I can now count among my life’s experiences: “being hit with a car.”
I was riding my bike on the way to work. As I was passing the (blind) exit of a parking lot, a car came out and hit me in my side.
The driver wasn’t moving very quickly; I think that she was just trying to nose into the road to try to see past the cars parked along its edge before pulling out into traffic. Nevertheless, I rode on her hood while my bike was dragged by the handlebars under the car’s nose for several feet before she managed to stop it.
I was lucky; the bike was in nearly perfect condition afterwards. A nearly identical thing happened to one of my friends several years ago, and the impact ended up bending his bike’s wheels. It wasn’t enough to render his bike completely inoperable, but it was significantly wobbly until he bought new rims. As it happened, all I had to do was realign the handlebars with respect to the front wheel, and I was ready to ride off. This realignment is trivial; it takes about 10 seconds.
I was also lucky in that I have a small patch of mild abrasion near my knee which I am honestly unsure as to the cause of, but other than that I am entirely ok. It doesn’t even hurt at this point.
The driver was a lot more concerned about the situation than I was. Once I determined that my bike was still ridable, I practically had to shoo her away. As it happens, I’ve had far worse crashes just improperly landing a jump.
I still made it to work on time.
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