The More You Know...

Things you are not allowed to say or do when you almost hit a bicyclist:

Incident #1

An old man riding a motorscooter while holding a little white dog stops at a stop sign, quickly glances right, looks left, and then begins to pull out in front of a bicyclist, who quickly begins yelling "hey HEY HEY HEY!!!" The old man gooses the throttle of his motorscooter, then stops in the middle of the road.

He is allowed to say "Sorry, I didn't see you." Although that's obvious at this point, at least it shows some regret and admits fault.

He isn't allowed to say "You should be wearing white." The bicyclist was wearing black, but it was 6 PM, and anyone that lives in Indiana knows that it doesn't get dark until 9:30 PM.

I suppose you're lucky the bicyclist wasn't driving a black Cadillac, old man, because you'd be dead right now.

Incident #2

A bicyclist is traveling northbound at about 17 mph on a suburban street. A woman and her daughter are traveling southbound at about 20 mph on the same street. The woman reaches up to use her garage door opener, then proceeds to make a left turn in front of the cyclist so as to turn into her driveway.

She is allowed to get the fuck out of my way and learn to fucking drive.

She isn't allowed to continue turning the car and then stop so that it is now parked completely across the lane while putting her hands up in front of her face (in preparation for a collision), forcing the cyclist to switch lanes and nearly clip her rear bumper at speed. She is also not allowed to cause him to yell "damnit".

Accidents happen, but apparently so does stupid.