Yeah, that was poorly worded on my part. What I meant was that the combination of direction AND speed was what was wrong. I was turning from a stop sign and didn’t expect someone coming at speed against the direction of traffic that they were closest to and that I was looking out for.
If they had been going that speed on the sidewalk going the same direction as the car lane closest to them I would have noticed them. If they had come from the opposite direction at pedestrian speed I would have noticed them. It was the combination of both speed and direction that almost resulted in a collision. I hope that clarifies.
It does.
I find it doesn’t matter though which way you ride: riding on the sidewalk is unsafe.
When (US) turning right from the right lane, drivers don’t expect you to be coming from behind to the right of them at any speed.
When turning left from the left lane, drivers don’t expect you to be coming from behind to the left at any speed.
When backing out across the sidewalk, drivers don’t expect you to be to either side at any speed.
I’m seeing a pattern here, and it’s that drivers only see what they expect to see, where they expect to see it. I’ve fucked it up myself from time to time, and this leads me to the conclusion that the safest option for biking is to be where drivers are looking: in the vehicle lanes, going the same direction as other vehicles. It’s not perfect because they still aren’t expecting a bicycle, but it’s still the best choice we have.