Near Left Hook, Barbur & Lowell, Oregon XWN 556

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This is helmet cam video.

When I shot this video, I thought I was about to be left hooked. This was at about 8:55 AM, 8/15/2011, at Barbur and Lowell, Portland, Oregon, USA. I was headed northbound on Barbur. This part of Barbur has a northbound bike lane, 3 general purpose northbound lanes, and a general purpose southbound lane. I saw that XWN 556, a smaller grey SUV, was travelling southbound. The driver was using the western-most northbound lane as a left turn lane. That is, the driver was traveling southbound in a northbound lane. That told me that the driver did not know what they were doing. When the driver started to make a left across my path, I hit my brakes.

Watching the video, you can see that the driver slowed. From what I see now in the video, I _might_ have been able to "shoot the gap" and avoided stopping. I still think that I did the right thing by stopping. The driver was driving against traffic. If they were going to do that, who knew what else they would do?

I could see (and the video shows) that the driver appeared to be an older woman. She continued eastbound onto Lowell. When I go over the video frame-by-frame, the woman in the front passenger seat appears to be waving an apology. Although the video does not show it, I recall that she was cringing at what the driver had done. At the end of the video you hear me say the license plate, Oregon XWN 556.

I also posted a link to this video over at bikeportland.org . Here'sa link back to that discussion: http://bikeportland.org/forum/showpost.php?p=27120&postcount=30

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• left hook
• barbur
• lowell
• bicycle
• bike
• Portland
• Oregon
• USA
• XWN 556
• helmet cam