Royal Carting Truck: Squeeze Play

I’m riding downhill from Red Oaks Mill toward the bridge across the Wappinger Creek, pedaling a bit over 24 mph = 37 feet/sec, far enough into the lane to avoid trash along the curb on the right:

Although you can barely see the vehicle passing on my left, I’ve just realized I am in one heap of trouble.

Half a second later (the frame number in the caption ticks along at 60 fps) I’m caught in the slipstream:

Another half second and I’m leaning slightly to the right:

Make that wobbling:

Well, that’s a relief:

The truck is now completely within our lane and I’m further to the right, so our paths really were converging:

Elapsed time: 2.2 seconds.

The view from the rear shows the driver started with reasonable clearance (these frames tick at 30 fps):

A second later, the dumpster grabber is about even with my handlebars, corresponding to the first helmet camera picture:

A third of a second later:

The rear wheels passed much closer:

In general, Royal’s drivers give us plenty of clearance.

In this case, I think he badly misjudged how fast I was moving and figured he would be well past by the time he had to be completely in the right lane to avoid vehicles in the left-turn lane on the bridge.

However, intent wouldn’t make me any less dead after a trip around those tires …