Just about every time I go for a bike ride I think about how motorists don't watch for bicyclist.
There is an especially bad area by my house where I ride quite often.
There is a trail along a four lane road that I ride and I go against traffic.
That means when I get to an intersection and motorists are making a right turn they are looking to their left for oncoming traffic.
It never fails, they never look to their right for pedestrians or bicyclists.
Now at these intersections I have the right of way.
The motorists making a right hand turn are sitting at stop signs and the oncoming traffic doesn't stop.
There have been several times that I could have been hit if I wasn't paying attention.
There was even one time when a guy almost him me because he had no plans of stopping at the stop sign.
It was pretty close, if I didn't swerve and stop in time he would have ran me over.
And then there are the people who stop right on top of the cross walks.
I hate this.
They completely block the cross walk and you have to slow down and try to get around them.
The drivers are supposed to stop at the stop sign.
There is usually a white line to indicate where you are to stop.
And that line is before the cross walk.
So when you are driving please keep this in mind for the other bicyclists that may be riding while your are driving.
Now there are a couple of ways that I try to stay safe while biking.
The biggest one is, be aware of your surroundings.
When I come to an intersection I always look behind me to make sure someone isn't trying to make a turn in my direction.
It's easy to look out for cars coming in front of you but don't forget about the cars to the rear.
Vehicles are much faster than you are on your bike and they come up quick so beware.
The other thing I do to stay safe at intersections is to make sure I get eye contact with the drivers.
There have been a couple of times when I thought the driver should have been able to see me but they didn't make eye contact and they pulled out right in front of me.
So make sure you make eye contact with the driver.
Now I know that in these situations we the bicyclists have the right of way but remember, if you get hit by a car or another vehicle we will always loose.
We have no protection out there (other than a helmet, please remember you should always wear your helmet when biking).
Cars can weight as little a 2000 pounds but that is still 10 times more than most bicyclists with their bikes.
So keep that in mind when you get in a situation where someone has cut you off.
It's better to be mad at someone than to be in the hospital.
Well I have complained a lot about motorists in this article but I have only been bicycling a little over a year now and have had complaints about bicyclists for a much longer time.
Remember we have to "share" the road.
I have recently joined Facebook and there are many group dedicated to complaining about sharing the road with bicyclist.
My favorite one is "I Don't Ride On Your Bike Path, Don't Bike On My Road!".
I understand their frustration and sometimes we can be a bit arrogant.
I can still remember getting mad at bicyclists that would ride on the road making it impossible to get around them even when there was a large shoulder they could have been riding on.
Even my friends don't get out of the way of motorists, I have to tell them to move over so the cars can get by.
So when you are out bicycling remember we have to share the road.
It goes both ways.
When a car comes up behind you move over as far as you can safely and let them pass.
Hopefully they will remember that you tried to be nice and it will change their minds about bicyclists.