The blind spot

[Road Guardian]

Actually no,never heard of it in 37 years of owning/riding.Do tell.

Are you talking about the 12 second rule?

If so, the 12 second rule, is a scanning technique. This is something I was taught when learning to drive an ambo. And as I have found out, it is very important to use when driving priority 1's (e.g light and sirens) and general driving as well.

Anyway, by using the 12 second rule, you are continuously scanning ahead of you where you will be in 12 seconds, rather than just concentrating on the traffic immediately in front and to the sides of you.

As you scan ahead, you are identifying any potential hazards and predicting what they will do, and acting on that said hazard earlier rather than later - and I mean, you are having a crash later.

Make sense?????

http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/roa...ving-tips.html

[JohnR]

[QUOTE=Road Guardian;1860066]Are you talking about the 12 second rule?

If so, the 12 second rule, is a scanning technique. This is something I was taught when learning to drive an ambo. And as I have found out, it is very important to use when driving priority 1's (e.g light and sirens) and general driving as well.

Anyway, by using the 12 second rule, you are continuously scanning ahead of you where you will be in 12 seconds, rather than just concentrating on the traffic immediately in front and to the sides of you.

As you scan ahead, you are identifying any potential hazards and predicting what they will do, and acting on that said hazard earlier rather than later - and I mean, you are having a crash later. [quote]

Glad to see the course is effective RG. I don't know how long ago you did the driver training course but we are still preaching all the same things.
BTW I am a DI with St John in Auckland.

[dpex]

i dont have a blind spot,,,i move too fast

Eh? I thought you rode a Honda???

[vifferman]

Keep your eyes moving, and you will reduce you chances of having a collision...

Human eyes work best when there is something (noticeably) moving, otherwise the brain tunes it out. By moving your eyes and/or head, it means that things you'd otherwise not notice become significant to the parts of your brain that controls sight and warns you of potential danger.
That's another reason many drivers don't see bikers - they are too relaxed, staring fixedly ahead, and not scanning the road, whereas on a bike you are (or should be!) continuously scanning for hazards.

[Winston001]

It's more complicated than just the blind spot. There is research which shows that we are still hardwired for the African savannah of our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Our brains still have the primitive responses of ancient humans. A black stick on the ground is a potential snake - for a microsecond. Similarly trees, rocks, large objects are inanimate and don't move. So they are dismissed by the primal brain and ignored.

Cars are simply large rocks. Motorcycles do not look like a gazelle or any other animal = must be a bush/tree. Ignore.

We do over-ride the hind-brain with our modern perceptions but the point is, our instinctive reading of information has to be reinterpreted. If you are tired and distracted, its easy to simply ignore something.

[portokiwi]

Not sure on blind spots but I am getting a bald spot on my head

[Winston001]

Not sure on blind spots but I am getting a bald spot on my head

Too many U-turns under the sheets....

[scracha]

Cars are simply large rocks. Motorcycles do not look like a gazelle or any other animal = must be a bush/tree. Ignore.

See...Honda had the right idea with the urban tiger fireblade...

[twinkle]

center your head on the screen
close your left eye
stare at the ball with your right eye
on your peripheral vision see what happens to the cross

Both your blind spots are on opposite sides, so as long as you have two eyes your brain compensates for the hole using the other eye. cool eh?

[Bass]

I believe the blind spot occurs because there are no receptor cells on your retina where the optic nerve attaches.

[DUCATI*HARD]

Eh? I thought you rode a Honda???

DONT MAKE ME LAUGH,,,HA HA,,,HA HA,,,HA HA,,,ARE YOU THE GUY ON THE VESPA

[nigel]

From memory your field of vision at 90 kmph is a cone of about 3 degrees!
You do the math as they say...I can't be bothered at this time of night.

At 100kph it's 22 degrees, according to relatively recent defensive driving material. 3 degrees really is tiny, you're talking less than the road width at more than 100m

[dipshit]

This is my favourite optical illusion. Proof that our brains do interpret what we see.

And if anybody doesn't believe it - print it out and cut out the A and B squares and swap them around.

[JohnR]

At 100kph it's 22 degrees, according to relatively recent defensive driving material. 3 degrees really is tiny, you're talking less than the road width at more than 100m

You're right, it was late and I must have been dehydrated...should have read 23 degrees.

[dipshit]

Which is why the faster you go the more tunnel visioned you become.

Taking it a bit easier allows your peripheral vision to come into play more.