Accident Prevention Series Part 3: Merging Drivers

As you travel on the right side of the roadway (riding with traffic), drivers entering the roadway from your right – either from driveways or intersections - will be very focused on breaks in oncoming traffic.

• If planning to turn right, drivers will be focused on traffic coming from their left (this includes you as a cyclist);
• If planning to turn left, drivers will be focused on traffic coming from both directions. This driver has double the traffic to manage and naturally is intermittently looking away from you.

In either situation, the driver is focused on vehicular traffic and may certainly be overlooking the smaller frontal mass of a cyclist. To make the turn, the driver will have a number of choices to make and to do so, will be assessing the varying speeds and distances of vehicular traffic. Again, making these choices may distract the driver from either or both seeing a cyclist and judging his/her speed and distance.

What to look for:

Any time there is a vehicle stopped, or making an approach from a side street, who will need to cross or merge into your pathway, you must be cautious and vigilant. Look for these:

• Turn signals - but drivers may not use them;
• The driver turning his/her head looking to see if there are spaces in traffic flow;
• Movement of the vehicle advancing/creeping toward/into the intersection as the driver attempt to proceed.
• Objects (parked cars, trees, bushes, signs, mailboxes, etc.) that blocks the driver's view to their left – that means blocking the driver's view of you the cyclist
• Recognize also that such objects will cause the driver to move/creep further out into the roadway (your pathway) to see oncoming traffic should be noted since you may not see them or they see you until they are already blocking your lane of travel.

Prevention

Getting the driver's attention is critical since he/she may not be looking for bicycle traffic when there are many cars on the road. A head light always works well in making you visible., Bright clothing can be helpful and, when close enough, alerting a driver verbally a simple hey "I am here" or a bell ringing can be a last line of defense.

In the situation where a driver's view to the left is blocked changing your line a little to the left a foot or two will give both you and the driver a better chance of seeing each other. Once you pass move back to your normal path of travel.

Defensive Actions

Since you often have time to see a merging vehicle at an intersection or driveway, braking is the first option to avoid a collision. If there isn't enough time to brake then turning to the right or left may be your best option of avoiding a collision. Again this is a split second choice when the braking distance alone isn't enough to prevent a collision.

Next up, Being "Doored".