Opps, I did it again.

[Ixion]

Sorry to hear your misfortune. FWIW, I commute in Auckland most days (any day i don't have to take a passenger or godos). I find it worth watching the front wheels of vehicels in such a situation - if the wheel moves, a mighty horn balst is in order. You can detect wheel movement (as he twists the steering wheel) well before you can tell that the car itself is moving

[Sycophant]

Commuting is no problem, just need to be prepared for an exit should the need arise. No offense to Sycophant here, but perhaps some of us, myself included would have assumed that if we want to change lanes then so probably do other cars, and you can therefore predict that one of them is going to be a stupid dick who doesn't know how to indicate.

I suppose it's all down to experience and how you read the road / predict the behaviour of others.

Normally I am pretty good a predicting these sorts of things. In this case I don't know if I wasnot paying enough attention, or just winding down my alertness because I was so close to my destination, but it caught me a little off guard - I had my hand on the brake lever, or I probably would have caught the back of him, but that wasn't enough to keep me off the road. He was stopped, which is probably why I didn't expect it so much.

And for all the times when I have predicted and avoided some dickish action by a cage in front of me, there is always going to be one or two that slip through. It's a bit of a worry for me, with a 6 month old at home, that my failure to predict some poor road usage could affect my ability to go home to him.

This is the first accident I've had where someone else was involved. Previously it's been my own ineptitude that caused my pain (even when I did video it once). I can control what I do, but I can only react to what others do, and I guess I'm not always going to be perfect on that count.

I like the bike, but I may fix it up and get rid of it for a few years at least - I only use it to commute, and it often seems that the risks might outweigh the benefits for me at times.