Interesting program about eyesight.

[onearmedbandit]

Was on TV tonight on Prime at 7. BBC series on the body and tonights episode was on eyesight. Full of interesting facts, like how snakes can't see you if you stay still. But the most interesing experiment of the show was when they took 6 basketballers, 3 in yellow and 3 in blue, and got the different 'teams' to pass the balls amongst each other, and during this a man in a gorilla suit walked through them, stopped and banged his cheast, and walked off screen.

They took this clip and played it to a group of people, and told them to count the number of times the yellow team passed the ball, and to ignore the blue team. After watching the clip, they asked if anyone saw anything strange. Out of a group of about 30 people only maybe 5-6 saw the gorilla, despite it being in full view. Seems the brain can only cope with so much info from the eye, and concentrates on the task at hand. To prove the point even further, they 'rewound' the show and showed where the gorilla was also in the rest of the program. Really obvious places but neither my wife or I saw him the first time around.

So how does this tie in with motorcycles? It has been proven that people in cars will easily 'see' obstacles that are the same size as them or bigger, but not 'see' smaller objects, ie pedestrians, push bikes and motorbikes. So next time a cage driver tells you they didn't see you, they most probably didn't. Despite your reflective bright apparel and blazing headlight, the brain simply wasn't looking for you. This is not an excuse for cage drivers, but even when you think you've got someones eyesight, chances are the brain has dismissed that info and the driver can't see you. Take care.

[Madness]

I didn't see it.

[onearmedbandit]

Who's a funny c#^t then eh??

[Motu]

Interesting alright....and we can apply it to inexperianced riders who don't ''see things'',like road conditions....they are all there for the trained eye to see,but until we have gained experiance they just don't see the gravel,indications of road works,stock,dips and bumps.It's not just cars that don't see us,there are a lot of blind spots on this side of the fence too....but few will admit it.

[danb]

Great more excuses for the cages as far as it been proven etc- Facts we didn’t what to hear!.

[scumdog]

Once watched a guy look straight at me as he pulled up to a give-wy sign at a T-junction - and then pull out and turned left just as I got to the intersection!!

Luckily I thought he had not seen me and I merely pulled alongside him and said 'take it easy eh?' striaght in the drivers open window (I was on bike).

He hit the brakes, pulled over and staggered out clutching his chest so I stopped and went back, he looked ashen and was shaking.
Turns out I was correct in my thoughts and he HADN'T seen me, he said he was looking for any CARS coming from his right - I was only 20 metres away on a really obvious machine (to me anyway) yet he never noticed me.

[danb]

Once watched a guy look straight at me as he pulled up to a give-wy sign at a T-junction - and then pull out and turned left just as I got to the intersection!!

Luckily I thought he had not seen me and I merely pulled alongside him and said 'take it easy eh?' striaght in the drivers open window (I was on bike).

He hit the brakes, pulled over and staggered out clutching his chest so I stopped and went back, he looked ashen and was shaking.
Turns out I was correct in my thoughts and he HADN'T seen me, he said he was looking for any CARS coming from his right - I was only 20 metres away on a really obvious machine (to me anyway) yet he never noticed me.

If only everyone had to learn to ride a bike before they learnt to drive. Oh if the world was a better place!

[750Y]

yeah i saw that a while back also. scary thought huh.
I think the idea of the modulating headlights has some merit in that situation.
for any that don't know, it's a smaLL controller unit & headlight bulb that 'pulses' & apparently gets peoples attention better. they have some sensor thing that disables them for night riding.
Roadriders use them in the states but i heard they're illegal here ..not sure.

[GR81]

anything good for you is illegal here!

[Sniper]

I saw that too, it was quite an eye opener (excuse the pun). It explains why so many of us are injured or have close calls by idiots pulling out of on cellphone ect, but it still doesn't give them an excuse. That gorilla caught me out as well.

Definetly left you with a couple of points to ponder.

[SPman]

The obvious is not neccesarily so...........

[Cookie]

Facinating stuff. Ask them to text their boyfriend at the same time and things get even worse.

I liked the last bit where they showed the fact that the Gorilla had actually been poping up throughout the program. I never noticed it once (except during the "experiment".)

I guess the old advice, "ride like you are invisible" is actually bloody good advice.

[Lou Girardin]

I think some bikers have the problem too. Like the guy on the m/way at St Mary's Bay, he indicates - starts to move - notices me about to pass him in the next lane and moves across anyway.

[Ixion]

'Tis the result of a million years of evolution.

The brains of human beings (and probably most animals) when just scanning (ie not looking for something in particular) have been conditioned to respond to only three things : things you can eat; things you can screw; and things that might eat you (ie dangers). Obvious really , when you think what life was like in the jungle a million years ago.

Anything else is just bypassed as "background" - trees and such like.

Motorists don't fail to see bikes and pedestrians because theyr're small. It's because we're not considered edible screwable or dangerous.

Which is why they'll see the mobster on his Harley, but not the sprotsbiker.

So - which category d'ya want to fit into - edible screwable or dangerous?

[Cookie]

Good point Lou. Bike riders are born with exactly the same optical hardware as cagers.

The one thing that tends to make us a little more observant while on bikes is that most of the things around us can hurt us bad - so evolution leads us to pay more attention to other road users - much as we would to lions in a jungle.