I was riding my bike west on 2nd Avenue around 5:30 pm. I came up on the O'Connell parking lot exit and slowed down to look for cars (like I always do - people are always in quite a rush around 5:00 pm to get out of the parking lot and get home). I saw a silver Jetta coming, saw it slow down and almost stop, which was a signal for me to pass. I started to speed up again, and then saw the car start to lurch forward. All I could think was Oh crap, she's gonna hit me. Sure enough, I felt the front bumper hit my rear tire and then I fell to the ground. (It was interesting - as I was falling, I was able to look up at a car going west. The driver had this look of utter shock on his face.)
I landed on my left elbow and wrist, rolled once or twice, and stopped on my right elbow. Got pretty scraped up, and I now understand why motorcyclists wear leather. No scrapes or bruises on my legs, no damage to my head or neck, etc. Just road burn on my arms and wrist.
I immediately got up. The car's door was open, and a shocked girl was looking at me. I glared back (obviously very pissed); she said nothing, so I took my queue and said, "You know, when you see a bike coming like that, you typically stop." She simply asked if I was all right, and I said that I thought so. After that, I made sure that my bike was still ridable, which it was, and got back on to ride home.
All things considered, it could have been much, much worse. I could have been very badly hurt, my bike could be totaled, etc. But I'm okay.
Strangely enough, I just (22:45) saw another cyclist on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 34th Street talking to a police officer about an apparent collision. He was on the ground, didn't look hurt. I hope he's okay, maybe he'll get to ride home like I did. :-)
Posted by dwc in Cycling at 12:01 AM