So today I was going to write about the bus strike due to the announcement from Andrew Constance, New South Wales’ transport minister, that a whole bunch of bus routes were going to be privatised due to the amount of complaints received, or something.

It’s a really feeble excuse.

I was going to write about that. However, something happened this morning that decided it was going to be more important to write about.

I was cycling to university this morning because I wanted to cycle.

Whilst cycling, I decided to take a route that I haven’t for a while, which involved heading part of the way through the city and then up Oxford Street as this would eventually lead to a road that would get me almost the whole way to university.

Whilst I was cycling up the lane that I was meant to be in, someone opened their car door. I was about two (possibly three) metres away when this happened.

I swerved out of the way as much as I could, but unfortunately my left bike handle and the top of my left foot collided with the door and I went down about a metre or two in front of the car.

I was really lucky in that it didn’t seem that I was injured badly. I was shaking, probably due to adrenaline, but otherwise I was able to get up.

The person got out of their car, I asked them what they were doing, they said that I was too close. I told them that what they did was illegal, they told me that they couldn’t see me.

I took their details down and they took mine.

There was a bit of back and forth and I was trying to be calm about the whole situation. I think I came across as being frustrated, but I remained as calm and professional about the whole thing as I could.

Neither of us resorted to name calling, which was good.

Essentially, he tried to argue out of being responsible and I wouldn’t let him because it is against the law to obstruct traffic by opening a car door.

I told him that I hoped he had a good day and then I cycled off the rest of the way to university. Once there, I spoke to one of my course coordinators about what had happened (I was in to continue working on the group assignment that I’m currently working on and the course coordinator for the subject that involves this assignment was available to ask questions, so I thought I’d let him know in case I needed to get an extension), limped off to the hospital next to university and found out that I was actually relatively okay, for the time being at least.

I’ve been told that I only have a bit of bruising and to come in either to hospital or to a G.P. if it gets any worse.

I’m not sure as to why I’m writing this. Maybe it’s because it is something that happened.

I’m not willing to call the guy an idiot because everyone makes mistakes and I can only hope that he doesn’t have to spend much on getting his door repaired, which, from what I could see, wasn’t that badly damaged. It was the corner of the door and it ended up being bent outward from the impact.

I came out of the situation really lucky, all things considered. If I had been on the edge of the lane and the door had opened, I probably wouldn’t have come out okay.

With that being said, I can only imagine that there are plenty of people who are nowhere near as lucky as me in these situations.

If you’re a cyclist, remember to be careful.