Was riding home from work, approaching a red light which had been red a really long time. Slowed, saw that the "Don't Walk" sign had just turned solid red for the cross traffic. Looked right ... no cars. Looked left ... a big SUV was about a half a block from the intersection, going something over the 30 mph speed limit. Figured the guy could and would stop, but unclipped anyway.

The light turned yellow, and the SUV driver was one of these jerks who interpret traffic lights as: Red means "Stop," Green means "Go," Yellow means "Go REAL FAST!" He floored it, I put a death grip on both brake levers, and he went sailing through the intersection, on the red light, about a four feet away from my stopped front wheel.

About two miles later, I'm approaching another intersection, almost to the point where the bike lane ends. I look in my helmet rear view mirror and see another SUV coming up behind me, his right tires are really close to the white bike lane line.

I, again, unclipped and decided to not challenge the guy for my rightful lane, but just take an entrance ramp up onto the sidewalk. Just before the 20" front wheel of the EZ Sport hit the front lip of the ramp, I saw that it was about an inch above the asphalt and I was approaching it at a too oblique angle. Sure enough, the front wheel hit the lip and slid along it for a bit before popping up onto the concrete. Of course, the front wheel sliding down the lip that way had forced the entire bike even more towards being parallel with the curb. The rear wheel of the bike slid down the lip and I felt myself falling to the right as a result of trying to follow the front wheel. I turned hard right, the bike came back up, and I was able to spread my legs and duck-walk the bike to a stop.

The guy in the SUV went by, still really close to where the bike lane line would have been, I don't think he even noticed my drama.

I guess my question is this: is the amount of common courtesy in people inversely proportional to the size of the land-going yacht they drive?

My personal opinion is that SUV drivers feel safe because they are driving a tank so they're oblivious to the world around them. The mind set being that if anything happens they'll probably be O.K.

Isn't it written somewhere that the larger vehicle always has the right of way, unless the other vehicle has blue flashing lights on it?

Yeah, I put this same post over on the Bikespeak forum.

As I reread it, it occurred to me that my confidence on the bike has caused me to forget the definition of defensive driving:

Defensive driving is driving in a manner which allows you to avoid an accident, in spite of the actions of other drivers.

Or, as I have always put it: Defensive driving means driving like every other driver on the road is a flaming idiot who will do everything he can to kill you.

I don't know about Phoenix, but Tucson is notorious for people running red lights. I never assume that cross-traffic is going to stop when my light turns from red to green.

The city is starting to put up cameras at the worst intersections, I'm all for it.

Yup, nothing like photographic evidence to get the bad guys!

I had a guy approach a four way stop with me the other night. He crowded me to the corner and it was obvious to me that he intended to turn right, in front of and in spite of me. I called him an asshole, not once, but twice and slowly so he might read my lips. Yep, it was an SUV.

Drivers like this are the exception to the rule, to me. They're just the ones that stick out in our minds. Just like the ones that throw things and yell and honk. Rare as hens teeth.

Mark

BluesCat: Do you have lights on your bike? Nothing is perfect, but I'm convinced that they help.

garrybuck:

Oh yes, I do have lights on my bike, and oftentimes I put them on --- blinking --- in the middle of the day.

I did not have them on last Thursday. I don't think it would have helped with the guy who ran the red light. It might have helped at the second intersection.

What I probably needed to do in the first instance --- the red light runner --- is like you said: stop, do not believe the cross traffic is going to stop, and be really defensive. In the second instance, I should have slowed WAY down, maybe even have stopped in the gutter, let the line hugger pass me and then pulled out and see if I couldn't bank out into the lane and then come up to the entranceway at a more perpendicular angle.