Oh Shit, I've Been Hit!

[der_nacht]

I've already told this to a lot of people, and it generally takes about 10 minutes to do over the phone, so in case you are invested in my well-being, health and safety as a cyclist in addition to being my friend in the digital world, this one's for y'all

Comments

[der_nacht]

Just wait and make sure that the bicyclist stops, and if they do, go ahead and go because it's your turn. Of course, many times the bicyclist will not stop at the stop sign, so you do have to be careful. It's the same thing for me with cars at a four-way stop: I make sure that they are going to abide by the stop sign before I enter the intersection, but for the reason that I don't want them to hit me instead of worrying about hitting them.

But yeah, I say the best way to be courteous is to follow the rules, because it's safest. If you don't go when it's your turn at the four-way stop, other vehicles around that are expecting you to behave in that certain way don't know what to do, and the system breaks down. Before yesterday, the only time I had been hit by a car was because of confusion that a car caused by not taking the right-of-way when they had it: a car that was going straight tried to yield the right-of-way to a car in the other direction waiting to turn left, and when I finally gave up waiting for the car going straight and passed them to go through the intersection, the car waiting to turn left, confused, finally gave up trying to guess what the other car was doing and turned in front of it, without seeing that I, who had the right-of-way going straight, was now in their path... boom.