Excellent article on why others don't see us and what we can do.

[Bud]

Sorry Mate, I Didn't See You

 

Lots to wade thru be good advice at the end.

[MotorinLA]

I agree the article contains quite a bit of information to filter thru, however, it does provide some interesting information.

 

In California “failure to yield” violations are also a prevalent cause of serious injury and fatality traffic collisions. Of course, in the US we drive on the RIGHT side of the road (and I don’t just mean the opposite of left… silly Brits (no offense) ) and as such left turns in front of on-coming traffic/motorcyclists are the most dangerous.

 

The author of the article does make a statement that driving a car is more dangerous than riding a motorcycle, as a higher number of total fatalities occur in car collisions than motorcycle collisions. This is inconsistent with the data provided in the study, which states that 0.9% of injury car collisions are fatalities versus 2.8% for motorcycles. Statistically this means that you are more than three times as likely to get killed in an injury collision on a motorcycle, than you are in a car.

 

The idea that wearing bright colors may be detrimental rather than helpful was also interesting. This is definitely something to consider before donning that orange reflective vest. The article did not address the use of a modulated headlight (this may not be legal in the UK), a tool that would seem beneficial in drawing the attention of on-coming drivers. On the other hand, many drivers seem to have a hard time noticing me, even when I have my flashing red and blue lights on accompanied by my siren, so maybe it wouldn’t make much of a difference… I'm not sure that zig-zagging down the road is necessarily a better approach to being noticed either. This would seem to make it difficult for other drivers to predict where you're going and what you're doing. The other driver may see you, but if they believe you're preparing to make a turn or something similar, they may be more apt to turn out in front of you. Furthermore, I don't think that being in the process of swerving back and forth would be beneficial if you needed to execute an emergency maneuver.

 

In reading the article, I believe one of the most important observations of this study was the importance of practicing collision avoidance skills.

 

In a fundamental surprise situation only those actions that are instinctive or which can be performed

without command will be used (in an emergency, you will only do what you know), any strategies that

need any conscious thought processes will be immediately abandoned. Because of this, just knowing

about a strategy will not be sufficient for that strategy to be used in an emergency. Strategies that have

been learned but not practised until they become skills, reside in the Rule based and Knowledge based

or the higher levels of the mental processing stack which is usually not available in immediate

emergency situations.

 

In my opinion, mentally preparing for an emergency situation and physically practicing for an emergency situation are by far the most important things you can do to reduce your risk of injury or death while riding a motorcycle. When it comes down to it, you can only control your own actions and there is only a limited amount of things you can do to influence the actions of the other drivers around you.

 

On that happy note, be careful out there and enjoy your riding experience!

[xoomerite]

Oddly enough, I had started a weaving motion in traffic many years ago approaching traffic that seemed not to be aware of me. It appears from the report that there may be some merit in this.

 

It is ironic that wearing bright colors may contribute to our undoing.

 

The report was quite informative and stimulating.

 

Chris

[roadscholar]

 

In a fundamental surprise situation only those actions that are instinctive or which can be performed

without command will be used (in an emergency, you will only do what you know), any strategies that

need any conscious thought processes will be immediately abandoned. Because of this, just knowing

about a strategy will not be sufficient for that strategy to be used in an emergency. Strategies that have

been learned but not practised until they become skills, reside in the Rule based and Knowledge based

or the higher levels of the mental processing stack which is usually not available in immediate

emergency situations.

 

This is why the engineers at BMW decided that Servo-assist brakes would be a safety asset.

[Ken H.]

Interesting reading.

 

The old adage - "Do everything possible, to make yourself as visible as possible, then ride knowing that none of it works."

[Lawman]

After 31 years of police work and assisting at thousands of accident scenes I've come the conclusion that most accidents in which a driver simply did not see another vehicle was the result of the offending driver simply looking past the other vehicle before either pulling out or turning in front of it..I think most of these accidents would have been avoided if the offending driver would have been in less of a hurry and taken the time to view what is right there in front of them instead of looking 1/4 to 1/2 mile down the road. I'm of the opinion that anything one can do to bring attention to himself increases his odds of not being overlooked. I have seen many accidents in which an oncoming driver turned left in front of a motorcycle but very few in which the driver turned left into the path of an 18 wheeler..People just don't see us. As for me, I'll continue to strive for conspicuity.

[keithb]

Lawman

I agree with you about being conspicuous. I put a set of yellow lights under the oil cooler, white lights under the mirrors, and a set of Hyper Lites on my 05 RT. Usually I do not run both sets of lights at the same time but switch based on the driving conditions. It does make me feel that I am being seen a little bit better. I know people see the Hyper Lites as they approach from the rear.

[USAF1]

The best article I've ever seen is here on Jeff Deans web site ..

 

Pat

[GelStra]

VERY informative. Thank you. One thing I have known is that our bodies detect by change. You notice the change in feel of the clothes you just put on, but you mind shuts that reception down in a short period of time to allow new input without overload. The easiest way to kill a fly is to slowly bring your hand straight down over it as it cannot detect the change in height of your hand. And so it is with us. The issue of "pop out", of separating ourselves from the background is huge. Bearing in mind that the optic nerve is almost dead center in our eye and, thus, our blind spot, means you have to move away from it to be seen. I have tried the slow weaving approach on an intersection or briefly flashing my high beams to great success. Perhaps the further validity of headlamp modulators. Change is good.

[k75duck]

I usually just lurk here but I have to chime in on this one. I think there's a very simple explanation: Drivers of cars are not conditioned to look for motorcycles. When someone driving a car looks, they look to see a car which is what they expect to see. If they're looking for a car and don't see one when they take a quick glance, then they proceeed. Have you ever noticed that people don't see you(a motorcycle) until they (hopefully) take a second look?

 

That's my .02.