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  • Had one last night. I was approaching a crossroads with a car signalling to turn right (I'm in Germany at the minute). As I was heading straight on, and the lights were changing, I moved out to overtake him. As I drew level, he suddenly swerved to the left and came really really close to taking me out - he ended up pointing towards the top left corner of the crossroads, I ended up a couple of inches from his bonnet. Either he didn't look at all before his reckless maneouvre, or he actually tried to take me out.

    He started gesturing at me that I should have been on the other side of him, I realised I knew more German swear words than I thought.

    The worst thing is that technically, he had a point - for some stupid fucking reason, it is custom here even more than in the UK that cycle lanes, where they exist, go straight on past cars that are turning right. The amount of times that's very nearly gone wrong for me means I'm wary of them when there is a cycle lane, let alone on quiet roads like the one this happened on. If I'm behind a car, at night, which is already moving off and turning right, there's no fucking way I'm going to dart up the inside of it as he was suggesting I should have.

    Also, my flatmates here are keen cyclists and say the straight-on-while-cars-turn-right system usually works because Berlin drivers know what to look out for, which is why hire cars in Berlin all have Munich number plates - so regular cyclists know to treat them, as they do other foreign-plated cars, with caution. This dickhead who tried to knock me off had a Romanian number plate, even more reason why I shouldn't have been going up the inside.

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