I live in Australia, and we have recently had a law introduced that when passing a cyclist on the road, you [b]must[/b] leave a 1 meter (3ft) distance between your car and the cyclist... No matter what.
So I'm sitting at a red light, it goes green and I take off. The road immediately bends to the left, so traffic we had stopped for was coming from the right.
Out of the corner of my eye I notice this girl on one of those shitty "kit" bikes riding merrily along looking straight ahead, unaware of me, hurtling towards her.
Mind you, she has obviously run a red light, and I have legal right of way.
I slam on my brakes and blast the horn, sphincter puckered up tighter than a frogs arse, adjustable steering column collapsing due to the sheer force of the inertia from me moving forward while everything else is trying to desperately stop.
I miss her by literally centimeters.
She rides on without so much as an acknowledgement of what has just happened.
I roll down my window and yell at her in the biggest, most threatening voice I can make (and I'm a big guy)...
[spoiler]Sup Girl... Why you ignoring me?[/spoiler]
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It's amazing how stupid people will put their lives in complete strangers hands. Just assuming that as a driver, you're not drunk, inebriated on drugs, mentally ill or incompetent, old, feeble, and going blind. Or just some angry jerk who's absolutely had enough for one life, and decides they don't give a flying fu*k and they're going to plow right into some stupid person riding a bike in the middle of the road. Couple of old sayings in the form of an analogy apply here. "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight." And... "There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots. But there are no old bold pilots." Unfortunately, this sad fool will probably be the last one to comprehend. It wouldn't surprise me if they won't be riding bicycles very much longer. Or doing anything else for that matter. One more old saying; "Can't fix stupid."