I saw the show Scarfy96 is writing about, and similarly to 909’s bear, they also had dancers who had to keep stepping into a designated moving light. Of course you concentrate on the steps of the dancers and don’t see a full life size penguin stroll across the stage behind the dancers.
There is certainly a large risk in not seeing the penguin.
It remains a question (to me), regarding accepting this as proof of not seeing a bike, although it sure has to be a part of human reaction to movement.
And there is also a lot to be said for 909’s analogy to rock climbing. I don’t know why he does this with a bike but so be it.
I reckon both aspects of sight come into play; that is, close attention and careful visual analysis (seeing), and that you also see what is important to YOU, at a given instance and as each new vista opens up to you.
Whilst rock climbing, no doubt a bloke’s senses of self preservation are a lot higher than the bloke just driving his car seeing a bike , not registering it as dangerous; bugger the bike, rider he will stop rather than get hit. Bang, SMIDSY.
If there is a group getting hit, the bear will still go down with the rest of the group.
So to me, and judging by the amount of tooting I get no matter which lane I am in, the average driver rather feels you will give way to them due to..... you disliking hospitals......he can always say SMIDSY........you shouldn’t be on the road......
So, as far as it is up to me, the only defence is to take up enough road to make them go round, make them stay behind me for the duration, don’t get upset with the tooting , count the number of toots in a given day and relax.
It's not easy but if you keep an eye on the car behind you, it will soon be apparent that they are going to shave you in anger. That anger can be successfully turned into an OMGod on their part if you give a nice long blast on the AirZound as they come level with the drivers window; especially if you are in a right turn lane.
Also maybe a t shirt with, “Let’s talk about it at the lights “would lead to a more conciliatory tone from the courageous tooters. This can always backfire though......It's always good to be prepared to quickly react to fellas that want to talk about it, if that is your inclination.
I usually just forget about it. Sorry if I have gone off topic.