Slow, Reckless, and Still Stuck at the Light

Chico, United States

12 May, 2026 - 4 weeks ago - on Esplanade
**White Avenue and Esplanade, Chico. Tuesday morning. About 8:30 a.m.**

Quartz White 2021 Hyundai Sonata. California plate **8RHP443**.

Driver description: **WFA, middle-aged, short blond hair.**

This driver nearly hit me because apparently the most important thing in Chico traffic is risking someone’s safety so you can hurry up and wait through the same red light.

A **photographed red-light-camera intersection**, no less.

The maneuver was dangerous, pointless, and captured on video.

The driver failed to give safe clearance to a cyclist, forced an evasive maneuver, and appeared to treat the three-foot passing rule as more of a decorative suggestion than a traffic law. Add in the unsafe lane movement, and we have a perfect little Chico driving masterclass.

Slow and reckless. Somehow both. Year-round, too. This is not student-driver chaos. This is the local specialty.

And here is the real punchline:

**No gain was even possible.**

Her original lane was going to empty before her light ever tripped green. That means there was no better position to win, no time to save, no traffic advantage to grab, and no reason to crowd a cyclist.

She made a dangerous maneuver **only to wait at a photographed red light for a full cycle**.

Same red light. Same lane. Same wait. Same camera. Just with more liability.

That is not aggressive driving with a purpose. That is just slow and reckless bad driving.

In my opinion, it also appeared that when I yelled, the driver did not correct away from me. She appeared to double down and continue toward my lane position, more than would be expected from that lane and more than was necessary for the traffic movement.

That is the part that takes this from careless to truly dangerous.

And drivers need to understand something: a lot of us have cameras now. Dashcams. Helmet cams. Bike cams. Front and rear. Constantly recording.

So when you crowd a cyclist, blow a lane change, or decide that getting to a red light faster is worth risking someone else’s body, there may be a permanent record of exactly what happened.

That gets expensive fast.

A cyclist hit by a car is almost automatically an injury crash conversation. Before anyone even gets to the “why did you do that?” part, you may already be looking at the consequences of an injury collision, unsafe passing, unsafe lane movement, violation of the three-foot rule, DMV points, insurance consequences, and a very expensive explanation for why “I wanted to wait at the red light more aggressively” seemed like a plan.

The incident was recorded, and the video is being made available permanently. Not for today. Not for a week. Forever.

That matters.

Because the next time this driver does this to a cyclist, pedestrian, scooter rider, runner, or anyone else, and she tries to act like it was a one-off misunderstanding, the record will say otherwise.

Check the CarFax of bad decisions.

Drive safe. Give cyclists room. Stop turning red lights into crime scenes in waiting.

And if you are going to be an idiot, try not to do it in front of a camera.

Especially at an intersection that already has one.

California License Plate 8RHP443.