Watch that driver

[FROSTY]

this has probably been said a hundred times before but I saw a close call yesterday. Typical senario really.
Biker on (I think) a gsx600f was riding in front of me on a two lane road. I saw a car driver in the other lane look up into his mirror and pull straight out in front of the biker. no warning .
The biker had to take wild evasive action to avoid a crash.
It reminded me of something my dad told me when I first started riding.
" Son ride like everybody and everything is a homicidal maniac out to kill YOU"

[Marmoot]

You don't need a bike for that scenario......some stupid git just pulled in front of me for a U-ey.....And I was in a friggin 3litre car.

Not to mention the few number of times COP cars did that without indication either.

Until they barrier all medians with steel beams, always be prepared for that darned scenario.

[Ms Piggy]

It reminded me of something my dad told me when I first started riding.
" Son ride like everybody and everything is a homocidal maniac out to kill YOU"

Your Dad was sooooo right!

[Devil]

Out on sunday, twice... at the same roundabout, turning right, people didnt give way, they just drove through looking at me, one eventually slowed down when she was right next to me (on the phone), the other took off (already after I had to jump on the brakes).

Fuckers.

[Devil]

hmmm. I think I put too many comma's in there ;)

[Marmoot]

Have to start learning the difference between the (1) looking at me eyesight, or (2) intimidating eyesight actually telling me "Look into my eyes and slow down. I'm not going to stop for you"

:)

[toads]

Have to start learning the difference between the (1) looking at me eyesight, or (2) intimidating eyesight actually telling me "Look into my eyes and slow down. I'm not going to stop for you"

:)
It blows me away how many times people have actually looked at me and pulled out in front of me anyway, I gotta agree, they are trying to kill me! Driveways are another case in point, :blah:

[Wenier]

Yea i got that today only i was in the car 100km area and this guy does a U-turn from the side of the road me goin wut the fuck is he doin brakin and endin up at 60km so i dont hit the fucker i mean really is everyone who doesnt ride a bike jus blind or stupid or a combination of both!

[wkid_one]

Have to start learning the difference between the (1) looking at me eyesight, or (2) intimidating eyesight actually telling me "Look into my eyes and slow down. I'm not going to stop for you"

:)
This is one of the pitfalls of tinted visors - the inability to eyeball people. However it does mean you can perve at the chicks at the lights in the car next to you.

[pete376403]

When I see a car at the roadside or an intersection, which I suspect is going to pull out at me (thats all of them) I keep a watch on the wheels - I find I can see the wheels moving sooner than if I am watching the rest of the car. This could well be something to do with 50+ YO eyes but it works for me and I've not been whacked by a car in 36 odd years of riding/driving.

[Posh Tourer :P]

there was an interesting study in the herald recently about looking but not seeing... people can be concentrating on other things, and get the input but not process it. Cant find the link at the moment, but people asked to count the passes in a basketball game missed a person dressed as a gorilla walking through the middle of the screen, stopping and beating its chest. I think it was 2/14 that saw it, the rest thought the gorilla wasnt in the one they watched. Did anyone else see this and can they find a link to it?

[Drunken Monkey]

It blows me away how many times people have actually looked at me and pulled out in front of me anyway,

Don't know how many times I've heard that, but *cue drum roll*:

'Eye contact' does not necessarily mean the cager has seen you at all. Most of the time they're just looking through you.

You'll realise this is especially true when you remember you are wearing a tinted visor - they still appear to look right at your eyes!

[Lou Girardin]

That's when following them for a little discussion when they stop is appropriate.

[rodgerd]

That's when following them for a little discussion when they stop is appropriate.

Maybe, maybe not. Did you see the story in the papers a week ago about the bloke who got run over at a service station? Walking through the forecourt, some bloke almost nudges him, so he slaps the bonnet of the car. Psycho in the car rams him, so he rolls up on the bonnet. Brakes, the pedestrian rolls off the bonnet. Then the car driver rams him repeatedly into a barrier, shattering his pelvis and busting up his abdomen.

There are some nutters out there.

[Ms Piggy]

I just always ride now as if I am invisible to other traffic and (maybe it's slightly too cautious) if I'm coming out of a street that a driver is indicating to go into it I wait until they are at the corner and turning before I go. I found that assuming just doesn't work.

[Marmoot]

Yep,
whether you are right or wrong, when you're lying on the ground it's a few days off riding. And that's not fun.

I'd rather wave my finger and get on with my life. Just hope that w*nker doesn't plonk other people.

[pete376403]

there was an interesting study in the herald recently about looking but not seeing... people can be concentrating on other things, and get the input but not process it. Cant find the link at the moment, but people asked to count the passes in a basketball game missed a person dressed as a gorilla walking through the middle of the screen, stopping and beating its chest. I think it was 2/14 that saw it, the rest thought the gorilla wasnt in the one they watched. Did anyone else see this and can they find a link to it?

This one? http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~cfc/Most2001.pdf about "selective blindness"

[Skyryder]

.............. i mean really is everyone who doesnt ride a bike jus blind or stupid or a combination of both!

Not everyone but most.


Skyryder

[aff-man]

Yip the whole look at me ,stop ...... and then pull out in front of me. This has happened multiple times and mainly on like 60 or 70 km/h roads. For those of you who have heard my bike it isn't exactley quiet so what are they thinking. The real scare came the other day when a car tried to turn into and "share the same lane as me" i mean honestly what was the f%$*er thinking????????? :bash:

[SPman]

Bloody hell, they cant even see vehicles when they are parked, let alone moving!
This evenings effort outside my place - BMW "didnt see" the Suzuki and Skyline, parked at the kerb!


i mean honestly what was the f%$*er thinking????????? He wasn't!

[Coldkiwi]

was the f%$*er thinking????????? :bash:

dude, you know as well as I do: " :sleep: "

THEY WEREN'T!

Its amazing most of these drivers even make it to work each day without piling themselves up.

[Coldkiwi]

Bloody hell, they cant even see vehicles when they are parked, let alone moving!
This evenings effort outside my place - BMW "didnt see" the Suzuki and Skyline, parked at the kerb!

He wasn't!


ooooo dear. didn't see a large black 4x4 and large red skyline.... Can someone check the address of that vehicle on the database (Jrandom??) and post what suburb its in so we know to turn around and ride away if we see it approcahing!?

[scumdog]

Don't know how many times I've heard that, but *cue drum roll*:

'Eye contact' does not necessarily mean the cager has seen you at all. Most of the time they're just looking through you.

You'll realise this is especially true when you remember you are wearing a tinted visor - they still appear to look right at your eyes!

Damn right!! on my 10 speed on the way to the freezing works and saw a guy in his car coming up from a side-street on my left, he looked staight at me but brains says "he ain't seen me" so I pulled out near the centre of the street and sure enough he pulled out!! I pulled alongside him (I can get up to speed on a pushbike) and said "take it easy".
He drove on and pulled over about 200 yards later and got out out the car, I thought "uh-oh' bvut no he was patting his chest, reckoned he nearly had a heart attack from the fright and swore he hadn't seen me, was VERY apologetic.

[vifferman]

Bloody hell, they cant even see vehicles when they are parked, let alone moving!
This evenings effort outside my place - BMW "didnt see" the Suzuki and Skyline, parked at the kerb!

Well - there you go. What kinds of vehicles do I have the most trouble with?
1. An idiot spins out on our street (from a standing start!) and smashes backwards into our new garage door. = BMW
2. A lady changes lanes on me at the bottom of Nelson street, and either clips my front wheel, or I lose it taking violent evasive action = BMW
3. Braindead moron pulls into the kerb as I come up behind him, then cracks a U-turn, wiping me out = Audi
4. This morning, a lady pulls out in front of me as I'm approaching an intersection = Brand new Volvo wagon.

Mind you, it appears the feckin eedjits that haunt our roads aren't selective about what they drive, or how they drive it.
If everyone had to spend at least a year on a scooter or bike before they could graduate to a car, it would (a) teach them something about handling a vehicle, (b) give them an insight into the vulnerability of being on two wheels, and (c) weed out all the f*&$wits (they'd be dead).

[scumdog]

Yep, I'm sure some of them buy "safe" cars but forget they have to also drive them in a safe manner.
Make you wonder how they had enough clues to make the money to buy the car :confused2

[Wenier]

It is true thou. all the cars that are usually the cause of pulling out on me (and probably most people) are expensive european cars. Which tells me people with lots of money = danger to other road users.

[Ms Piggy]

...little sh*ts hiding behind fences throwing stuff at ya!

YES! This happened to me today! :angry: I was stopped at the intersection of Constable & Daniel Streets and 3 boys (about 10 - 12yrs old) were throwing stuff at me! I think it was just wood chips off the playground area. I looked at them and shook my head and then they did it again when I wasn't looking! So I turned around stopped on the other side of the road and walked across to have a little talk to them, much to my surprise (NOT!) they all ran away!

So I shouted " :Oi: Don't throw stuff!" and then got back on the bike & rode off!

[bane]

The first day I bought the FXR - enter first roundabout, woman in hatchback treats me as the invisable man and pulls straight out.... reality check.

Now always wear high vis vest. Cagers do the double take look, and as yet (18 months later) no more invisable man moments.

May be coincidence, but never seem to get bothered by cops when wearing the vest... often waived through license/reg/WOF chkpoints.

[madandy]

Bane, they probably think you are a courier.All the couriers here wear those vests.
I think if your live/work/ride through an area with a high percentage of exxy Euro luxo barges then chence are it will be one of them that pulls out in front of you.Auckland has a high number of flash cars.
Tauranga has a lot of Korean/Japanese budget cars that seem to have windscreens which filter motorcyclists from view. :crazy:

[rodgerd]

Yep, I'm sure some of them buy "safe" cars but forget they have to also drive them in a safe manner.
Make you wonder how they had enough clues to make the money to buy the car :confused2

What's worse is the change in profile. When I used to be on the road regularly at school run time, I saw the worst driving I've seen (including boy racers): often just plain incompetant, and always self-righteous, drivers who don't have a clue what to do behind the wheel and don't give a damn anyway. Killing other road users pales in comparison to the importance of getting Janey to ballet.

Back then, though, they were driving Volvos. Now 4WDs and people movers are the weapon of choice, and a damn sight more dangerous for it.

People who feel the need for a safer car are usually incompetant drivers.

Not that I haven't had run-ins with other classes of drivers. If you live in Wellington, watch out for the twat who drives a Boxster, AAB332. His trick is racing down turn-only lanes to queue jump the straight-ahead traffic, and then ram into the space a motorcyclist occupies. Tried to force me into the parked cars...

[Lou Girardin]

Not that I haven't had run-ins with other classes of drivers. If you live in Wellington, watch out for the twat who drives a Boxster, AAB332. His trick is racing down turn-only lanes to queue jump the straight-ahead traffic, and then ram into the space a motorcyclist occupies. Tried to force me into the parked cars...

There are several cures for his problem. Heard the cost of paint repairs on Porsches?