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

wrote:

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

My guess is that he got confused and thought you had a green also, and
he was just being overly courteous and not mindful of appropriate
right-of-way rules.

Wayne

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.

I haven't had that happen, but more than once I have been riding straight on
the road when a car will pull up to a stop sign on my right and proceed to
turn left without even looking in my direction! The come to the stop sign,
stop, look to the right, and pull out turning left! What's up with that? I
have decided to yell something the next time this scenario seems to be
unfolding. I almost ran into a guy's driver side door once. He never even
turned his head to the left.

Pat in TX

On Aug 7, 8:19 pm, "Pat" wrote:
I haven't had that happen, but more than once I have been riding straight on
the road when a car will pull up to a stop sign on my right and proceed to
turn left without even looking in my direction! The come to the stop sign,
stop, look to the right, and pull out turning left! What's up with that? I
have decided to yell something the next time this scenario seems to be
unfolding. I almost ran into a guy's driver side door once. He never even
turned his head to the left.

Pat in TX

Yes this always happens to me too. The other thing that freaks me out
in this situation is when a person who I thought had already seen me
suddenly starts doing the quick left-right head checking that you
normally do right at the last second before stepping on the gas and
starting a left turn. Why would a person do the fast double-take if
they know that they need to wait 5 more seconds for a bike to go by?
To me, the quick back-forth motion of the head is a warning sign.

In article ,
Wayne Pein writes:
wrote:

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

My guess is that he got confused and thought you had a green also, and
he was just being overly courteous and not mindful of appropriate
right-of-way rules.

If Tom Reynolds was to the right of his adjacent
left turn lane, it should have been obvious to the
driver that he (Tom) wanted to go straight through.

Sometimes I get the vibe that drivers do this in a
passive-aggressive attempt to show-up the cyclist as
"holding up traffic", to all the other drivers whom
the hesitant driver is actually holding up. It's like
they're trying to say: "Ooh, lookie here, there's a
bi-wheeled pedestrian in the middle of the street
instead of on the sidewalk where he belongs. We have
to give him a chance to get out of the way, so we real
traffic can go without running him over."

I know, I know -- "never attribute to malice ..."

But so often malice & ignorance goes hand-in-hand.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

"Pat" wrote in message
...
I haven't had that happen, but more than once I have been riding straight
on the road when a car will pull up to a stop sign on my right and proceed
to turn left without even looking in my direction! The come to the stop
sign, stop, look to the right, and pull out turning left! What's up with
that? I have decided to yell something the next time this scenario seems
to be unfolding. I almost ran into a guy's driver side door once. He never
even turned his head to the left.

Pat in TX
I sometimes think they're relying compeletely on their peripheral vision to
tell themselves there are no cars or trucks coming from their left. I feel
safer when a car is filling the lane behind or beside me in these
situations. If there is not motor vehicle to fill the lane (and their
peripheral vision) I keep my feet moving, sit up and move out further into
the lane to increase my the odds of my being seen. Of course, your case
sounds like that guy didn't even want to see.

jb

" 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.

"Pat" wrote:

I haven't had that happen, but more than once I have been riding straight on
the road when a car will pull up to a stop sign on my right and proceed to
turn left without even looking in my direction! The come to the stop sign,
stop, look to the right, and pull out turning left! What's up with that? I
have decided to yell something the next time this scenario seems to be
unfolding. I almost ran into a guy's driver side door once. He never even
turned his head to the left.

Pat in TX


My fave is a red light with a Gomer on a cell phone turning left at a
light across from you, you are going straight. Or Gomer is pulling
out of a parking lot just ahead of you. In either case, they should
yield to the bike, but they start to go then see your intention to
follow thru on your legal right of way.

The reaction is almost universal. They start to go, then stop and
motion you to go like they are doing you a big favor by yielding as
called for. We need a hand signal to mean 'I dont need your
permission to proceed when you are required to yield.'