Years ago i was at the head of traffic going past Kew Gardens, white bike and crash helmet, hi-vis vest and headlight on, and a woman with her window down was waiting to pull out of a turning on my left side.
As i got nearer she was blatantly staring at me, so it was fairly obvious she's seen me, but i stuck around 30mph and kept my eye on the wheels of her car anyway.
As i got to within about 25 feet of her i've seen the wheels move and gone into an emergency stop.
Although it was controlled, i ended up about 2 feet from her car door, engine cut out, and my heart trying to fight it's way out of my jacket.
She has panicked, screamed and stopped right in my path.
I flipped the visor up, no doubt with steam pouring out of it, and i shouted "What the hell did you do that for?" :eek
And her meek reply, with a big smile, was "I'm sorry, i didn't see you!" :groan
Now i don't know if any of you have seen the experiment with the group of people in a circle passing a ball at random to each other for about 30 seconds?
What you have to do is totally concentrate on the ball and count how many times it is passed.
I got 2 'new to biking' colleagues to do this test and told them they only get one chance so totally concentrate.
After the test i asked them how many times the ball was passed, and they gave me their answers, which were different as well quite worryingly, then i asked them "Did you see the gorilla?"
After looking at me quite puzzled i played the video again, and whilst the ball passing was going on, a person in a fancy dress gorilla suit walks across the circle of people, stops in the middle and looks at you, then walks off!
Neither of them saw it at all in their conscious mind.
The reason i'm mentioning this is because it's what they believe that car drivers have done in the past with motorbikes.
They concentrate so hard on the bigger more obvious vehicles behind that they literally don't see the approaching bike.
Very strange but apparently very true.
Sorry, but there's no point you even thinking about doing the test now because you will blatantly see the gorilla now that you are aware of it! :lol
NOTE: Looking at a cars front wheel for movement is a damn site more reliable than looking at the driver.
HERE IS THE TEST, but you'll have to try it on someone else.
Make a point of telling them they only have the one chance so to concentrate.
I paused the video after it asked how many passes were made.
selective attention test
As i got nearer she was blatantly staring at me, so it was fairly obvious she's seen me, but i stuck around 30mph and kept my eye on the wheels of her car anyway.
As i got to within about 25 feet of her i've seen the wheels move and gone into an emergency stop.
Although it was controlled, i ended up about 2 feet from her car door, engine cut out, and my heart trying to fight it's way out of my jacket.
She has panicked, screamed and stopped right in my path.
I flipped the visor up, no doubt with steam pouring out of it, and i shouted "What the hell did you do that for?" :eek
And her meek reply, with a big smile, was "I'm sorry, i didn't see you!" :groan
Now i don't know if any of you have seen the experiment with the group of people in a circle passing a ball at random to each other for about 30 seconds?
What you have to do is totally concentrate on the ball and count how many times it is passed.
I got 2 'new to biking' colleagues to do this test and told them they only get one chance so totally concentrate.
After the test i asked them how many times the ball was passed, and they gave me their answers, which were different as well quite worryingly, then i asked them "Did you see the gorilla?"
After looking at me quite puzzled i played the video again, and whilst the ball passing was going on, a person in a fancy dress gorilla suit walks across the circle of people, stops in the middle and looks at you, then walks off!
Neither of them saw it at all in their conscious mind.
The reason i'm mentioning this is because it's what they believe that car drivers have done in the past with motorbikes.
They concentrate so hard on the bigger more obvious vehicles behind that they literally don't see the approaching bike.
Very strange but apparently very true.
Sorry, but there's no point you even thinking about doing the test now because you will blatantly see the gorilla now that you are aware of it! :lol
NOTE: Looking at a cars front wheel for movement is a damn site more reliable than looking at the driver.
HERE IS THE TEST, but you'll have to try it on someone else.
Make a point of telling them they only have the one chance so to concentrate.
I paused the video after it asked how many passes were made.
selective attention test
More people are born because of alcohol than will ever die from it.