Flat Fixie..

I agree, I usually ride under the assumption that drivers will do stupid things. But it doesn't matter how aware you are, there's really no way to prevent somebody directly behind you from driving into you, is there?

Something similar happened to me this morning. I was in the middle of a queue of vehicles, waiting at a red light at a junction (there was no room to filter down to the front). In the space around me, also waiting, were 4 or 5 motorcycles. All in all, we were a pretty noticeable bunch.

The light turned green, but because there were a bunch of cars in the junction, nobody in my queue could've crossed it, so nobody moved. Except the idiot Merc driver directly behind me. He decided to start going, even though nobody in front of him -- no cars, no motorcycles, nobody -- had moved! And he drove straight into my rear wheel. I turned around, gave him a "WTF are you doing??" look of disbelief, he reversed off my wheel, and I gave him the finger.

No harm done, fortunately, but it just goes to show you how dumb some people are.

I used to be Captain Anal-ette about not breaking any traffic rules, especially jumping red lights. I am forced to admit now that 2 months of cycling in Central London has squashed the goodie-two-shoes out of me. "Hello, my name is M and I'm a red light jumper."

He was probably sending a text or fiddling with his I-pod.