Close Pass Analogy

[Richard A Thackeray]

I presume some of you have seen this, but this popped up on my FaceBook, earlier this morning


I'm not sure if it's viewable to everyone so, I've also added the image & original text

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...1.679698.677305060&type=1&fref=nf&pnref=story

Quote;
If you're a driver who believes a close pass on a cyclist 'safe', why not try walking between the yellow & white while a train is passing?

 

[Spinney]

Excellent analogy. I've shared on FB - and when I did so it already had well over 2000 shares.

 

[Drago]

Next time a 10 foot tall 250 foot long car comes past me at 125mph with inches to spare I shall think of this analogy.

 

[jefmcg]

Made the mistake of clicking the link. 2/3 comment was about road tax.

 

[Saluki]

Excellent analogy. I've shared on FB - and when I did so it already had well over 2000 shares.

I've shared it too

 

[Tynan]

and the train is on rails running along a route three or feet below the 'cycle lane'

it's not a very good analogy

 

[Drago]

Now pull out in front of the train without even turning your head in its direction, the same way some chump roadie did to me the other day.

 

[Spinney]

and the train is on rails running along a route three or feet below the 'cycle lane'

it's not a very good analogy

You're probably reading too much into it - the rush of something huge whizzing right by your ear is similar. It would feel scary to most folks, even if the train situation is probably a lot safer than the close pass on a cyclist situation.

 

[jazzkat]

Next time a 10 foot tall 250 foot long car comes past me at 125mph with inches to spare I shall think of this analogy.

Do trains do 125mph through stations?
Just sayin'

Seriously though, I think it's a good analogy. It also puts into context the similar danger that a close pass can have on a cyclist, even if it's just scaring the wotsit out of them.

 

[Spinney]

Do trains do 125mph through stations?
Just sayin'

Seriously though, I think it's a good analogy. It also puts into context the similar danger that a close pass can have on a cyclist, even if it's just scaring the wotsit out of them.

The ones that don't stop go through at a fair clip! I think even 50 mph would be enough to make the point...

 

[jazzkat]

The ones that don't stop go through at a fair clip! I think even 50 mph would be enough to make the point...

That was my thought. If I'm cycling at 20mph and something coming the other way is doing just 30mph that's a closing speed of 50mph and is scary.
I don't get as scared by the close passes that are going in the same direction as much as the ones that come towards me. I don't like the idea of playing chicken with oncoming cars but it does loosen the bowel when they come barrelling past at high speed with inches to spare.

Off topic, I was once told by an old motorcyclist that he carried old, dead, batteries in his tank bag that he'd just accidentally drop if someone was tailgating him. I'd use this tactic on close passes (coming from the front) except knowing my luck the old battery would probably bounce back and hit me!*

*This is a joke, I wouldn't do this, honestly.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Theres more holes in the analogy than in a string vest

Do trains do 125mph through stations?
Just sayin'

Seriously though, I think it's a good analogy. It also puts into context the similar danger that a close pass can have on a cyclist, even if it's just scaring the wotsit out of them.

Depends if they're through trains or not. The air displacement is nothing like comparable either, hyperbolic exaggeration does nothing to enable a sensible conversation between people that have experienced such a pass on a bike and those that haven't.

The nearest I could equate to a car driver is an articulated truck going past when parked up.

I would also suggest that the proportion of people surviving being hit by a car is stratospherically higher than those surviving a train strike and such obvious discongruities just switch people off too.

Guff like this is more dangerous to me as it is so far from fact.

 

[Spinney]

A similarity - being next to something much larger than you whizzing by at great speed. It doesn't have to be 125 mph - a 30 mph train would probably do. That is similar, yes? Therefore it is an analogy.

An analogy does not have to replicate every aspect of the thing being modelled. But for the motorists who don't see the problem 'because I didn't hit you, did I?' - the analogy may help to give them some idea of the things wrong with close passes. No one said it was a statistically accurate model - it is a tool to help the unthinking think a little.

In fact, it can be used to help them think about several aspects - imagine you're walking between the yellow line and the edge of the platform...

- doesn't that wall of steel whizzing by feel threatening?
- what if you trip over as the train is whizzing by and fall into it?
- what if you don't hear it coming (in cycling terms, because of the noise of other traffic) - might it make you wobble a bit as you walk, or jump
- if it does make you jump, what would happen if you flinched towards the train and it hit you?
- if it makes you fall the other way, you're better off than the close-passed cyclist because you will only fall onto a flat platform, not under the wheels of a following vehicle

 

[Crandoggler]

Awful analogy.

 

[Spinney]

Each to their own...