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In the motorcycling world oncoming left vehicles are basically the "Jesus take the wheel" scenario. Go left to avoid them and you're potentially in oncoming tr

by kirse 5y ago

In the motorcycling world oncoming left vehicles are basically the "Jesus take the wheel" scenario. Go left to avoid them and you're potentially in oncoming traffic, go right and you're trying to negotiate a developing mess with a driver who realizes they've made a mistake, or lastly attempt to brake and you might dump the bike or end up underneath a vehicle. A couple things I do when coming to intersections is almost always cover the brake, flash hi-beams if I think someone is about to take an aggressive jump, or sometimes point an index finger at the oncoming driver to catch their attention. You'd be surprised how many people subconsciously register that they're being pointed at and it gets them to consciously snap into focus. Somewhat related -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_and_calling

somewhereoutth 5y ago
Interesting. On my bicycle I sometimes point to where a car should stop when I have priority on a roundabout and am about to exit crossing over where they would enter. Seems to work.
rootusrootus 5y ago
> In the motorcycling world oncoming left vehicles are basically the "Jesus take the wheel" scenario. Years ago I nearly creamed a motorcycle after looking pretty much directly at him. The angles we were converging at meant that he basically disappeared into the background because there was no relative motion. Probably scared the crap out of him, and it certainly scared the crap out of me. That was when I started moving my head back and forth coming up to an intersection where I'm going to turn, because it introduces enough of a perspective change to make a moving motorcycle stick out. It's exactly the situation described in the fighter pilot article. The human brain is amazingly good at stitching together what appears to be a complete scene while actually losing pretty sizable chunks of it all the time. The other times I have close calls were 100% coincident with having a full car of passengers. I think we only have a certain amount of bandwidth, and taking up a bunch of it with noise reduces what's left to devote to vision. I also turn down the radio when I'm coming up to an unfamiliar area, or a situation that is obviously going to be complex to navigate.
- foepys 5y ago
  There is also a phenomenon where drivers (car and truck) just forget about motorcycles coming their way. They see it, they register it's there but then just... forget about it. Imagine a car wants to turn and waits and a line of cars pass with a motorcycle at the end, then it's extremely dangerous for the motorcyclist. Because our brains interpret dangers relative to us, it sometimes just filters out the not-so-dangerous things. The motorcycle is relatively harmless to a car or truck thus drivers sometimes filter it out as if it doesn't exist. What happens then is the car driver just waits for the cars to pass and then begins to turn while the motorcycle is still coming up, often resulting in a crash. There is an easy fix, though: just say "motorcycle" out loud when this situation occures. It's really as easy as that.
- kibwen 5y ago
  > The angles we were converging at meant that he basically disappeared into the background because there was no relative motion. This effect is demonstrated in this video about a particularly dangerous crossing in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU
  - WillPostForFood 5y ago
    Yikes, just 15 seconds into the video, a car absolutely blows through the stop sign.
    - rkk3 5y ago
      Yeah its terrifying. As he says "They are reckless & can see the main road is clear", blind spots are scary.
    - gambiting 5y ago
      I wonder if it's at least partially because in the UK stop signs are pretty much non existent. I have only ever seen a handful in my life and people don't have this ingrained understanding that you absolutely have to stop at them and look around before moving - it's just a weirdly shaped give way sign to them.
gregors 5y ago
As a motorcyclist I can confirm. Left turning vehicles are enemy number 1. But all SMIDSY's (sorry mate, didn't see you) are extremely dangerous. He's video that talks about how saccades play a role - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x94PGgYKHQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x94PGgYKHQ0

by kirse 5y ago

somewhereoutth 5y ago

Interesting. On my bicycle I sometimes point to where a car should stop when I have priority on a roundabout and am about to exit crossing over where they would enter. Seems to work.

rootusrootus 5y ago

> In the motorcycling world oncoming left vehicles are basically the "Jesus take the wheel" scenario. Years ago I nearly creamed a motorcycle after looking pretty much directly at him. The angles we were converging at meant that he basically disappeared into the background because there was no relative motion. Probably scared the crap out of him, and it certainly scared the crap out of me. That was when I started moving my head back and forth coming up to an intersection where I'm going to turn, because it introduces enough of a perspective change to make a moving motorcycle stick out. It's exactly the situation described in the fighter pilot article. The human brain is amazingly good at stitching together what appears to be a complete scene while actually losing pretty sizable chunks of it all the time. The other times I have close calls were 100% coincident with having a full car of passengers. I think we only have a certain amount of bandwidth, and taking up a bunch of it with noise reduces what's left to devote to vision. I also turn down the radio when I'm coming up to an unfamiliar area, or a situation that is obviously going to be complex to navigate.

foepys 5y ago
There is also a phenomenon where drivers (car and truck) just forget about motorcycles coming their way. They see it, they register it's there but then just... forget about it. Imagine a car wants to turn and waits and a line of cars pass with a motorcycle at the end, then it's extremely dangerous for the motorcyclist. Because our brains interpret dangers relative to us, it sometimes just filters out the not-so-dangerous things. The motorcycle is relatively harmless to a car or truck thus drivers sometimes filter it out as if it doesn't exist. What happens then is the car driver just waits for the cars to pass and then begins to turn while the motorcycle is still coming up, often resulting in a crash. There is an easy fix, though: just say "motorcycle" out loud when this situation occures. It's really as easy as that.
kibwen 5y ago
> The angles we were converging at meant that he basically disappeared into the background because there was no relative motion. This effect is demonstrated in this video about a particularly dangerous crossing in the UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYeeTvitvFU
- WillPostForFood 5y ago
  Yikes, just 15 seconds into the video, a car absolutely blows through the stop sign.
  - rkk3 5y ago
    Yeah its terrifying. As he says "They are reckless & can see the main road is clear", blind spots are scary.
  - gambiting 5y ago
    I wonder if it's at least partially because in the UK stop signs are pretty much non existent. I have only ever seen a handful in my life and people don't have this ingrained understanding that you absolutely have to stop at them and look around before moving - it's just a weirdly shaped give way sign to them.

gregors 5y ago

As a motorcyclist I can confirm. Left turning vehicles are enemy number 1. But all SMIDSY's (sorry mate, didn't see you) are extremely dangerous. He's video that talks about how saccades play a role - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x94PGgYKHQ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x94PGgYKHQ0