Cursed Left Turn

[ericr]

Until cops start enforcing driving laws other than speeding and people start paying large fines and losing licenses for accidents nothing will change. It is amazing the difference between driving here in the States and in Germany. Germany has a tiered license system and major fines for causing an accident especially if it's from negligence (talking on a phone, eating, painting your toe nails etc.)

It's a risk to even get out of bed and walk out your front door, I accept that risk to ride on the street and I can live with it. I decided a while back that life isn't worth living if I can't enjoy it along the way. I've got to die from something, doesn't matter to me what it is really

[Curb]

i agree with you, azoomm. i was doing the speed limit when that lady pulled out in front of me in january and all she kept telling the police was that i ran a red light (yes the light had turned red, but after i went through it). then the cop asked her if she was watching the road or the light and that is when the cop knew that she wasn't paying attention to the road. she was ticketed and yes she went upon her business and i went to the hospital and my bike went to the junk yard.

good luck trying to get something done...i'll help anyway i can from my corner of the country

[Dnyce]

make every left turn have its own signal light. not just the big streets, all of em. cant turn left without a green arrow. that would cause alil more to alot more traffic, but drastically stop to completely eliminate that "left turn accident"

every fucking week-no, every fucking day, on my 8mile(yes thats roundtrip) commute to work, some stupid motherfucker pulls out in front of me, or makes a left turn in front of me where i have to cut the throttle and get on the brakes. a few times ive had to swerve/split lanes, or end up as a hood ornament. so far so good. and this is only in 8miles. 15 freakin mins. this shit is ridiculous. we as riders have to be aware, but theres only so much we can control.

[pickle.of.doom]

I was just reading in one of this months magazines... can't remember which one, either CW, PB, or RRX... but anyway, they had an article on a system the japanese are working on that would warn cars of approaching motorcycles... but it involved a lot of electronics, and I assume some sort of beacon on all mc's, but it was an interesting article nonetheless. I'll see if I can find it again.

[Quick281]

Sadly it is all part of the risk. Tonight I had to get on the brakes to stop for a red light and almost got rear ended. There was screetching, tire smoke and less than a foot to spare when I looked behind me. All I can say is that my brake light flasher may have just paid itself off.

I try to do everything I can to reduce my risk such as brake light flasher, head light brighter, bright orange backpack at all times but I still know that people won't see me.


Sucks but we are far too much of a minority to get anything done.

[Curb]

Originally Posted by Dnyce

make every left turn have its own signal light. not just the big streets, all of em. cant turn left without a green arrow. that would cause alil more to alot more traffic, but drastically stop to completely eliminate that "left turn accident"

i would say that about 95% of the lights here in florida have a left turn signal light and it doesn't do shit. people still turn infront of bikes. if its not at a left turn its up the road a little when they are making a uturn. hell my accident was because the asshole made a right turn into the left lane cutting cross two lanes of traffic

[azoomm]

Originally Posted by Curb

i would say that about 95% of the lights here in florida have a left turn signal light and it doesn't do shit. people still turn infront of bikes. if its not at a left turn its up the road a little when they are making a uturn. hell my accident was because the asshole made a right turn into the left lane cutting cross two lanes of traffic

That's what I was thinking In fact, one of the accidents I listed above was AT an intersection. It just didn't have a protected turn light [arrow].

Blood and gore - or showing little Sally without a mommy doesn't work, just look at Drunk Driving PSAs. Maybe making us look more "real", that we aren't just a wild pack of 2-year-old punk hooligans.

[Racerboy]

After surviving one of these head-on crashes 8 1/2 years ago, I have modified my riding considerably....

If there are three lanes of travel, I try to not use the Left lane at all...this way if they start to dart out, they might have a chance to stop or reconsider and if I am not in the fast/left lane, I have that much more of a chance.

I ALWAYS ride with my bright lights on during the day time hours no matter who it pisses off in the process. One man who was doing a u-turn in front of me after a brief hesitation, actually stopped at the next traffic light to tell me the brights might be on....I told him they were and asked him, "Could YOU see me?" He told me yes, and I explained that it was worth it them, otherwise I might be dead.

Speeding in town on local surface streets is just a Russian Roulette game waiting for a location to happen. I don't like to speed when I am in city traffic, too many potential hazards with too many inattentive cager's out there to make it worth while.

[Amorok]

I ride as cautiously as possible, I wear brightly colored clothes and helmet, I have a taillight flasher, and I'm as vigilant as possible. People still try to kill me with their cars. I rode all day yesterday and had four or five close calls. The ones that really piss me off is when someone looks at me and pulls out to try and beat me somewhere. When that shit happens I get right up next to them and point, to let them know I see them. Then I give them the "you've been naughty" index finger wave. I want them to know they fucked up.

Maybe by making ourselves more acceptable to people we've done ourselves a disservice. People aren't afraid of us, so they don't care about pissing us off. Maybe if they thought we were all still 1%'ers they wouldn't fuck about quite so much.

[speedylocksmith]

Originally Posted by Racerboy

If there are three lanes of travel, I try to not use the Left lane at all...this way if they start to dart out, they might have a chance to stop or reconsider and if I am not in the fast/left lane, I have that much more of a chance.

I do the same exact thing for the left AND the right lane. If I have a choice, I usually ride in the middle lane because it can happen just as easy from someone making a right turn also. It helps limit the odds IMO. Every car that has an opportunity to turn into my path from a connecting road gets my attention. My eyes are ALWAYS on them until I pass them. I usually cover the brake going through intersections or passing cars that are about to come out into the street I'm on.