Bikers who ride on Onewa Rd in the mornings...

**SPman** · 27th May 2005, 10:32

Originally Posted by Lou Girardin

So the truch driver that looked straight at at me and pulled out when I was 30 metres away, "didn't see me" or my headlight and I should not waste any intellectual effort in remonstrating in the strongest possible terms.
.

There is a good article in the March Bike magazine about motion blindness and "looming"
Cant recall all the article, but it is about the effect where an approaching object merges into the background - it doesnt register as moving - appears to stay in a single spot, so the brain does not register it as a threat, because as far as the brain is concerned, it is stationary, at a distance. When the object gets very close, the relative position to the background appears to suddenly change and the object is right upon the viewer - it looms up large and fast. This causes the viewer to momentarily freeze as the brain decides, fight or flight!
It is a technique that Dragonflies (and probably other insects/animals) use, when hunting prey. - appear to be a stationary object in the background at a distance by adjusting its approach angles, until it is suddenly too late and as the prey is momentarily frozen when the dragonfly looms large at the last second, its history. This was discovered by Scientists last year.
Sound like a familiar scenario.......driver looks right at you as you approach..then...pulls out in front of you...approach angles change and suddenly you are looming down on the cage....cage stops right in front of you..freezes, as you "suddenly" apppear out of nowhere. If you were a dragonfly, another successful kill. As a biker, its often the other way around.
So, quite literally, the driver is NOT aware of you. Or, not aware of you as a rapidly approaching threat. Until... he starts to move and you are suddenly thrown into sharper focus as a close and rapidly closing object. And from that point..........

**vifferman** · 27th May 2005, 10:42

Originally Posted by SPman

There is a good article in the March Bike magazine about motion blindness and "looming"

I've found that when someone is tootling along (excessively) slowly, weaving back and forth behind them is very effective for making them pull over so you can pass them. (I don't actually care if they pull over or not - I just like to piss off people that exhibit substandard levels of driving skill...)

Um.... weaving back'n'forth to piss people off doesn't count as "exhibiting substandard levels of driving skills", does it..?

**placidfemme** · 27th May 2005, 10:45

I weave slowly from side to side when I'm beind a cage... just to make sure they've seen me... I don't think I do it dangerously... just to be seen...

The Dragonfly example is really good and makes a LOT of sense... I'll keep that in mind in future

**Pixie** · 27th May 2005, 10:45

Many of the antisocial things cagers do are due to the " I'm in my own little world and anonymous too." sense of invulnerability they have.
However when you confront them,perhaps by inviting them to stop and discuss their behaviour ,it generally comes as quite a shock to them.
Also they get use to the fact that if they upset another cager, there usually wont be any consequences because if the other cager was to ram them,for instance,the offended cagers car would be damaged and thus he is unlikely to take such drastic actions.
But they forget that if they piss off a biker. he is in a much better position to damage their vehicle and get away scot free.

**SPman** · 27th May 2005, 10:50

In the past, Ive found that, if I think people are not aware of me, cars waiting on side roads etc, if I changed my position on the road rapidly, weaved around a bit or something similar, it makes a difference. The driver staring at you, scenario. I cant prove it, but by the shocked looks on some drivers faces as you go past, its quite obvious that they havent seen you, but have frozen before they pulled out.I've been instinctively doing it for years - visibility on the road is not just about wearing bright colours, its often about attitude in the way you ride - all my intersection incidents have been when my mind was on other things, not concentrating on the ride.....riding invisibly, in fact.

**Pixie** · 27th May 2005, 10:57

Originally Posted by SPman

There is a good article in the March Bike magazine about motion blindness and "looming"
Cant recall all the article, but it is about the effect where an approaching object merges into the background - it doesnt register as moving - appears to stay in a single spot, so the brain does not register it as a threat, because as far as the brain is concerned, it is stationary, at a distance. When the object gets very close, the relative position to the background appears to suddenly change and the object is right upon the viewer - it looms up large and fast. This causes the viewer to momentarily freeze as the brain decides, fight or flight!
It is a technique that Dragonflies (and probably other insects/animals) use, when hunting prey. - appear to be a stationary object in the background at a distance by adjusting its approach angles, until it is suddenly too late and as the prey is momentarily frozen when the dragonfly looms large at the last second, its history. This was discovered by Scientists last year.
Sound like a familiar scenario.......driver looks right at you as you approach..then...pulls out in front of you...approach angles change and suddenly you are looming down on the cage....cage stops right in front of you..freezes, as you "suddenly" apppear out of nowhere. If you were a dragonfly, another successful kill. As a biker, its often the other way around.
So, quite literally, the driver is NOT aware of you. Or, not aware of you as a rapidly approaching threat. Until... he starts to move and you are suddenly thrown into sharper focus as a close and rapidly closing object. And from that point..........

This is due to the bain's visual system,which has a specific, edge detection,processing area.
Until an approaching object gets quite close(looms),its edges don't change in the visual field ,so the brain disregards the object.
We can help to avoid this "Motion Camoflage" by changing our position in the lane by performing a slow weave as we approach a car stopped at an intersection,who might not see us.

**Lou Girardin** · 27th May 2005, 12:22

I read that SPman, this was different. I was travelling at a slight arc towards the driver and he DID see me. He said so. He was just a useless, fat, incompetent piece of pond scum. So I let him go.

**SPman** · 27th May 2005, 12:38

Fairy nuff.
We'll always get those types.
Nothing a 9mm between the eyes wont fix, though.

**NhuanH** · 27th May 2005, 12:45

Originally Posted by SPman

If your trade mark high beam is like the guy on the blue R1 , Northern motorway, @ 6.55am last week.......once my eyes had readjusted to the blindness induced by a full dose of high beam from the side mirror - I felt like cutting the prick off and jumping on his head ! Fucker. When will people realise that high beam is illegal in traffic and 50k areas. Car drivers can see you! Not when they've had their eyeballs fried and cant see anything for 10 seconds! This also applies to fuckwit cages running 27 fog, spot and sundry lights on their fucken SS Commodes and Jap wankmobiles!

ooops!

as you were

oh my bad. if it appeases you massa, I have been trying to keep it on low beam. And I have never been on the Northern mway at those ridiculous times! people tell me the sun ain't even up then!

**MadDuck** · 27th May 2005, 20:18

Sorry dont mean to take over the thread or anything BUT you think you got problems.

Try Whangaparaoa Road (in the cage 1.5 hours to get 2 kms) just at the moment its so damn dangerous for bikers. The coning they have put in place means you cant get past the damn cages and they so full of road rage they dont see or care. If summit overtakes them they attack.

**Redstar** · 27th May 2005, 20:27

Interesting point about this particular road is the final stretch of road from the BP station to the traffic lights at the bottom of the hill lights it only has a single white line divider not double yellow no overtaking lines this implies no overtaking for oncomming traffic coming up the hill? its an error or road marking which makes neither overtaking illegal?

**placidfemme** · 28th May 2005, 08:39

Originally Posted by Redstar

Interesting point about this particular road is the final stretch of road from the BP station to the traffic lights at the bottom of the hill lights it only has a single white line divider not double yellow no overtaking lines this implies no overtaking for oncomming traffic coming up the hill? its an error or road marking which makes neither overtaking illegal?

Yeah thats why a few bikers (Including myself) ride up the centre line and then pull in before the traffic lights...

There was absolutley no traffic this morning up Onewa Rd. Have to love Saturdays

Al · 28th May 2005, 14:06

There was absolutley no traffic this morning up Onewa Rd. Have to love Saturdays

I agree!
Had to go in to work this morning early to finish off our stock-take, maybe due to wetness and time (06:00) I had a clear run through to East Tamaki.
Not too bad coming home either

Al

**sAsLEX** · 28th May 2005, 14:21

ahh he suggests the way to do it in his avatar.

Paint bottom of bike a nice bright white
Lift front wheel so visible
weave to avoid blending in to the background

Bigger version

**vifferman** · 31st May 2005, 09:17

Lanesplit everywhere I could today.

Because I could.

And because I'm tired and grumpy (three hours of sleep will do that to you).

I got to the end of Onewa Road, where the 'lanes' merge, and this woman was determined I couldn't be selfish and go ahead of her. So she got right up behind the bus in front, and edged over to the left, where I was. I see - so that's the game is it? If I can't go here, then I'll go the other side.

Braked, and went around behind and to the right of Mrs Red Car. I was sooooo tempted to wave at her on the way past.

Wish I had now.