Here’s what happened to me recently. I’m cycling home on a dark wet Friday evening. My commute was 18km then and I was halfway home. I’m in a cycle lane doing maybe 20 km/h and traffic is all held up. I was doored before so I’m watching the cars carefully. Suddenly a car about 20 metres up ahead of me veers into the cycle lane and mounts the footpath with his car straddling the cycle lane. I slow down and let the idiot complete his crazy left turn (we drive on the left here in Ireland). As I get to the junction (it’s wide with an island between lanes) there’s a car looking to pull out into the stagnant traffic. I make eye contact and since he has to cross my lane to enter the main road I have right of way so I proceed. He, while staring right at me starts to pull out and I’ve no time to react. I go over his bonnet (hood) and land hard in my back in the middle of the main road. I’m still clipped into my bike and it comes crashing on my face. As I’m lying there in shock another car that was coming the opposite direction to me decides this is his chance and takes the exit and proceeds to drive over my bike with me under it and disappear. Fortunately I want hurt any further.
I’m dressed up in high-viz clothing. I have award winning front and rear lights that is approved by various EU road safely groups yet here we have two motorists that just didn’t bother their holes to look and a third that didn’t care if they murdered me.
I had to pick myself up, fix my bike and limp the rest of the way home. While the driver that pulled out under me was apologetic (his wife less so) nobody else stopped to help. Nobody cared that the third car nearly killed me.