Driver Awareness

[The Stranger]

Sunhuntin's thread has me worried.

It seems every day lately I am hearing stories like this, or worse.

I have a friend in hospital in real bad shape.

About a week ago I had 2 close calls on the way to work in the one trip. A few days ago I had the closest one I have had yet, when overtaking a cage in the left lane.

I am slowly getting the feeling that it is just when and how bad will it be - not if it is going to happen to me.

It is not that they don't see us.
One of the above was looking right at me as she pulled out, maybe I looked like her husband or something. Another one just did not look at all.

So the question is this. How do we connect (no pun) with cage drivers?
How do we raise their awareness of bikes?

I think it was Sarge whom suggested meeting up at Pack n Save and riding in to the city as a group one time, maybe that on a semi regular basis would put us in thier conscious minds.
Maybe we stand at intersections at busy times and give out flyers with graphic photos of the result of their stupidity.

I dunno, just bloody sick of the pricks, so any one got any good ideas?

[Lou Girardin]

I find full beam and considered aggression works quite well. But I won't recommend it for others.
I don't want anyone's damage on my conscience.

[James Deuce]

They don't actually see you, you know. Not in the way that you think they should.

There are two main factors at work.

1. Human's are only truly scared of things bigger than them or the thing they are in or riding. We're programmed to ignore stuff smaller than us as it doesn't pose an immediate significant threat to our health.

2. Human's determine relative motion by tracking an object relative to it's position on the background. Because of its size relative to the scenery a motorcycle doesn't look like it is moving until it is quite near, and then it appears to be moving MUCH faster than the surrounding traffic. When a motorcycle is in traffic this size vs relative motion effect is drastically magnified.

These things can't be overcome without training (which isn't going to happen: competent drivers/riders are too confident and have more accidents - according to the chief Traffic Superintendant.) or direct experience of having vehicles pull out on you. I get pulled out on in my FIAT because it is narrow and tall.

YOu just need to ride with the thought in the back of your mind that every intersection is a potential trap, and either practice avoidance techniques, or actively visualise the proccesses needed to avoid cars and trucks exiting an intersection.

Tedious I know, but sometimes we have to own the solution

[Postie]

I dunno, just bloody sick of the pricks, so any one got any good ideas?

armoured bikes like mad max......... :2guns:

[sunhuntin]

i dont know what else can be done other than us riding as though every cager is out to hit us and is in fact aiming at us deliberatly. other than the scare tactics [maybe attacking wing mirrors and such?] and constant reminding that motorbikes do exist, theres not much else can be done.

honestly, id be happy to loan my bike for staged accident scenes at busy corners at peak periods of cagers on the road...ie, 9am and 3, 4 and 5pms. of course, that likely wont happen.

other than that, all we can do is keep riding defensively and as safely as possible while doing all we can to maximise our own safety.

[Blackbird]

[QUOTE=CaN]It is not that they don't see us.
One of the above was looking right at me as she pulled out, maybe I looked like her husband or something. Another one just did not look at all. So the question is this. How do we connect (no pun) with cage drivers?
How do we raise their awareness of bikes?QUOTE]

Hi CaN - seriously mate, the first thing to do is stick a pair of 100W Arctic White Xenon bulbs into your 'bird. I used to have 100 W halogens in but the difference with car drivers seeing me with the new ones is amazing. It's especially noticeable how car drivers pull to the left when you come up behind them.

As for the rest, a tactical nuclear missile might be in order.

Geoff

[Ixion]

i dont know what else can be done other than us riding as though every cager is out to hit us and is in fact aiming at us deliberatly..

They are .

[BLACKYOSHI1000]

I FIND HIGH BEAM SEEM`S TO HELP
BUT NOT SO LONG AGO THERE WAS A CRAZE OF DAY LIGHT`S ON BIKES WERE YOUR INDICATOR`S ALSO LIT UP THEN SEEMED TO ALSO WORK WELL BUT I THINK THE IDEA FIZZELED OUT
BEST DEFENSE DRIVE KNOWIN THEY DONT SEE YOU :niceone:

[Korea]

Air horns, anyone? Quite a few riders over here use them to get drivers attention.
Car drivers have been making thoughtless mistakes at the expense of riders for years and that is probably never going to change.
It's up to us to do the thinking for them - expect every car to be a potential accident-waiting-to-happen. At least in town anyway...

If you do get cut-off, merged into, or pulled out on - having a rant and kicking-in their door is just going to get them all pissed at you and they'll justify their actions to themselves... and it breeds more animosity directed at us riders.
Anyone rememeber that survey where the majority of the population considered themselves to be an 'above-average' driver? Everyone thinks they're Christmas and are loath to admit a screw-up.

I generally get a better response when I pass a car that has done a naughty on me and make motions like I'm really shocked/scared (hand on chest breathing dramatically). I usually get an apologetic wave back from the car driver.
*irony on*<I>If not, kick the bugger's window in! </I>*irony off*

[SixPackBack]

mace the mother fuckers

[sunhuntin]

just found this on TM...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/messageboard/show_messages.asp?id=6412742&threadid=6412742

[Smorg]

BUT NOT SO LONG AGO THERE WAS A CRAZE OF DAY LIGHT`S ON BIKES WERE YOUR INDICATOR`S ALSO LIT UP THEN SEEMED TO ALSO WORK WELL BUT I THINK THE IDEA FIZZELED OUT


my bikes got those puppies i think they work pretty well, but i always ride like everyones gonna pull out in front of me anyway

[SlowHand]

dam double posting..

[SlowHand]

Its not just bikes they seem to miss though. My first/last crash was 30mins before sunset, car lights on, straight road -outside Matua winery. I see the car sitting at the driveway, she lurches forward and stops. I slow down a tad and go around her, well I thought I was, she launches into me and writes my new car off. Oh and she didnt see me and I was speeding - 80kmh in 100kmh zone speeding?

Yesterday I had one driver pull out of a road, drive for 200m stop at an intersection and pull out a map - she freaks out and takes off
Another one pulls out onto the road slowly and freaks when I beep. - this one was lucky I'd been riding a bike even for a little while.
I was driving in a white Ford Falcon station wagon - its a fucken landcrab for crying out loud!!!

I was thinking of carrying bats and smashing windows in everytime its a near miss- I mean anything that you gota pull the seat out of your ass from a 5cent 50cent moment. Maybe bats too hardcore, but if its real bad, Im kicking them.


:argh: GIVE ME A TANK!!!!

[crashe]

Not seeing a biker - This evening heading out to Mission Bay, there were a bunch of cyclists in all their lycra gear.
One turned around and pulled over to the outside lane. No problems.
Then another one turned around and saw me. As I got closer to him, he pulled out right in front of me.. I had to hit the brakes real fast... and yes he got abused by me. They all pulled up to the lights near me and Pyrocam and the cyclist never bothered to look at us to acknowledge what he had done, the pratt.

Air horns - Yep I have one attached to my handle bars...
Continueing along towards Mission Bay after the cyclist incident...
Coming over the bridge.. there was a dude in his vehicle and he got slower and slower..... he was chatting on his cell phone and trying to figure out what the other cars in the right hand lane were doing (turning right into the side street) he got so slow (like about 25kms per hr) that I tooted my bike horn.... didnt make much difference.. so I pulled up beside him and hit the airhorn right into his lughole (ear) He got the message and moved over to the left to let pyrocam and other cars get through.

[Motu]

1. Human's are only truly scared of things bigger than them or the thing they are in or riding. We're programmed to ignore stuff smaller than us as it doesn't pose an immediate significant threat to our health.


Motorcyclists are rather inefectual creatures these days,nice pretty clothes,quiet bikes in oh so gay colours...who would get offended by such nice chaps?

In the 60s,70s we weren't such nice people,our bikes were noisy and aggressive,our attire threatening - ''bikies'' were often in the news for outragious behaviour...they even brought in laws to control us....such as ''unlawful assembly'' where they wouldn't let us ride in groups.A noisy black British bike with a black leather clad rider would have cars stopping in the middle of a roundabout to give way...shit,you wouldn't want to offend a ''bikie''.

I kinda feel we have lost something important.....respect,no matter how it's earned.Gotta give those gang types some good rep - they saved my bacon many times.

[Ixion]

What Mr Motu said. Where's me big chain.

[sunhuntin]

how do we go about recapturing that respect, motu? i have read about those days in books and online, and can only mourn what has happened to bikers over the years. weve gone from the most feared "members" of society to a bunch of bankers and lawyers etc. sure, people still hate us and what we protray to them, but they dont fear us half as much.

maybe we all need to decend on some helpless town and have drunken drag races....our own little hollister perhaps? that seems to be what set it off to begin with.

[The Stranger]

weve gone from the most feared "members" of society to a bunch of bankers and lawyers etc.

Hey don't lump me in with that scum.

[James Deuce]

Hey don't lump me in with that scum.

Thanks for that CaN. What an unpleasant thing to say Sunhuntin'.

In fact I don't even John or WINJA have ever been that nasty.

[sunhuntin]

sorry boys. :sweatdrop

but it seems that the majority of people on two wheels these days are bankers or suits of some kind. not saying all...im sure as hell no suit either.

[Ixion]

Only on Harleys I think. The posers like the Hogglies, they think that riding a HD makes 'em big bad bikers. (Not saying that HD riders are posers , some ARE big bad bikers, just that posers like the association)

[sunhuntin]

hmmm, yeh ok ixion....think for the most part your right....most of the posers are on harleys....hell, my brother is one of em!! his harley is sitting in the shed, hasnt been ridden in at least 4 months, maybe longer than that even.

[steved]

1. Human's are only truly scared of things bigger than them or the thing they are in or riding. We're programmed to ignore stuff smaller than us as it doesn't pose an immediate significant threat to our health.Spiders and snakes are smaller then me. They scare me. :whistle:

[pyrocam]

once ive avoided a cagers stupid move Ill pull up next to them and scream an obcenity and rev my engine. they look scared and are like 'omg i fucked up'

one cage at a time. one cage at a time.

[The_Dover]

Hey don't lump me in with that scum.

Did you mean the feared members of society or the bankers and lawyers???

I think they're all equally as scummy as one another.........

[avgas]

As much as im gonna get critized for this comment, but i really like my pipe on my bike.
Last year when i had the excuse "I didnt see you"... i figured well if they can see me with the next bike they bloody better hear me.
while i still get the occasional numf that doesnt hear me i still have had less "experiences" then previous

[The Stranger]

Yeah just enquired into a set of Neptunes for the Blackbird. I had wanted to keep it quite so as not to unduly annoy or scare the cagers, but I recon there is a good chance the lane swapper the other day would have heard loud pipes. $1,500.00 then there is the leathers that I want/need and the new lid and the Ohlins rear shock and Power Commander and and and.

Safety first though.

[Blackbird]

sorry boys. :sweatdrop

but it seems that the majority of people on two wheels these days are bankers or suits of some kind. not saying all...im sure as hell no suit either.


Erm.... what's wrong with suits riding bikes then?? Do I have to forgo a decent education to be considered a "real" biker then? :whistle:

[Pixie]

One of the above was looking right at me as she pulled out, maybe I looked like her husband or something. Another one just did not look at all.

So the question is this. How do we connect (no pun) with cage drivers?
How do we raise their awareness of bikes?


Don't even think that this is achievable.We are invisible,you can look them directly in the eyes, and due to mindset and motion camoflage they will not see us.
Mindset is where their visual cortex is searching for cars and trucks but not bikes.In the same way that if you are looking for a red head in a crowd you disregard all the other hair colours.
Motion camoflage is a complex situation,suffice to say that it makes an oncoming obect impossible to see against the background.
Our only defence is to be ever alert.

[vifferman]

Erm.... what's wrong with suits riding bikes then?? Do I have to forgo a decent education to be considered a "real" biker then? :whistle:
Or at least pretend to be a drongo. :weird:
It helps too if you get some grease-flavoured nail polish, swear a lot, and wear a lot of black.

[Pixie]

It's especially noticeable how car drivers pull to the left when you come up behind them.



Geoff
It's because they don't like the burning sensation on the back of their heads

[Ixion]

Erm.... what's wrong with suits riding bikes then?? Do I have to forgo a decent education to be considered a "real" biker then? :whistle:

But you actually RIDE the bike, not pose on it. Nothing wrong with suits RIDING, it's the posing thing that is bad.

[Pixie]

Motion camouflage

Biologists at Queen Mary College have proved that motion camouflage is used by Hoverflies and Dragonflies as part of their predatory flight path. Research is now suggesting that this principle could be behind the SMIDSY (sorry mate I didn't see you) accidents when a car pulls out in front of a bike.

'Motion Camouflage' confuses the visual cortex that uses edge detection to alert us to the presence of movement. If no edge movement is detected, then no alert is triggered. Apparently, a busy urban scene made up of many static blocks of shape and colour hides the motorcyclist who is travelling in a straight course directly in line with the driver's focal line. This is because the 'edging is staying constant. A deviation in the rider's course breaks the pattern and creates an edge to be detected and therefore an alert triggered in the driver's brain.

The pattern is also broken when the rider is close enough to the driver to suddenly appear a lot larger, and this is called the 'Looming Effect'. Because the visual cortex has suddenly detected 'edge' movement it alerts the brain and the surprise momentarily freezes the driver's or hapless insect's brain while it decides what to do. The insect gets eaten and the driver stops in the way of the motorcyclist.