BevanPT
15th June 2009, 13:51
4.30ish on Friday arvo I'm cutting through Te Atatu to get to Henderson. Come up to the roundabout at intersection of Edmonton and Gt North Rd and traffic is backed down Te Atatu Rd back to the NW Motorway. I'm wanting to turn right onto Edmonton and find the traffic blocking the roundabout.
No worries, I'm on a bike. Shouldn't be a problem, there's plenty of room. So... travel round the left hand side of the stopped traffic. Exit onto Edmonton is blocked because of the red light 20 metres from the roundabout so cage has left a gap for traffic (coming from my left) to keep going straight through.
I come to the head of the queue and observe the situation. It's wet and gridlocked so taking it real slow. See that there is plenty of room for me to still exit the roundabout even if the light's still red. Two lanes travelling from my left and the car in the far lane stops. Car in the other lane is braking, slowing down and is stopping. I'm about to come to a complete stop at this point, that's how slow I'm going. Seeing the traffic stopped (they have to give way to me and the cages) I start to accelerate when suddenly the car closest to me stomps on the gas pedal. I have slow motion images now of me being in front of the car as we meet. I immediately grab the front brake, the car passes inches in front of me and next minute I'm lying on my side and picking my bike up from the asphalt.
Fricken wet, road camber etc meant that the nose just slipped from under me. Only cosmetic damage and bruised ego so lucky on that point. :doh:
Not going to say I'm blameless, I should have come to a complete stop and made sure that the traffic was giving way rather than making the assumption that they were. But fuck me, it's a fricken roundabout and you give way to your right no matter the circumstances.
No worries, I'm on a bike. Shouldn't be a problem, there's plenty of room. So... travel round the left hand side of the stopped traffic. Exit onto Edmonton is blocked because of the red light 20 metres from the roundabout so cage has left a gap for traffic (coming from my left) to keep going straight through.
I come to the head of the queue and observe the situation. It's wet and gridlocked so taking it real slow. See that there is plenty of room for me to still exit the roundabout even if the light's still red. Two lanes travelling from my left and the car in the far lane stops. Car in the other lane is braking, slowing down and is stopping. I'm about to come to a complete stop at this point, that's how slow I'm going. Seeing the traffic stopped (they have to give way to me and the cages) I start to accelerate when suddenly the car closest to me stomps on the gas pedal. I have slow motion images now of me being in front of the car as we meet. I immediately grab the front brake, the car passes inches in front of me and next minute I'm lying on my side and picking my bike up from the asphalt.
Fricken wet, road camber etc meant that the nose just slipped from under me. Only cosmetic damage and bruised ego so lucky on that point. :doh:
Not going to say I'm blameless, I should have come to a complete stop and made sure that the traffic was giving way rather than making the assumption that they were. But fuck me, it's a fricken roundabout and you give way to your right no matter the circumstances.