First Blood

I had my first accident today. Because friends and family are no doubt reading this, let me start out by saying that both me and the bike are just fine. No injuries. No damage. It of course happened in the least expected way.

There was a single car ahead of me before entering the intersection as the light turns red. The car pulls out too far and stops, partially blocking the intersection. I am about six feet behind them, and another car is (naturally) right on my bumper. We are all at a complete stop at this point, and I sit up on the bike to rest my hands. The car in front decides that they don't like having the front end of their car sticking out into the intersection, so shifts into reverse and starts backing up.

I immediately start frantically waving my right arm while smashing the horn button over and over, and the lady just keeps backing all the way into my front fender. I am dumbfounded that anyone would do this. So we pull over.

I get off the bike and inspect the whole front end with an electron microscope. Fortunately, the only damage is a 1cm scratch right on the front edge of my fender. Her first words (drumroll please): "I didn't see you." I was stopped, dead center of the lane, sitting up on the bike, wearing a white and red jacket, silver helmet, broad daylight. She didn't see me.

I keep my words to a minimum in order to avoid saying anything unpleasant, and mutter that she can go. As she starts to leave, she turns back around and says: "Well at least my car got more damage than your bike!" (her bumper had a 6cm vertical scratch on it) I don't even know what to say to this. Is she expecting me to be happy?

So remember folks: you aren't just inconspicuous on your bike, you are invisible.