Smidsy - now you know why

[Hogi]

[size=1.35em]Found this to be a bit of an eye opener gives you an idea of why cagers look but don't see.[/size]
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http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/raf-pilot...-cyclists/

[D4Delta]

Good article. Never heard this before.

David.

[Skippernick]

I've known about this for awhile through sailing. When your taught to scan the horizon for ships, this is very obvious so you should be taught to move your head slowly and not your eyes.
Trouble is there are lots of stupid drivers out there.

[Phil]

Thats an informative article and reinforces the need to actually look for bikes and cyclists.

[Slaninar]

Thats an informative article and reinforces the need to actually look for bikes and cyclists.

Good article, but one picture works better than a 1000 words:




The only way to really make people look for (motor)cycles is to have them ride one for some time. In the north of Italy, many people have had bicycle and a motorcycle for some period of their youth, so they pay a lot of attention to motorcycles and will always give you room when a car can't pass. The article, however, is good in explaining why we aren't seen to other motorcylists. So they don't take it personaly, or get angry.

[wfbroddy]

found the part about looking directly at the driver intresting, thats something I was taught while doing my CBT about 11 years ago, but was aware of it through my cycling that I had done for years previously, and was even mentioned when I was learning to drive in my teens.

Must admit thought it was common knowledge ??

[Phil]

Its not new stuff, I was taught about making eye contact with drivers at junctions on my CBT in 1992, and the instructor said even if you do make eye contact dont just assume they have seen you. That article explained some of the physics/biology behind it.

[pitternator]

it still dont stop many drivers just not looking in the first place.Too many distractions in cars, bikes accelerate too fast for many car drivers to appreciate how hard and often they have to look.
To put it in context I have had people pull straight out in front of me when I have been in a slow moving large white van. Now that sfeck all to do with lack of peripheral vision...they just didnt look !

[DryRob]

It's good to know and I've seen it happen; I was sat in the car with a mate at a junction waiting to pull out, I saw the bike hanging back from the line of cars we were waiting for, "oh look at that bike" our car starts to creep out, "bike", line of traffic passes and car continues to move, "BIKE!" mate hits the brakes, "feckin hell I didn't see him". Probably didn't help that we were hung over.

This is why If I see a car at a junction I make every attempt to get as far away from them as possible, partly because the lateral movement might increase the chance of them seeing me but mostly so I'm (hopefully) out of the way when they don't.