5 A car pulls out on you
You’re approaching a junction, where a car is waiting to pull out. You look at the driver, covering your brakes to be sure. The driver looks at you. Okay, that’s fine. Then they pull out...
Never, ever, rely on anyone on the road to do the thing they should and always anticipate all possible options. In the above scenario, you did almost everything right — up to the point, mere yards from the junction, where you handed responsibility for your continued existence to an unknown individual behind the wheel of a large metal box. You should never make it their job to not pull out on you.
We don’t want to get into which part of a car is the best to hit (it’s perpendicular to the bonnet). For a given speed, you have a shrinking stopping-distance zone as you approach the junction, in which you’ve time to react and brake without hitting the car should its driver pull out.
As you close in on the limit of this zone, it’s no longer enough to be covering the brakes — you need to actually be braking instead, extending your space in that time/distance/braking calculation. Yes, it spoils your ride. But not as much as an A-pillar in the face will.
At the same time, begin to swerve the bike slightly away from the car — the headlight movement could well be enough to make the bike more visible — and also make your upper body bigger (like a puffer fish) by sitting upright and spreading your shoulders. Don’t just make eye contact — stare them out with a Paddington-style glare.
At this point, you should also have identified any escape routes — is traffic coming the other way or is the opposite lane free? Any islands in the road you’ll need to dodge?
Remember; if the car keeps coming, any avoiding action needs to be swift, decisive and probably include braking and then turning hard. Never fixate on the car or you will hit it. Look at where you need to be to avoid it instead. SH