It finally happened. I got hit by a car this morning.
Good news is that I wasn't hurt and my bike wasn't busted up…miraculously I managed to stay upright and be shoved along the street by the guy's left-front fender, all the while hollering and cussing and making a damn scene. The only damage was actually to his car, though I don't know if he knows it yet. Some of his red paint now resides on the seat-post of my bike.
Scared the bejezuz out of me, pissed me off in ways I am still discovering, and put a cloud over my whole day. I mean, I was so damn lucky. I could have been fucked up bad. I could have been killed. There could have been a car coming the other way that could have hit me as I got disentangled from the car that hit me initially. I could have fallen over and been run over. It is not like he noticed me until he had shoved me a good 10' along the street.
I was riding down 9th street, a fairly major through street, and I had the right of way. I wear a yellow backpack and helmet for visibility, a light colored leather jacket, and I have reflective bits on my helmet, pedals, back and front of bike and both wheels. The guy came up a side-street and pulled out into the intersection of the side-street and the through street and stopped. So I swerved around his car's bumper as he sat there in the intersection, and then he just took off and rammed into me. I had to ride deliberately around his car, which was obstructing the street, and he didn't even notice me go around and past him. He didn't notice the impact of having hit something. He didn't seem to register the frenzied screaming and cussing. After he finally stopped and I got away from his car, he had the gall to roll down his window and scold me about not wearing enough reflective clothing.
Not, “Oh my god, I am sorry, are you all right.” No, a chastisment. From the asshole who hit me with his car. I cussed him some more, and if he had been just the slightest, tiniest bit ruder, I would have gone upside his head.
I know I am damn lucky. Lucky he didn't take off faster, lucky he didn't try to hit-and-run, lucky he didn't shoot my ass after I cussed him. I'm lucky I held it together and didn't wipe out, lucky he was driving a little car, which he should have been able to see me over the hood level, if he'd been looking. I'm lucky I wasn't hurt and lucky my bike didn't get wrecked. I was halfway between work and home, 25 blocks from anywhere useful to me. If I'd had a bad wreck, I would have been SOL.