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At one point when biking to work I stopped at an intersection and filtered to the front. The head vehicle was a huge yellow thing built for construction work. I

by kqr 4y ago

At one point when biking to work I stopped at an intersection and filtered to the front. The head vehicle was a huge yellow thing built for construction work. I turned my head to see if I could see the driver (then at least he would have a chance of seeing me) and you know what he did? He understood what I was doing and pointed straight at me to indicate he had noticed me. This is something I've started doing when I'm driving now, too. I wish everyone did it.

david-gpu 4y ago
I'm in my 40s, I've never had a car, and the only thing that makes me feel somewhat safe when I cross in front of a vehicle is making eye contact with the driver, which is sometimes difficult with the prevalence of tinted windows. In my experience, drivers look for other cars, not for pedestrians. We are not a danger to them, so they subconsciously filter us out, as we are not a threat to them. To make things worse, in North America traffic rules are particularly hostile to pedestrians, allowing things such as right turns on red. Which is to say, as a pedestrian I am naturally not allowed to cross the street when the light is red for me, but for some unclear reason, if I were to be driving a 2-ton vehicle then somehow it is no longer considered dangerous for me to ignore the same red light. Bonkers.
- kqr 4y ago
  The difficulty with eye contact is that it's easy to interpret as being there when the other person really just looks through you. Very common to hear about accidents when one person was confident they had eye contact and then the other just had no idea they were there. In fact, eye contact works so badly for me that I prefer looking at the front tyres – their direction and angular acceleration tells me a lot more about where the vehicle is about to be. Pointing, however, is very explicit and rarely happens by accident.
- mitchdoogle 4y ago
  People don't look for peds because they aren't trained to, and for the most part, peds aren't that common. Only if you're in a dense urban center, would I say that they're common (in the US)
Eric_WVGG 4y ago
I do this as a cyclist, a sort of reverse two-fingered peace sign/salute, that’s usually met with a wave or nod. It’s quite humanizing.
alamortsubite 4y ago
I do this, too, especially for pedestrians in crosswalks but also for cyclists and other motorists. The funny thing is I've never seen anyone else do it, yet everyone I point at always seems to immediately understand.

by kqr 4y ago

david-gpu 4y ago

I'm in my 40s, I've never had a car, and the only thing that makes me feel somewhat safe when I cross in front of a vehicle is making eye contact with the driver, which is sometimes difficult with the prevalence of tinted windows. In my experience, drivers look for other cars, not for pedestrians. We are not a danger to them, so they subconsciously filter us out, as we are not a threat to them. To make things worse, in North America traffic rules are particularly hostile to pedestrians, allowing things such as right turns on red. Which is to say, as a pedestrian I am naturally not allowed to cross the street when the light is red for me, but for some unclear reason, if I were to be driving a 2-ton vehicle then somehow it is no longer considered dangerous for me to ignore the same red light. Bonkers.

kqr 4y ago
The difficulty with eye contact is that it's easy to interpret as being there when the other person really just looks through you. Very common to hear about accidents when one person was confident they had eye contact and then the other just had no idea they were there. In fact, eye contact works so badly for me that I prefer looking at the front tyres – their direction and angular acceleration tells me a lot more about where the vehicle is about to be. Pointing, however, is very explicit and rarely happens by accident.
mitchdoogle 4y ago
People don't look for peds because they aren't trained to, and for the most part, peds aren't that common. Only if you're in a dense urban center, would I say that they're common (in the US)

Eric_WVGG 4y ago

I do this as a cyclist, a sort of reverse two-fingered peace sign/salute, that’s usually met with a wave or nod. It’s quite humanizing.

alamortsubite 4y ago

I do this, too, especially for pedestrians in crosswalks but also for cyclists and other motorists. The funny thing is I've never seen anyone else do it, yet everyone I point at always seems to immediately understand.