Most of the northbound motorist morons I meet at this intersection (map) — and trust me on this there is a legion of ’em — are limit-line challenged. They’ll either barely slow down upon arrival at the stop sign, or they’ll California roll on through with their left turns, leaving me two options. Either I can tuck in behind them to get from London south onto Vendome, or if they capital “J” Jerk to an impatient stop shocked by the sudden inexplicable appearance of me and my bike I can pass across their grilles and headlights to then turn left sharply and slowly after I clear them.
Since it’s almost always better to be behind a forward moving car piloted by a doofus rather than in front of it and because I’m a total genius, I usually opt for the tuck maneuver.
Then there are the brainfarts like the driver caught on cam this morning. As you’ll see below he overshoots the limit line. But then to my surprise he redeems himself by coming to an almost-stop upon seeing me approach. I’m so impressed with his moment of conscientiousness and consideration that I abort my tuck move and decide to go around him the proper way. Silly me, because the moment I make that decision the bastard inexplicably crawls out in front of me as if I was just a meaningless victim of his short-term memory issues, which I was.
Wait. Short-term memory what?