Another smidsy last night...

[BentMikey]

I had another SMIDSY last night - young chav in a corsa type car with the wheels, turns left out of Jail Lane southbound onto the A233 towards Biggin Hill at 20-25 mph through the junction. He glances to his right, but behind me, and then carries on having not seen me. I knew something was coming because of his inappropriate speed and engine note (yes, I was listening to music), so a bit of braking and an ease over to the right next to the traffic island was plenty to get out of the way.

He was pretty shocked when I shouted through his open window "Well fkin look!!!!!!!!", and of course when he saw the MaxxD light on full in his mirror. How do you miss a MaxxD light on full? Scan error is how - when you look further up a road, and then ahead of you, you end up missing the section of road inbetween the two looks, because your eyes don't pan like a video camera, they take separate looks. (I'm not an expert btw, but it's something along these lines).

Very much like this one with the police car, which was the same scan error on exactly the same junction, also driving up to the junction too quickly and not taking time to look:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DATtvvo-kTw


Annoyingly something had gone wrong with my camera and I don't have a clip of the latest incident.

 

[jeltz]

As a novice cyclist I find it very 'educational' (if a little worrying) to see/read about the potential hazards, and I hope that it will improve my chances of avoiding problems.

Just watched your Youtube clip there, might I suggest the police were more intent on pulling over that van than driving with due care and attention!

Glad it wasn't any more serious.

 

[jonredhornet]

Firstly, thank goodness you weren't hit.

I've been conscious of this scanning error for a while and like you watch people to see where they are looking to get on handle on whether they've seen you or not. When I was learning to ride a motorbike in 1997 they specifically taught us about this - although I was already aware from cycling.

 

[fossyant]

Maxx D on full.........surprised the car didn't vapourise

 

[Matthames]

Very much like this one with the police car, which was the same scan error on exactly the same junction, also driving up to the junction too quickly and not taking time to look:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DATtvvo-kTw


Annoyingly something had gone wrong with my camera and I don't have a clip of the latest incident.

My suspicions with the police car there is that the officer was probably too wrapped up in trying to pull the van over for a chat, a phenomenon known as red mist. It is something that is mentioned in Roadcraft and knowing how to combat it I imagine is part of an officer's training. Tooting the police car probably made the officer aware of the mistake and hopefully learn from it.

 

[ttcycle]

Jesus Mikey-another one with a light that bright? what is going on this week? Glad you're unscathed

 

[hackbike 666]

....and that was a plod car,I thought they were trained how to drive.Then again sometimes I doubt that.