The Bodaboda on Your Left

Scenario. You are in slow traffic approaching a junction where you want to turn left. A bodaboda is coming up behind you on the left side, between your car and the kerb.

The clues. Slow or stopped traffic, which is exactly when riders filter. A bodaboda seen in your mirror a few seconds ago that you can't see now. A gap between your car and the kerb.

What could happen. Two collisions, and both are common:

• You turn left across its line. The rider is travelling straight up the kerb side; your turn cuts straight across that path. From the rider's point of view, you turned in front of them.
• It cuts across your front. The curriculum's scenario: a rider filtering up your left at a junction may cut across your path to turn right. Suddenly, from your near side.

The handbook describes the behaviour directly: motorcyclists and cyclists often push forward past slowing vehicles to reach the front of a queue, and checking the blind spot is extremely important. The Blind Spot showed why: the rider sits exactly where the left door mirror can't see.

What to do.

1. Left mirror, then a look over your left shoulder before you turn, every time, in slow traffic.
2. Signal left in good time, so a rider behind can see your intention. But a signal is not a guarantee; many riders don't read it.
3. If a rider is there, let them pass before you turn.
4. At the junction, expect a rider alongside to move across your front, and don't move off until you know where they are going.

Being in the right does not stop the collision. Whether or not the rider should have been filtering there, the person on the motorcycle is the one who gets hurt.