Atrophy's Safety Hints

Scenario: A normal single carriageway, two-way road, alongside an industrial park on the right (far side).

The traffic was heavy in both directions, my queue was moving at somewhere around 25 mph, vehicles evenly spaced.

I sensed rather than saw a car pull out from the right, to join my queue right where I was. Without thinking, I opened the throttle and turned towards the curb to make as much space as possible. I could just see, in my peripheral vision, this car almost hitting my pannier.

What I think had happened was that he had been waiting to join my queue, so had to wait for a gap in both the traffic coming the other way, and on my side. He probably saw what he thought was a gap between the car in front of me and the one behind, obviously not seeing me. Taking the opportunity, he accelerated rapidly across through a gap in the traffic on his side.

Thinking about it afterwards, I concluded that I wasn't concentrating all that well. I had come through the centre of a very busy London, I was hot and tired. I should have been more alert, seen this car waiting, and moved to the right of my lane to make myself more visible.