I point and gesture a lot, means that one's outline is broken by movement and catches peeps eyes. that's the theory at least, either it works or i'm just lucky so far......

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Postby feral grasshopper » Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:30 am
Postby Shred931 » Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:52 am
rdp_au wrote:DavidS wrote:Well I had a good one tonight.
My favourite intersection, the roundabout at the corner of New St, Bent Ave and Murphy St in Brighton next to Elsternwick Park. On the way home I was going North along New St. Car comes up on my left wanting to turn left into New St. I'm half way through the roundabout and the car just goes in front of me. Just ridiculous, I even had to swerve to miss the car. For once I decided to chase. I managed to catch the car and the driver just kept saying they didn't see me. On Saturday I bought a new light, 500 lumens and I ride with the light on full. How could they possibly not see me? I shined the light at them and they kept claiming they didn't see me, mind you the driver seemed quite unaffected by the light whereas most people can barely look at it for more than a split second so I really do wonder about the driver's eyesight. Either they have inadequate eyesight to drive or they just did not look. Ironically I rode on and the light indicated that the battery was running a bit low, so I set it 2 steps lower than the maximum setting. Then, at 2 settings lower than the maximum, I was riding on the footpath for the last couple of hundred metres to home. As I passed a pedestrian he averted his eyes and complained about the light.
Unbelievable, no matter how much light you put on the front of your bike morons will be morons.
DS
While it’s quite possible that the driver you encountered was indeed a moron, or had defective eyesight, what we are really talking about is the ability to perceive and correctly process visual information. Some people are better than others at this, but all of us have limitations. We see what we expect to see. Your driver was expecting to see a car, so it wouldn’t have mattered how much light you were blasting at him, you wouldn’t have registered. There’s no perfect solution to this, but in my experience, the best strategy is to make eye contact with the driver. I mean really make eye contact, not just see them looking in your direction. Once that’s happened, you at least know they’ve registered you as being there. What they do then will define them as a moron or not. If you don’t have proper eye contact, assume they haven’t seen you and act accordingly.
Postby rdp_au » Tue Jul 02, 2013 1:59 pm
Postby bychosis » Tue Jul 02, 2013 3:39 pm
Postby Coolabah » Tue Jul 02, 2013 4:44 pm
bychosis wrote:Not only do you have to work out if you have been seen, there is also the factor where the driver may not perceive our speed properly, nor understand how quickly we can change speed or direction.
Postby Summernight » Tue Jul 02, 2013 4:52 pm
Coolabah wrote:That article about saccades is probably the most significant article I have read as regards my commuting on my bike. I now use those techniques to check that I don't miss seeing a car/truck... has saved my bacon at least once when I missed a TRUCK on my first scan but picked it up on my second , slower scan (whew !). I also recently witnessed a saccade situation when riding with a (less bike experienced ) mate .... we were crossing over some grass from a bike path onto a road, planning to cross over the road and continue from there... so , initially needed to check "right" , we were somewhat near a corner . I saw my mate quickly check to his right AND I COULD SEE A CAR WAS ALREADY VISIBLE WHEN HE CHECKED... but he started to proceeed across the road until I yelled "STOP MIKE YOU STUPID *&^(AT)$# " ( we are always polite to each other in our conversations which is why we are such great mates. Wouldn't want to cross his wife though !!!). He said to me "thanks, that car wasn't there when I looked , he must have been really moving" .... but , that is just not true .... the car was in "his saccade" . He looked , did not see, and that might have been all it took. To those that have not read that article by the RAF pilot, please do !!!
John Sullivan - RAF pilot wrote:So is wearing a helmet -every fighter pilot wears a helmet, even though it won’t make much difference if they hit the ground at 700 miles an hour! It’s about reducing the chances of less dramatic incidents causing fatal cranial injuries, unnecessarily. Go figure.
Postby Lukeyboy » Tue Jul 02, 2013 5:06 pm
John Sullivan - RAF pilot wrote:So is wearing a helmet -every fighter pilot wears a helmet, even though it won’t make much difference if they hit the ground at 700 miles an hour! It’s about reducing the chances of less dramatic incidents causing fatal cranial injuries, unnecessarily. Go figure.
Postby Coolabah » Tue Jul 02, 2013 5:47 pm
Lukeyboy wrote:
Someone is forgetting about radio coms (receiver and mics), sun visors/night vision attachments, some heads up displays and oxygen masks that all have to stay fixed under some very serious g forces while being able to quickly detach during ejections. One's helmet can also come in handy when it comes to landing from an ejection
Postby InTheWoods » Tue Jul 02, 2013 7:25 pm
Postby Coolabah » Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:12 pm
InTheWoods wrote:Had a trifecta today, unfortunately no video
1. Horn abuse and close shave. Didn't hold up driver as I came up behind them at the next red light, where they received some AZ (not enough time to talk to them).
2. Right hook requiring me to brake and swerve, from a lady who then strangely didn't want to talk to me when I came up to her window in the parking station, she looked scared and rolled her window up.
3. Horn abuse on way home, was just (5cm) inside the left lane marking to stay out of door zone but motorist decided I should have been in the BAZ/door zone...
Postby Percrime » Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:36 pm
Lukeyboy wrote:John Sullivan - RAF pilot wrote:So is wearing a helmet -every fighter pilot wears a helmet, even though it won’t make much difference if they hit the ground at 700 miles an hour! It’s about reducing the chances of less dramatic incidents causing fatal cranial injuries, unnecessarily. Go figure.
Someone is forgetting about radio coms (receiver and mics), sun visors/night vision attachments, some heads up displays and oxygen masks that all have to stay fixed under some very serious g forces while being able to quickly detach during ejections. One's helmet can also come in handy when it comes to landing from an ejection
Postby jasonc » Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:42 pm
Coolabah wrote:Can anyone think of some comeback for the next time ? I could not think of one at the time.....
Postby Percrime » Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:56 pm
Postby jules21 » Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:53 pm
Coolabah wrote:Can anyone think of some comeback for the next time ? I could not think of one at the time.....
Postby DavidS » Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:58 pm
rdp_au wrote:DavidS wrote:Well I had a good one tonight.
My favourite intersection, the roundabout at the corner of New St, Bent Ave and Murphy St in Brighton next to Elsternwick Park. On the way home I was going North along New St. Car comes up on my left wanting to turn left into New St. I'm half way through the roundabout and the car just goes in front of me. Just ridiculous, I even had to swerve to miss the car. For once I decided to chase. I managed to catch the car and the driver just kept saying they didn't see me. On Saturday I bought a new light, 500 lumens and I ride with the light on full. How could they possibly not see me? I shined the light at them and they kept claiming they didn't see me, mind you the driver seemed quite unaffected by the light whereas most people can barely look at it for more than a split second so I really do wonder about the driver's eyesight. Either they have inadequate eyesight to drive or they just did not look. Ironically I rode on and the light indicated that the battery was running a bit low, so I set it 2 steps lower than the maximum setting. Then, at 2 settings lower than the maximum, I was riding on the footpath for the last couple of hundred metres to home. As I passed a pedestrian he averted his eyes and complained about the light.
Unbelievable, no matter how much light you put on the front of your bike morons will be morons.
DS
While it’s quite possible that the driver you encountered was indeed a moron, or had defective eyesight, what we are really talking about is the ability to perceive and correctly process visual information. Some people are better than others at this, but all of us have limitations. We see what we expect to see. Your driver was expecting to see a car, so it wouldn’t have mattered how much light you were blasting at him, you wouldn’t have registered. There’s no perfect solution to this, but in my experience, the best strategy is to make eye contact with the driver. I mean really make eye contact, not just see them looking in your direction. Once that’s happened, you at least know they’ve registered you as being there. What they do then will define them as a moron or not. If you don’t have proper eye contact, assume they haven’t seen you and act accordingly.
Postby rdp_au » Wed Jul 03, 2013 10:35 am
Postby arkle » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:04 am
rdp_au wrote:Interesting point. Unfortunately, even if the driver did actually register your presence, that doesn’t preclude the display of aggressive, thoughtless, or just plain moronic behaviour. I think that very bright lights do make it difficult to judge the speed and distance of an approaching vehicle, especially if it's a single light – I know that’s my experience when confronted with a lumin nazi on a shared path. So it is possible that your driver did see the bright light, but had no idea what it was or where it was. Still no excuse for blithely pulling out as he did though.
I had my own version of your experience this morning. I was already in a roundabout turning right and could see a small car with P plates approaching rapidly from my left. The driver, a young woman, gave a cursory glance and drove straight into the roundabout without slowing at all. I was expecting something like this would happen and had slowed so she passed in front of me. I wasn’t in danger, but it was close enough for me to shake my head. I’m sure if I’d asked her if she had seen anyone in the roundabout, she would have said no.
Isn't it gratifying when drivers behave well, it shows that cars and bikes can mix together with minimal impact on each other with just a little cooperation.
Postby BastardSheep » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:44 am
arkle wrote:Double lights are also tricky, something I soon learned when I started riding motorbikes with twin headlights. At night you appear to be a distant car.
Postby Marto » Wed Jul 03, 2013 12:43 pm
DavidS wrote:...
On a brighter note I was riding in the same spot this evening, riding just before the roundabout, going past Elsternwick Park, there is a car park masquerading as a bike lane (you know, on street parking with a bit of extra room between the cars and the line painted on the road, a picture of a bike and just enough room to get doored). Anyway, a couple of cars do U turns in front of me, they had enough room, no problem there. Then they park and promptly open their doors and I must go out into the general traffic lane. Car quite close behind so I do a quick hand signal and move into the lane. Car behind me slows down, stays behind while I pass 3 parked cars with people getting out, even though he could have moved out and passed. So, I go around the parked cars, return to the fake bike lane as there are no more parked cars and the car passes me nice and safely. He lost no time as I caught him a bit later. He showed just how easy it is to drive with consideration for others.
DS
Postby DavidS » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:42 pm
BastardSheep wrote:arkle wrote:Double lights are also tricky, something I soon learned when I started riding motorbikes with twin headlights. At night you appear to be a distant car.
Personally it's flashing lights I have trouble judging distances and speed with in the dark. Solid lights I can tell how far off the cyclist is and their speed, but flashing I find impossible. Many a time I've found myself waiting WAY longer than necessary due to this. It's why I always keep one forward light solid on my bike, especially when it's pitch black. I only use flasher-only at dusk and other still-light times of day.
Postby trailgumby » Wed Jul 03, 2013 11:47 pm
Postby Coolabah » Thu Jul 04, 2013 8:48 pm
jules21 wrote:Coolabah wrote:Can anyone think of some comeback for the next time ? I could not think of one at the time.....
it's fun to think of comebacks but better to just rise above it and act reasonably, letting them flap their wings about and make a fool of themselves. then just ride away shaking your head at their display.
Postby jules21 » Thu Jul 04, 2013 9:44 pm
Coolabah wrote:Thanks Jules , I think you might have been the wise short guy with pointy ears on Star Wars... seriously though , sage advice, try to follow I will
Postby RideLikeTheWind » Fri Jul 05, 2013 2:03 pm
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