Turn right fright
Had a bit of a moment yesterday afternoon, and I'd like to hear what you'd have done in my place....
Heading for home in no rush at 4:30pm, good daylight, road damp after a shower so I'm taking it steady. Approaching my driveway is a straight, medium grade downhill for about 200 metres, and it's a right turn into the drive. About 40 metres after my place, also on the right, is a side road that I cannot see down due to hedging. The sun was behind me but neither too bright nor low, so I can be seen well.
Cruising up to turn in I clock a red Integra or similar has appeared 150 metres back in my mirrors. No worries, I'm indicating and also flash my brake light a few times so he can see I'm braking.
It often happens that someone will turn left out of the side road and head up towards me when turning in. Sure enough an innocent white cage does this, so I brake a bit more so it can clear past me and I can turn after it.
Sadly my mirrors tell me that Integra boy has no intention of slowing down. This is a dead end residential street with a 50kmh limit, but 70 is the norm for many numbskulls and he's doing all of that. So things developed quite quickly.
At this stage I see my options as:
1. Hold my position close to the centre line, wait for the white cage to clear and hope Integra boy doesn't clean me out from behind.
2. Try and nip into my driveway sharpish, avoiding the two obstacles already parked on it and risking a low side on the greasy surface in front of the white cage.
3. Come off the brakes, stay central, nip down to the side road, turn right into that, then come back up for a left turn into home.
I can think of an option 4, which I would have done on my treadlie much earlier in the game: pull over to the left, let them both clear and then turn in. Wearing lycra I never turn right into my drive if there is a cage following me as the road just isn't wide enough for comfort. But I had already committed to my road position so couldn't head to the kerb without getting T-boned by Integra boy.
Option 2 seemed too high risk for a spill and possibly splat. Option 3 would make me unpredictable to Integra boy.
So I opted to stay put, balancing it to make myself as small as possible and not putting a foot down to be removed. So I ended up between two moving cages, one of which was doing around 60-70kmh about 50 cm off my left bar end. Not a huge amount of space for him between me and the kerb, but at least he made it.
It put the wind up me a bit I can tell you. I turned in, parked up and immediately wished I'd gunned it down after him and given him a piece of my mind. I'm glad I didn't: a respectful chat would be more useful but I was in no mind set for one at the time.
Putting myself in his shoes, it's possible he thought I was indicating for the side road and that the sun from behind made my brake light (and maybe indicator) difficult to make out. He probably had a moment himself when he realised he was going to shave through the gap.
So what would you have done in my place? And if (more like when) I see it developing again, what would you recommend? I'm now favouring option 3. The option I chose puts far too much faith in the skills of someone I've never met for me to like it much. Option 2 puts too much faith in my own! Option 4 is a pain in the arse!
Cheers - Chasio
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Originally Posted by skidMark
Karma ... Justice catches up eventually !! 
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