3d ago

Almost died in a crash...

Hey all, I hope everyone's alright.

I'm visiting the Netherlands and I almost died while riding a bike.

I'm at a town with a university, and this is my 3rd day in the town; so I don't know all the streets by heart.

I was riding a bicycle, through a cross road, and wanted to make a left turn, from the right side of the road. I crossed the road first, before crossing to the left, when I saw that there wasn't any bike lane ahead, so the bike lane is only on one side of the road; two directions in one big bike lane.

So I turned around to go back to the initial point, and I saw no traffic light in this direction.

I crossed the road while the traffic lights for the cars ahead turned green, and there was a car turning at a moderately high speed straight to my direction. The car had to brake hard and stopped just 20cm before crashing into me, and I could see the panicked-angry face of this dude, cussing at me with two middle fingers violently waved in my direction.

I'm sure it was my fault and I feel awful... I shouldn't have turned around directly, and should've done 3 crossings instead.

Lesson learned and all, but facing the possibility of death is awful. And I'm pretty sure I made one extra Dutch to hate visitors/immigrants (especially on a bike). I hope he can forgive me, and I wish safety to all the students.

12 comments

Every so often something happens that reminds us of our frailty. I'm glad you're still amongst the living, OP! Maybe use public transportation from now on, lol.
- Just last week I almost ran out of air when scuba diving because we got caught in a moderate current... The reminders are not holding back at all 😅
Glad you're okay.
- So do I 😓
We don't mind. The dude probably just got scared. Keep practicing and pay attention to your surroundings. Read the signs and read other road participants. Glad to have you!
- Thanks... I can imagine that it was very scary for him as well; randomly getting on the news for running over a bike rider is surely quite unwelcome 😂 I'll pay more attention on the road and try to stay in this world.
From what I’ve heard having near-death experiences while riding a bike in Netherlands is the norm and the Dutch are used to it. Somehow they manage not to kill themselves all the time, which remains a mystery.
- I think it's the attitude towards not having guard rails next to the canal: "Don't cycle through the wet bit and you'll be fine" 👍
  That aspect seems very straight forward. Like you're trusted to behave as an adult.
  
  I went to the Netherlands earlier this year, and the "freedom" was really refreshing. Not even really in the normal sense of the word, but like you say, just not having everything be idiot-proof padded safety whatever, being trusted to be an adult. The train systems, too, were great how you just walked through unobstructed and tapped your card on the little tower, again just trusted to do the thing. I went on a small-boat canal tour and I arrived a bit early and the guys were just lounging around and asked "You here for the boat tour? Yeah? Cool, we'll leave in 20 minutes, the bathroom's in the basement", didn't even check my ticket, just trusted I was supposed to be there.
  I talked to a couple locals, and they basically all said the same thing, that the only real rules were "Mind your own business and don't be a dick", which I really honestly felt, and it was great.
  I got on the topic of the pulleys on the front of buildings in Amsterdam with someone (I was there during a move-out day, so got to see lots in use), and they were like "Yeah, you could never have anything like that in the USA, people would just sue the shit out of each other for every minor accident", and I was a bit sad because yes that's exactly what would happen...
  I really didn't want to leave.
- I would rather not get used to that 😅.
  The bike lane is amazing, it's just that sometimes they are one way at and at the outer side of both ways of the road, and some times they are dedicated roads with two direction/lanes. It can get confusing for newcomers.
Albert Hoffman had a near-death experience on a bike and things were pretty groovy after that.
- Sounds reassuring, but I wouldn't count on the correlation 😂

12 comments