I almost hit a cyclist this evening. It was about 6:45 PM and raining, so kind of dim out. I was driving and had a stop sign crossing Nokomis Ave and came to full stop. Northbound traffic had not stop sign. As I pulled away from the stop sign, I realized there was a teen age male riding through the intersection. He was booking - probably going about 15 mph or so, so he entered the intersection pretty quickly.

He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and had no lights. He was either riding right in the door zone and the parked cars obstructed my view of him, or because he was wearing dark colors and lacked lights, I did not notice any motion when I looked left and right. Either way, I pulled out, saw him in front of me and slammed on the brakes, he swerved to his left to avoid me and gave me a dirty look as he passed.

This really drove home the importance of riding outside of the door zone (not to avoid dooring, but so I can be seen by drivers at intersections) and the value of lights and hi-viz stuff. Also that most adolescent males are dorks.

When I was 16 I was invincible. We all used to ride without lights. When you're young you can actually see in the dark but you can't figure out why others can't.

Good that you didn't hit him.

I'm pretty militant when it comes to cyclists' rights. At the same time, I have almost no sympathy for a cyclist who gets hit at night when they've made no effort to make themselves seen. You just can't expect somebody to not hit you if they can't see you.

BE SEEN!!!

Thanks Snak -

this just points out how we can be up in arms about drivers who don't seem to give us a chance, yet we don't give them a chance. I have also had near misses with cyclists, in all kinds of weather and lighting conditions, while driving. And I have had people just be mean to me while riding, as well as the people who just miss seeing me.

We all need to make it easier for the drivers (and other cyclists) to see us, and we all need to try to treat each other well. My mom is 80, still drives, and always bugs me about using lights - I run blinkies riding in downtown during the day now.

A week ago I almost hit a cyclist as well. I entered a parking lot and was heading down a row. The spots on either side were maybe half filled. A teen on a mountain bike was coming down the row the other direction. I decided to turn right into an area with 3 open spots next to each other. The 3 spots ahead were also open and as I thought about pulling forward to the next spot (so I could be parked facing out), the kid turns left and zips diagonally through the spaces right in front of me. If I had decided to pull forward I'd have hit him hard. I am sure he has no idea how close he came to getting nailed. It was just a couple of days after the accident in Hopkins so I was kind of upset. I'd like to have talked to him about it but he was gone.

Sigh. I miss the old days, when nobody cared what cyclists did or didn't do.

Aw, crap, did I say that out loud?

Saw a rider in the middle of a lane on East Hennepin last night. No lights.

Well it pisses me off that I almost hit this moron. I don't need that hassle at all. No way do I want to go through that.

I thought you were too young to remember those days.

Agreed. I have that same heart jumping feeling whenever I see a biker bombing along a sidewalk. I'm looking for the quick movement in the street not specifically on the sidewalk (that's where the slow moving squishies are supposed to be moving, not the fast ones). And each of those times I get kind of annoyed since they're not respecting their own bodies and psyche, or mine.

I had a co-worker that right-hooked a cyclist years ago. This was downtown, on a street with two right-turn lanes - the southernmost land was right-turn-only and the lane next to it was right-turn or straight. He was in the outer right-turn lane and the cyclist was in the right-turn only lane but she kept going straight. My co-worker looked but never saw the cyclist and she was injured. He was traumatized by that and ended up in a lawsuit as well. That's the kind of thing I worry about. He seems to have done everything but didn't see somebody that was riding in the wrong lane and they both got messed up by it.

I'm gonna erase this and go fart some rainbows.

This, too. Kisses.

I don't know what intersection or stretch of road you are refering to.

BUt personally I wouldn't feel comfortable being in a left lane to go straight anywhwere downtown. And yes I have been muscled out of a left lane by huge vehicles and forced to cross at a crosswalk to get to the curb in order to encourage these large vehicles to stop heckling and go on their way. I kid you not.

I avoid downtown during the week in general and try to go through only during times of low traffic.

People wonder why I walk by bike through intersections downtown and why I wait through a couple of green lights during workweek rush hour at intersections with those double right turn lanes which also feed traffic into the highway (which is rare because I don't need the anxiety).

People who work downtown don't want to share the road with cyclists and I have been booed at and told to drive instead. I live 6 blocks from Target, why would I drive anywhere that is supposed to be pedestrian safe (but isnt).

Just a couple of weeks ago I attempted to move to St. Paul, one of my main considerations was to get out of a neighborhood where motorist work but don't live and I have to avoid going in and out of my neighborhood during 1/2 of the daylight hours I normally commute.

Its a real hassle. I can't bike past Grant Street, I have to bike around it due to people who work there and don't live there during daytime weekdays. Absolutely sucks.