am pointing at them or why I
want them to move or pull over.

On Aug 7, 8:48 pm, RBrickston wrote:
In article . com,
says...

Well, yesterday on my commute home a new variation on this occurred.
It was the exact same situation except it was as stop LIGHT, not a
stop sign. I had a red light, I was unclipped with my foot down, and
the motorist had a green left turn arrow. He stops in the middle of
the intersection and tries to wave me through, while other cars are
waiting behind him. He expects me to run the red light.

The version of this that I've noticed mulitple times is the following
(from a North American perspective): I am stopped at a red light
planning to turn left. When the light changes, the driver opposite
waives me through. He's presumably being courteous, not trying to kill
me, and maybe it worries him to have a cyclist out there in the middle
of the intersection. Unfortunately, there is often a line of cars
behind the friendly waiver and plenty of room for one of them to whip
around to the right of the stopped car, frustrated and fast because he
doesn't understand what the first driver is waiting for. I don't
especially like hanging in the middle of an intersection waiting for a
left either, but the fastest safe way to get out of there is for the
cars coming the other way to move promptly when it's their turn and so
I can take my turn.

Paul Turner

One driver will stop in their lane and wave you through, backing up
traffic behind them. Great except you can't see what's coming in the 2nd
lane. And the possibility exists for the "helpful" driver to get rear
ended just when your in front of their grill.

Happened to me two summers ago. I was on a multi use path with a stop
sign. Driver had no stop sign, but decided to stop anyway and wave me
across the street. After several seconds of back and forth, she
obviously wasn't going to move.

So I went. And she got plastered from behind at about 15 MPH.

I was fine, but I also wasn't going to stick around. She yelled "Hey!"
out her window after me.

I felt bad about not turning back, but I did her a favor by leaving
because she probably didn't get a ticket.

In article .com,
says...

One driver will stop in their lane and wave you through, backing up
traffic behind them. Great except you can't see what's coming in the 2nd
lane. And the possibility exists for the "helpful" driver to get rear
ended just when your in front of their grill.

Happened to me two summers ago. I was on a multi use path with a stop
sign. Driver had no stop sign, but decided to stop anyway and wave me
across the street. After several seconds of back and forth, she
obviously wasn't going to move.

So I went. And she got plastered from behind at about 15 MPH.

I was fine, but I also wasn't going to stick around. She yelled "Hey!"
out her window after me.

I felt bad about not turning back, but I did her a favor by leaving
because she probably didn't get a ticket.


She probably wanted to make it your fault somehow. I just sit there and
refuse to cross. Other times when I see them slowing down to stop, I wave
them on and usually yell out something along the lines of "Don't ever
stop, you'll get rear ended eventually." Most of them give flash that "How
dare you not except my generous offer to help you" look of indignation.

I am reminded of an incident that a friend suffered while escorting a
group on a training ride ( lessons on how to ride in traffic ) Came up to
stop sign, car coming down major road stops and waves group out, leader (
friend ) shakes head, no, waves car on, car continues to wave on group,
BIG arm waves from friend, no good, eventually , leader gets off bike and
walks it to side of road, THROWS bike on grass, hands on hips, "NOW WHAT?"

In article 7hwui.44313$rX4.41679@pd7urf2no, says...
I am reminded of an incident that a friend suffered while escorting a
group on a training ride ( lessons on how to ride in traffic ) Came up to
stop sign, car coming down major road stops and waves group out, leader (
friend ) shakes head, no, waves car on, car continues to wave on group,
BIG arm waves from friend, no good, eventually , leader gets off bike and
walks it to side of road, THROWS bike on grass, hands on hips, "NOW WHAT?"

I've found that what works best around here is when I point at the stop
sign, reminding them that I'm the one who's supposed to stop.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in the
newsgroups if possible).

wrote:


One driver will stop in their lane and wave you through, backing up
traffic behind them. Great except you can't see what's coming in the 2nd
lane. And the possibility exists for the "helpful" driver to get rear
ended just when your in front of their grill.

Happened to me two summers ago. I was on a multi use path with a stop
sign. Driver had no stop sign, but decided to stop anyway and wave me
across the street. After several seconds of back and forth, she
obviously wasn't going to move.

So I went. And she got plastered from behind at about 15 MPH.

I was fine, but I also wasn't going to stick around. She yelled "Hey!"
out her window after me.

I felt bad about not turning back, but I did her a favor by leaving
because she probably didn't get a ticket.


A rather short multi use path I use to get places and but mainly only
ride in the winter just did something kinda aggravating. The path
crosses 3 or 4 streets all of which have a crosswalk and a stop sign
for the path users. Last week they installed 3 ft high hi viz signs
in the middle of each street:
STATE LAW
[Stop Sign]
[Lg Ped Xing figure]
Within Crosswalk

Most drivers dont read the last line and have been stopping for anyone
merely AT the crosswalk (but not WITHIN it yet) or approaching. In
effect, they have turned each crossing into a 4 way stop with the
peds/bikes sort of getting auto first chance to go. I point to the
stop sign, but someone is going to get hurt when a 'you first', 'no
YOU first' battle breaks out.