A cager almost got me

[Have Blue]

I was on the B12 on a straight section of two lane blacktop with a speed limit of 55 mph.
There was little traffic and I was cruising along at 60-65 mph. Up ahead, I see a small pickup truck closely following a black SUV. I estimate their speed at about 55-60 since I am slowly catching up to them. I close the distance to my usual 10-12 car lengths and reduced my speed to match theirs since I'm in no big hurry and plan to turn off this road in another 1/2 mile or so.
Abruptly, the SUV jumps on his brakes, chopping a quick 30 mph off his speed, causing the pickup truck to lock up his brakes. The SUV pulls off the road onto the right shoulder still travelling about 30 mph. The pick up driver then gets off his brakes and swerves into the clear oncoming lane to go around the SUV. The moment the pick up truck's rear bumper passes the SUV, the SUV driver does an Immediate U-turn, turning left, which blocks the right shoulder and my lane. When the SUV first pulled off the highway, I had reduced throttle, but even so, I had no exit to the right, no path straight ahead, insufficient space to stop and was left with having to pass in front of the SUV on the left shoulder as he is in the process of T-boning me. It was another one of those instances of time stopping.
I knew his front bumper was close because I could see the whole front grill of the car while still looking where I wanted to go. At the point I expected impact, I knew I still wasnt clear. I dont know why, curosity maybe, but at that instant, I looked under my right arm, and down towards my rear wheel. We were suspended in time and I clearly saw I had 18 inches between me and the bumper. At this point, I was already ten feet off the road and on the left shoulder grass. That was all the shoulder there was. I watched the bumper complete the U-turn, missing my rear wheel by 3 inches. I figure a 3" perpendicular miss at 55 mph is about a .0028 sec safety margin. Thats way too damn close. After clearing the SUV, my run off was through an orange orchard, but 55 mph through the sand and dodging trees was downright relaxing in comparison. I didnt drop the bike and rode back onto the road. The cager was long gone, but I expected that.

I could have followed farther back, but not having any idea the SUV was going to instantly do a U-turn or when, I do not think it would have helped and may have resulted in my not having been able to get around on the shoulder, or it could have resulted in my having the right shoulder open. I dont know. I'm still thinking about a better solution for this situation.
I know I dont like having to race them to the impact point.

I continued on with my errand and a half hour later, while stopped at an intersection stop sign (two lane intersection), another cager turned left diagonally through the intersection, headed my way in my lane and I had to pull off on the right to get out of his way. He came through right where I had been stopped, never looking at anything.

I still had a couple of errands to do, so I continued on, but DAMN!!! this is getting really, REALLY annoying.

[Red01]

 
The good thing(s) is a near miss is WAAAAAY better than a hit in this kind of situation!
  Glad you had the skills to avoid these! 

[Have Blue]

The good thing(s) is a near miss is WAAAAAY better than a hit in this kind of situation!
  Glad you had the skills to avoid these! 

I've been trying to conserve lives.  I dont figure I have many of the 9 left at this point. :-)
Then, about sundown, was out on the bike and a deer ran across in front of me not two blocks from my house.   It was an easy miss though.  I had a huge four feet of space to play with this time.  :-)  Almost laughably easy.  hehe

Yeah, motorcycles are not tolerant of hits, and I try to avoid taking one at all costs.

[TK421]

I have lived all over the east coast, including the traffic hell that is our nation's capital, but the worst drivers I have ever seen are in the Tampa Bay area.

The good thing is you made it out unscathed (and had the skills to keep it upright in sand!)  Every time something like that happens to me it gets added to the mental inventory of stupid things people in cars will do to try to kill me.  I figure the bigger that inventory, the more chance I have of anticipating the next bonehead move.

Then again, maybe that's how I rationalize riding after a big scare!

[dhcolesj]

yea, Blue, I know what what you mean by Annoying!  I'm REALLY getting tired of the folks who see you (you know that do because they do the double take at the bike!) and try to take your space on the road anyway!  Or, just as bad the idiots who think that if they ride you close enough the 100 or so cars in front of you in slow traffic will speed up!  I had to literally stop on a ramp and turn around and look at the folks in the car behind me before they backed off!  They kept getting closer and closer, despite the fact that there was a rather large SUV in front of me that wasn't moving either.

However, I have also noticed that there are a great number of cagers who will give you lots of room, and will even move over so you can pass.  Not long ago I have had the opportunity to sit on the Interstate for extended periods of time.  The last time a cager actually told me where the wreck was, and suggested I get in front of them so I could get off at the next exit!  The time before that some others aided me in getting my bike to where I could run the breakdown lane in an attempt to escape what appeared to be coming rain!  (they backed up and pulled forward so I could turn my bike in that direction).

So, there are some good folks out there, its just the ones with their heads in the clouds I'd like to get off the road.

[Have Blue]

I have lived all over the east coast, including the traffic hell that is our nation's capital, but the worst drivers I have ever seen are in the Tampa Bay area.

The good thing is you made it out unscathed (and had the skills to keep it upright in sand!)  Every time something like that happens to me it gets added to the mental inventory of stupid things people in cars will do to try to kill me.  I figure the bigger that inventory, the more chance I have of anticipating the next bonehead move.

Then again, maybe that's how I rationalize riding after a big scare!

Sand is much easier to negotiate if you keep the speed up.  A lot of riders probably think OH OH, SAND! and brake to slow down, bad choice.  :-)  Its similar to grass, no big deal either if you stay off the brakes.   +1 on the Tampa area drivers, they really do suck.
Yeah, I scrutinize these confrontations and try to learn from them.  Ya gotta be constantly updating the data base.  My conclusion is it took me about 1/2 second to appraise the developing situation, make a choice and start to do something about it.  Considering I beat the odds (by my estimate), by about 3/1000 of a second, that 1/2 second was much too slow.  I need to work on my situational awareness and response times. 

Earl

[Have Blue]

In my area, its about a 50/50 mix of thinking, considerate drivers and aggressive morons.  eheh

Earl

[Sven]

Sort of like the woman who turned left in front of me yesterday, and gave me a solid, "mm-hmm! I *am* running this light and I know it and there's nothing you can do about it!"  She was about the seventh car turning a green arrow...the last three of which all turned after their light had turned red and we had the green light.

[Have Blue]

Sort of like the woman who turned left in front of me yesterday, and gave me a solid, "mm-hmm! I *am* running this light and I know it and there's nothing you can do about it!"  She was about the seventh car turning a green arrow...the last three of which all turned after their light had turned red and we had the green light.

Yeah, it makes me want to launch a Sidewinder at them, and if I could get away with it, I probably would.

Earl

[Dave 02 1200]

Earl,

Glad you are OK.

I have lived in several high-traffic metro areas, including Los Angeles and Chicago and I agree that the Tampa area is one of the worst.

That said, Sarasota is the worst I have ever seen.  I wear a high-visibility vest and have a headlight modulator and they seem to help but, in spite of that, I just had the crap scared out of me again today on US 41.

But that won't stop me from riding.  Tomorrow I plan to take my regular Sunday morning ride out past Myaka Park on SR 70 and out into the country east of the I 75.  I just hate the 6 mile ride out Clark Road though.  It's just like running a gauntlet and, even though the snowbirds have gone hme, it seems to be getting worse.

Maybe the high gas prices will help.

Good luck and stay safe.

Dave

[Have Blue]

Earl,

Glad you are OK.

I have lived in several high-traffic metro areas, including Los Angeles and Chicago and I agree that the Tampa area is one of the worst.

That said, Sarasota is the worst I have ever seen.  I wear a high-visibility vest and have a headlight modulator and they seem to help but, in spite of that, I just had the crap scared out of me again today on US 41.

But that won't stop me from riding.  Tomorrow I plan to take my regular Sunday morning ride out past Myaka Park on SR 70 and out into the country east of the I 75.  I just hate the 6 mile ride out Clark Road though.  It's just like running a gauntlet and, even though the snowbirds have gone hme, it seems to be getting worse.

Maybe the high gas prices will help.

Good luck and stay safe.

Dave

I've ridden US 41 through Sarasota and on a bike, its one of those avoid if possible roads.
A fun ride, it is not.  Yeah, the traffic around here is such that I almost look forward to $6+ per gallon gas as a means to keep some of the crazies home or at least take them  out of their jacked, monster mudder,  F250's and  put them on a scooter.  :-)  Good luck to you too.  Sarasota is like Tampa, the biggest difference is the spelling.  LOL

Earl

[Red01]

I was recently in Orlando for a week and my kids (all adults) thought the Orlando area drivers were the worst they'd ever seen, so if Tampa and Sarasota are worse than that, you have my pity.
(We realized that some of the poor drivers could be attributed to tourists, but when the plates were from FL and the car was more than a year old, that pretty muched ruled out rentals... and the bad ones didn't have white hair either.)

But I have to say the worst drivers I've ever seen were in Italy.... with cabbies in Japan running a close 2nd.

[Dave 02 1200]

Paul,

I am considering a new job in Tacoma, WA. 

If I do relocate to the NW I probably would live on the Kitsap and drive/ride to work in Tacoma.

What is traffic like in that part of the world?

Dave

[smooth operator]

  Damn Blue, Sounds like their gunnin' for ya
   Glad you made it out alright. I'm so used to the rual roads that I ride on(and still you get the occasionals that pull in front or cut you off.) I havn't had any close calls in awhile, and thats the way I like it. I'm thinking I'm safer when doing track days.  Dan

[Red01]

Paul,

I am considering a new job in Tacoma, WA. 

If I do relocate to the NW I probably would live on the Kitsap and drive/ride to work in Tacoma.

What is traffic like in that part of the world?

Dave

I don't get down to the Tacoma/Kitsap area much since I'm a couple of hours north of there (at the speed limit) and I try to avoid the I-5 corridor as much as possible - especailly through the Seatle-Tacoma metroplex. When I visit the Olympic Pennisula, I usually opt for a ferry ride from up here in the north end (like the Edmonds/Kingston or Keystone/Port Townsend runs).  If there's a long trip or a destination that involves travelling Idiot-Five, I'll use it, so I can't speak with a lot of experience about the Tacoma area for a daily commute.  I hear that it has improved somewhat now that there's a new (toll) bridge over the Tacoma Narrows.  With the older bridge, it was a frequent topic on radio traffic reports, but I don't hear about it nearly as often now, so I'm assuming it's improved. 

You might want to look at the traffic cams for the Tacoma area from time to time and see for yourself:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/tacoma/

You do know about the weather around here, right? Our weather is drastically different from FL!  It rains a LOT here.  The standing joke is the rainy season is Oct 1 - Sept 30, but more realistically it's mid Oct to July 5th.  Not a lot of torrential downpours, but long periods of fairly constant light rain.  Winters aren't as mild as FL, but considering our latitude, they are mild. In the Puget Sound and Pacific Coastal regions rain is the common form of precipitation and snow is infrequent. The mountains and eastern half of the state get the lion's share of the snow, with Mt. Baker & Mt. Rainier frequently trading with each other for ownership of the world record for annual snowfall.  Summers are mild in the PS & PC zones, too, with temps in the 90's considered a heat wave.  The eastern half of the state gets higher summer temps, frequently in the 100's, making a dip in a cool mountain stream feel wonderful.