Facing traffic while cycling is both illegal and dangerous. For one thing, at intersections, drivers do not expect traffic coming from the right. Even if he had been facing them, there is little or nothing he could have done to evade the attack.
“nothing he could have done” was what happened. Facing the oncoming car gives opportunity to swerve or dive out of the way. Too bad we can’t now ask the man how he feels about the issue.
I used to do plenty of bike riding. Riding with my back to oncoming traffic is a suicidal activity.
Dedicated bike lanes are a different matter, as a motorist must drift into or turn across extra territory to run down a biker. Riding without a bike lane a foot or two from the edge of the travelway, a motorist can be maintaining his lane and still run me over.
“For one thing, at intersections, drivers do not expect traffic coming from the right.”
So very true and now the problem is worse with eBikes. I was making a right turn on a divided highway where the direction of traffic was in one direction only. I looked right to check for pedestrians and then looked left for traffic. There was no traffic so I started to make a right turn and two effing idiots on ebikes, going around 30 to 35 mph pass right in front of my car as I was turning on to the highway. A very close call and this illustrates the profound reckless stupidity of some, especially ebike riders.