I’m returning home after accompanying Mary to her morning of volunteering in the Locust Grove veggie gardens. The Locust Grove gate faces predominantly left-turning traffic from Beechwood Avenue, so I’ll be watching the vehicles approaching head-on.
T = 0.000 – Signal turns green:
T = 2.500 – Entering the intersection:
I don’t start pedaling until the signal in my direction actually turns green, because drivers have been known to blow through intersections with a fresh red signal. Two seconds seems like a reasonable delay.
T = 5.500 – Three lanes later, nearing the midline of Rt 9 and still accelerating:
T = 5.917 – The black car in the right lane is moving and I begin to look that way:
I cannot tell from the video whether the driver actually stopped (as you’re required to do for “right on red after stop“, but nobody actually does) or just slowed into a rolling stop for the turn.
Why not slam to a stop in the middle of Rt 9 in front of the left-turning traffic? Come for a ride with me and we’ll try that out. I’ll shout “LOOK OUT!” at some inopportune time when you’re in the middle of traffic and not expecting it, whereupon you must hit the brakes and deal with the consequences.
T = 7.117 – One second later, I’m beginning to veer left, directly toward the stream of oncoming traffic turning toward me:
In round numbers, the black car moved 35 feet in 1.2 s between those frames: 30 feet/s = 20 mph.
T = 7.750 – The white car on my right continues turning and I’ll definitely clear its rear:
The black car has moved another 15 feet in 633 ms: 24 feet/s = 16 mph.
I’m wearing the vest part of my fluorescent green jacket over a fluorescent green shirt with fluorescent green gloves. By now, I think I’ve been sighted, at ten feet and closing.
T = 8.383 – The only clear area lies directly ahead of the oncoming silver car:
T = 9.000 – I’m approaching the yellow line, probably won’t sideswipe the silver car, and the black car is now braking:
T = 9.583 – The black car has nearly stopped:
The wide-angle lens on the HDR-AS30V makes it look like I had plenty of room. The Fly6 rear camera shows why I had reason for concern:
I’m still moving, the black car is slowing:
T = 9.767 – Props to this driver for not starting quickly:
Elapsed time: four seconds from spotting the black car not stopping in the right-turn lane.
I moved back to the right side of the lane and continued the mission, but decided I didn’t need a jaunt across town to the rail trail before the rain set in to get my heart rate up.
