Wow, that was close!

[Laser Dude]

Was heading home last night in my truck, came to a major intersection, I had the green light. Cars coming from the right were stopped, the far lane was open. I see a sport bike coming up faster than he should be. I immediately cover the brake as I'm just too the line entering the intersection. He is stopping, just not well. I'm on the brake at this point, his back wheel is off the ground he's on the front brake so hard. He stops. Apparently the action of stopping like that caused something else to go wrong, and he immediately dumped the clutch and the front wheel came off the ground and he lunged across the line into the intersection. This wasn't a controlled thing happening, or on purpose to show off, he was struggling to recover.

By that time I had already slowed enough to stop if needed. He regained control, had the bike stopped, and began backing up to get out of the intersection.

If I wasn't a rider myself, and watching him coming into from the right, I'm not sure the outcome would have been the same. I think riding a bike has made me a better driver when not on the bike.

 

[Bounce]

If I wasn't a rider myself, and watching him coming into from the right, I'm not sure the outcome would have been the same. I think riding a bike has made me a better driver when not on the bike.

I can confirm that. In another couple of examples of my own:

1. Going to an event at Texas Stadium, traffic was backed up at the highway exit so badly that everyone in the exit lane was stopped and waiting. My wife and I were in my GMC pickup... sitting and waiting for the line to move. Because stopped traffic late at night is both hard to see and may be out of the ordinary for some people, I left lots of room between me and the vehicle in front. I watched my 6 like a hawk and saw headlights closing way to quickly so dove for the shoulder. With tires squealing, the driver of the vehicle came to stop where we had just been. My wife had turned to look at me when I moved to the shoulder but didn't have time to say anything before the tire squalling started.

2. Sitting at a red light, while on my bike in down town Ft. Worth (rush hour), the light turned green and for some reason, I waited. With my head on a swivel, I started scanning more intently than usual before pulling away. Several heart beats passed before I locked in on a car (more than half a block away) fail to slow and blow through his red light like it wasn't even there.

In both cases, I attribute it to riding and having to become more aware than driving teaches people to be. The first one is easy to attribute to learned practices. The 2nd was almost like a 6th sense.

 

[mcatrophy]

More than once my wife, sitting in the passenger seat, has asked "How did you know he was going to do that?". She wasn't totally convinced by my answer, "Years of staying alive on a motorcycle", but that's my belief. And, yes, sometimes I don't know how. But I've learnt to trust my gut.

 

[rbentnail]

More than once my wife, sitting in the passenger seat, has asked "How did you know he was going to do that?". She wasn't totally convinced by my answer, "Years of staying alive on a motorcycle", but that's my belief. And, yes, sometimes I don't know how. But I've learnt to trust my gut.

^^This. Dunno what it is- sixth sense, gut feeling, the Hand of God, whatever. To me it's real and it's saved my heinie many times over the yrs. The latest one: sitting at a red light, first in line with 3 or 4 cars behind me. Light turns green. Don't actively recall why, just that something wasn't right. About 2 seconds in a guy behind toots his horn. Nothing rude just a little toot. Another 2 or 3 seconds, our light still green. I point to the right and my finger follows a guy blow right through his red like it wasn't there. The guy behind me? He gives me the thumbs-up with a big ol' smile like he's genuinely relieved neither of us got smashed.

 

[NTXFJR]

Kudos for being alert Laser Dude. Sounds like that kid won't try that one again soon lol. Was there a gas station nearby where he could stop and turn his shorts inside out?

My wife used to work for Hallmark cards. It was usual for her to have cartons of cards sitting in her back seat waiting to be processed. In one of the rare occurrences of having processed all of the cards the day before, she pulled up to a red light one day ready to make a left turn and head up the hill to home. She heard a shuffling of something in the backseat which sounded to her like a carton had shifted and was ready to fall to which she immediately turned her head to the back seat and grab said carton. She was greeted by an empty seat and then felt a little silly that she had forgotten that there was nothing there. She turned her attention back to the light in front of her which had already turned green during that time only to see an 18 wheeler barreling down the hill and blowing through the intersection. She estimated his speed at around 60mph in a 45 mph zone and would've t boned her if she had not paused. She chalked that encounter up to divine intervention and said "Thank you Lord!"

 

[wheatonFJR]

In SC you look both ways after getting the green light.

 

[Laser Dude]

In SC you look both ways after getting the green light.

We do as well, when you are stopped and get the green light. However, the light was green and traffic was flowing, I was never stopped. There were cars behind me and to my left, flowing through the intersection. His light was red before I got to the intersection. I'm sure his tennis shoes and t-shirt would have saved him though.....

 

[HotRodZilla]

In SC you look both ways after getting the green light.

We do that here too, if living is important.

Years ago, I was on my Vulcan 750 at a red light underneath an overpass at a one way frontage road. It was pretty blind to the right where traffic would come from. The light turned green and I heard that low tone screeching noise made by flat-bed semi-trailers, so I stayed put. The guy behind me in the FedEx truck laid on the horn. Half a second later, a semi-truck came sliding through the intersection and stopped with his trailer about 2 feet inside the crosswalk. Just enough for me to get through. I gave the FedEx guy the finger and rode around the back of the trailer. FedEx guy stayed put until the truck driver unfucked himself and moved.

 

[LittleJon]

In SC you look both ways after getting the green light.

Definitely a motorcycling learned habit. Last summer I sat at a green light because I had noticed the car coming from my left not slowing. I watched the teenage girl drive through her red light with her head down, looking at her phone.

Apparently that text was more important to her than my life.

It's nice to hear the "it almost happened, but didn't" stories every once in a while. Too often it goes the other way.

 

[rbentnail]

In SC you look both ways after getting the green light.

A habit always used here too but payed particular attention the first time I rode to WV and billboard after billboard proclaimed "RED MEANS STOP".

 

[wheatonFJR]

In SC you look both ways after getting the green light.

A habit always used here too but payed particular attention the first time I rode to WV and billboard after billboard proclaimed "RED MEANS STOP".

You also check your six when riding/driving...if yer in front of an older pickup, when the light changes to yellow nine times out of ten he's got the pedal to the metal, no matter how far back he is.

So don't stay in front of them and become a hood ornament.

 

[Knifemaker]

" I think riding a bike has made me a better driver when not on the bike."

Definetly. My answer to this isn't intuition, or 6th sense. Psychologists will tell you about "body language", how someone trained at observing people can tell you various things about them simply by how they move or position themselves. I think after 40 years of riding a bike and being on a constant look out for drivers trying to kill us, we've inadvertently trained ourselves to pick out subtle "body language" of vehicles on the road. We seem able to predict which cars might be a threat, just by how they behave on the road.

We are also more proactive in watching our surroundings than most average drivers. Even in a car I'm continually scanning my mirrors....something I know most car only drivers rarely seem to do unless that are changing lanes. (As evidenced by seeing some clown drive 4 miles with a cop behind him before noticing him there)

After seeing one car or truck run a red light, we realize quickly the potential threat to our life, so we never just take off when the light turns green. Watched a car last month get T boned for no other reason than not looking both ways before hitting the gas.

Now we have to deal with even more distracted drivers thanks to smart phones. It's funny how many times I come up behind a car on the highway and know they are fiddling with their phone, just by a subtle change in the way the car is moving......

 

[wfooshee]

In SC you look both ways after getting the green light.

My thought on this is that you should already know, before your green light, what cross traffic is doing, because you've been watching it (and your six) the whole time, rather than texting, tuning the radio, staring at the red light, whatever. There are lights around here short enough that someone taking 2 seconds to verify clearance will make him the ONLY car to get through before it changes again!

Driving doesn't stop when the car stops.....

 

[airboss]

Opening statement from the instructor at my (former) companies annual drivers refresher course.

"Most intersection accidents happen within 2 seconds of a light change."

Yup, every year we made the all the drivers sit through 4 hours of what they already knew.

 

[LCB]

Years ago, I was on my Vulcan 750 at a red light underneath an overpass at a one way frontage road. It was pretty blind to the right where traffic would come from. The light turned green and I heard that low tone screeching noise made by flat-bed semi-trailers, so I stayed put. The guy behind me in the FedEx truck laid on the horn. Half a second later, a semi-truck came sliding through the intersection and stopped with his trailer about 2 feet inside the crosswalk. Just enough for me to get through. I gave the FedEx guy the finger and rode around the back of the trailer. FedEx guy stayed put until the truck driver unfucked himself and moved.

Interesting... until now, I never thought that was possible.

 

[Tanker]

Just had another one of these incidents occur about a month ago.

My son and I were riding south on a nice 2-lane along one of the rivers near our house with myself in the lead. As we near a "T" intersection to our thoroughfare, the pick-up in front of us takes a right into the turn lane to exit the road we're on. I spy a mini-van at the intersection with a mom looking to the back seat and gesturing to one of the kids strapped in the back.

I immediately hit the brakes to signal my son to slow down. We were traveling about 55-60mph and I continued to brake as the turning pick-up is now blocking any chance for said Mother to see us when she looked back, if she did. We come to nearly a complete stop in the intersection and the mini-van is out directly in front of us. We would have T-boned her for sure.

I can still see her dumbfounded eyes seeing us nearly stopped in front of her drivers door. Thankfully no one was behind us to get rear ended. If that had been the case, I was going to get behind the turning truck.

My son yelled out to me after she went through on her merry way. "Thanks for the lesson Dad!"

I said back to him, "Thankfully were both still here to talk about it".

Motorcycling over all these years has definitely made me more aware of my surroundings and a safer driver overall.

 

[Bounce]

All these remind me of the comment made years ago, "Some long-time riders have 35 years of repeating the first 1 to 3 years of experience while others have 35 years of experience. When someone says they have been riding for 35 years you don't know which group they're in."

 

[Warpdrv]

Yup- gotta keep your eyes out for sure....

Was on our way up to Road America for a nice day..... riding on a two lane road, just left a stop light, heading up to another light. 2-3 cars in front of me rolling up on the red, 2-3 cars in the right lane, I notice this guy who is on my right just a bit ahead of me that looks very agitated being stuck behind one car that is moving a tiny bit slower then the other cars, but clearly they are all slowing for the stop light.....

He is definitely looking to get around that slower car - jerky body movement, agitated, waving of hands that he's pissed off..... at that point I am just off to his left rear door - waiting for him to take some drastic action and swerve into my lane.... I'm slowing down cause I know its going to happen, but this is happening within a 2 second period of time, doesn't look period and he starts to make his move - tire hits the line and starts coming over quick, I still didn't have enough time to get behind his maneuver, but I'm already on the horn and making my way on the shoulder of the road, am almost on the gravel before he makes his retreat...... Prick....

Most times I will honk my horn to make sure those people that are not directly in view of me know that I am there, especially when you know what they are going to do before they do..... since we all know we are invisible.

Funny how many of these stories happen to us, if we were to take the time to write them all down, it would make quite a nice sized book.

 

[Viper Pilot]

Sure glad you were watching out for those jerk ***** Patrick! Just can't trust anyone in a cage!