I typically ride my bike for most of my local trips, year round.
I've only ever had one negative car vs. bicycle "incident" with a driver who "right hooked" me a year or so back. (She overtook me... almost! Then braked and turned right before she had quite finished the "overtaking" part.)
But I don't worry too much about stuff like that. (By which I mean - I stay alert to what's going on around me, and am comfortable with the proactive/reactive things I can do to avoid problems.)
No, the thing that is beginning to worry me is the amount of texting and driving I'm seeing. (And I'm not talking about the epidemic of texting while stopping/stopped at traffic lights.)
- Last year, a neighbour's kid wrote off the family's Honda by smashing into the back of a parked car on a quiet, straight residential road. In the middle of a sunny freaking afternoon! Texting? That was my first thought. His dad told me his kid swears he wasn't using his phone, but I sure would have been looking at the cell phone records. (Do they even show that kind of detail?)
- A week ago I watched a kid drive literally half a block in a residential area while fiddling with her phone (presumably!), fixated on her lap. I considered yelling in her open window as she went by just to freak her out.
- Today I watched another kid in a Chevy Avalanche pickup pulling a 20-something foot boat & trailer... driving along fiddling with his phone. Doing the ubiquitous "if I keep it below the window line, no one will notice!" routine.
Obviously the texters aren't all kids. But these people are starting to scare me. I think the risk of getting smashed into from behind is on the rise. Yes, I have a little mirror. And I check it a lot! Lately I've been putting more thought into taking routes where the overtakaing traffic is at least going slower.
I cannot comprehend people doing this.
Also: GET OFF MY LAWN!
/rant