Just when I thought I'd seen everything...

[Spartan925]

I don't claim to be a super experienced rider by any means but I wouldn't call myself a n00b either. In a few months I'll have been riding for 4 years and that time has included a fair amount of lane splitting. I like to think I've honed my spidey senses pretty well when it comes to gaps, lane changes, where I will and will not fit, etc.

And then this lady came along.

Maybe this happens more often than I realize, but in that 4 years I have never had anyone pull this move on me. I already knew something was up with her when, at the beginning of the video, she appears to try and change lanes into #2 but goes back due to someone from the #3 lane moving over at the same time. That at least told me that she would at some point try again to get back into #2.

As I approached, I held back a bit to allow for the impending lane change. Sure enough, she pulls a simultaneous signal/lane change and now I'm proud of myself for being so cognizant and proceed to pass her.

Well...the rest you can see in the video. (Headphone warning, and language warning)


youtu.be/jrCLece4QzA

Yes, I yelled in my helmet, and yes I flipped her off. Although I have no idea if she saw it since she what white knuckling the wheel with her gaze fixed straight ahead. Probably was a bad idea to ride along side her like I did but I was pretty heavily seeing red. As I've said before in recent posts, I've really been trying to enhance my calm and for the most part I feel like I've been successful. But when this almost ended up being a video I post in crash analysis, that's a different story. At least it was a good test of my reflexes and it seems like my brakes are still good!

I do have to ask, though...was there something else I could have done? Maybe had I swung wide around her to the left and then been out of her path it would have been less of an incident. The first thing I thought after calming down was what I could have done differently, which i think is something anyone having a close call should reflect on right away.

I just seriously did not see that coming, which actually makes my comment about knowing what she was going to do followed by FUCK! actually pretty funny in hindsight.

 

[DTM74]

Never just anyone in a Prius. Sometimes you just gotta let it fly...lol.

 

[KazMan]

I think her radio tuned into your head set and she heard you laughing at her and saying you knew you were gonna do that, so she surprised you with one more move :laughing

Anyway, for me, when I see someone who is that antsy to make lane changes so quickly behind cars, I tend to back off until they get settled somewhere.

In your scenario, as soon as she cleared the lane you went for the pass, whereas, I would have waited a bit to see if she continued on to the next land or came back. The truck in #3 would have been my clue to chill out as she had no where to go to pass car in front of her.

Yeah and hanging out next to someone in that state of mind could have easily been her just swerving at you because she was already agitated. Not worth showing them how incompetent they were.

Glad you made it home safe to post a video. :thumbup

 

[SuperMike]

no comment

 

[Blankpage]

Its easy to find petty shit to bitch about during your commute. Can't believe you took the time to edit and post a video for that.

 

[Starpower]

This happens to all of us all of the time. I express my feeling about the attempt on my life with a arm thrown in the air in a "WTF" kind of way with a lay on of my very loud horn. IMHO flipping the bird Rossi style does not help our already dubious image. I'll also at times wag my finger at cell chatters.

 

[Spartan925]

I think her radio tuned into your head set and she heard you laughing at her and saying you knew you were gonna do that, so she surprised you with one more move :laughing

Anyway, for me, when I see someone who is that antsy to make lane changes so quickly behind cars, I tend to back off until they get settled somewhere.

In your scenario, as soon as she cleared the lane you went for the pass, whereas, I would have waited a bit to see if she continued on to the next land or came back. The truck in #3 would have been my clue to chill out as she had no where to go to pass car in front of her.

Yeah and hanging out next to someone in that state of mind could have easily been her just swerving at you because she was already agitated. Not worth showing them how incompetent they were.

Glad you made it home safe to post a video. :thumbup

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. I knew she was acting weird so just chilling for a second would have been a good thing to do. Then I would have felt double-smart instead of nearly crapping my pants!

Which would have been unfortunate since I was actually on my way to work and not home. :laughing

And Mike, I posted this to receive comments, so assuming it would be constructive I'd like to see what everyone has to say.

Its easy to find petty shit to bitch about during your commute. Can't believe you took the time to edit and post a video for that.

I actually feel like this is the first time in a long time I had anything happen that seemed worth posting. And it was something, as I mentioned, I've never had happen before. Part of posting was finding out if anyone else has had it happen, because it *didn't* seem like an everyday thing to me. Especially since I still can't fathom why someone would dart back into the lane they just came from when they had space in said lane. But if it is something others have occur every day, now I know to be that much more vigilant for it.
I've also seen videos posted lately with much less happening in them with nobody complaining about them being "non-incidents."

 

[DataDan]

As I said recently in another thread, "Anger arises from surprises."

You REALLY need to choose another mode of transport.

 

[David919]

She appeared to be what I catagorize as a mental squirrel, nothing you can do for her, oblivious to your bike revving or sign language. Think on it when you vent with this post, then think on her no more. Just beware of the squirrels!

 

[dravnx]

Dude, you have real anger management issues. That was a non event. You put way too much energy into yelling and flipping off then the event warrants. Think how easier your commute would be if you didn't let things like this flip you out. That shit happens all the time. Keep your head in the game and move on. People make mistakes. If you pass 5000 cars on your daily commute and one car makes a mistake, that means .02% of the drivers made mistakes. Do you operate at that level?

 

[Gawernator]

Its easy to find petty shit to bitch about during your commute. Can't believe you took the time to edit and post a video for that.

Way to encourage sharing and collaboration on an online forum! Nothing like a forum with no posts or content. arty

 

[Gawernator]

Dude, you have real anger management issues. That was a non event. You put way too much energy into yelling and flipping off then the event warrants. Think how easier your commute would be if you didn't let things like this flip you out. That shit happens all the time. Keep your head in the game and move on. People make mistakes. If you pass 5000 cars on your daily commute and one car makes a mistake, that means .02% of the drivers made mistakes. Do you operate at that level?

Agree - Bay Area drivers are so mind boggingly terrible at driving that you'll see offenses every day nearly if you commute a lot

 

[KazMan]

You're not alone my brother :laughing But as others are telling you in different levels of emphasis, it's a common occurrence and you have to build your library of characters so you know when to pass

 

[Spartan925]

As I said recently in another thread, "Anger arises from surprises."

You REALLY need to choose another mode of transport.

Dude, you have real anger management issues. That was a non event. You put way too much energy into yelling and flipping off then the event warrants. Think how easier your commute would be if you didn't let things like this flip you out. That shit happens all the time. Keep your head in the game and move on. People make mistakes. If you pass 5000 cars on your daily commute and one car makes a mistake, that means .02% of the drivers made mistakes. Do you operate at that level?

This is what I can't agree with and it's because you're using a 40 second clip to make a judgment on literally months of riding with no incidents where I lost my cool. You might assume that this type of reaction is the norm from me, but it honestly is not.

I agree, anger does arise from being surprised, and the whole idea of posting about this was to find out if I should have been surprised as I was or if I should have done something differently or seen it coming much like how I saw her changing lanes into #2.

Basically, it doesn't seem fair to judge hours and hours of incident and anger free riding based on 40 seconds of me getting pissed off at someone doing something that a. I've never seen anyone do or even seen it happen to anyone else and b. could have caused me some serious injury had I not reacted quickly enough. I'm hearing "this shit happens all the time" and while maybe that's true for you personally, it's not for me. And I ride 30 miles round trip Monday-Friday, so it's not from lack of trying.

 

[mean dad]

I actually feel like this is the first time in a long time I had anything happen that seemed worth posting. And it was something, as I mentioned, I've never had happen before. Part of posting was finding out if anyone else has had it happen, because it *didn't* seem like an everyday thing to me. Especially since I still can't fathom why someone would dart back into the lane they just came from when they had space in said lane. But if it is something others have occur every day, now I know to be that much more vigilant for it.
I've also seen videos posted lately with much less happening in them with nobody complaining about them being "non-incidents."

Pretty standard issue, people bouncing from lane to lane trying to get one more spot further than they are.
It's hard to tell what the speed and delta are, but assuming it's an option I would have probably swung to the left to go around, and dealt with her when she went back into the lane...scoot further left, accelerate, brake, whatever.
Plus a backfire to make sure she pays attention next time. :laughing

 

[Spartan925]

You're not alone my brother :laughing But as others are telling you in different levels of emphasis, it's a common occurrence and you have to build your library of characters so you know when to pass

Why is it always a Prius? :laughing

I'll just file it away to give their drivers especially extra space and time to get themselves figured out.

Pretty standard issue, people bouncing from lane to lane trying to get one more spot further than they are.
It's hard to tell what the speed and delta are, but assuming it's an option I would have probably swung to the left to go around, and dealt with her when she went back into the lane...scoot further left, accelerate, brake, whatever.
Plus a backfire to make sure she pays attention next time. :laughing

Yeah, having watched it back a few times I can see that a slight pause to see if she was happy now with her choice and a wider path around her would have done wonders in avoiding any sort of issue. Absolutely adding that to my repertoire.

 

[Maddevill]

WTF is up with Prius drivers??? Makes me wish for the good old days when all the morons drove white Volvo station wagons.

 

[budman]

WTF is up with Prius drivers??? Makes me wish for the good old days when all the morons drove white Volvo station wagons.

:laughing

Shit happens. If you want to swear at them and such and it makes you feel better I have no reason to say you can't.

Kaz

That was very telling. Wish you could turn those things in and get drivers popped. :mad

 

[HeatXfer]

Its easy to find petty shit to bitch about during your commute. Can't believe you took the time to edit and post a video for that.

+1

 

[dravnx]

This is what I can't agree with and it's because you're using a 40 second clip to make a judgment on literally months of riding with no incidents where I lost my cool. You might assume that this type of reaction is the norm from me, but it honestly is not.

I agree, anger does arise from being surprised, and the whole idea of posting about this was to find out if I should have been surprised as I was or if I should have done something differently or seen it coming much like how I saw her changing lanes into #2.

Basically, it doesn't seem fair to judge hours and hours of incident and anger free riding based on 40 seconds of me getting pissed off at someone doing something that a. I've never seen anyone do or even seen it happen to anyone else and b. could have caused me some serious injury had I not reacted quickly enough. I'm hearing "this shit happens all the time" and while maybe that's true for you personally, it's not for me. And I ride 30 miles round trip Monday-Friday, so it's not from lack of trying.

You posted an average lane splitting experience where you over reacted by flipping someone off and yelling to yourself and then took the time to edit and post the video. I haven't been riding in your back pocket to experience your zen like calmness while you commute. I only got what you gave me.