It's coincidental that I have seen this thread today. I was driven to a funeral today by an old work colleague. I noticed while making our way out of town, that he was very competent at letting other traffic know what his intentions were. Eye contact, indicators and general road positioning. I commented to him that as a cyclist I found drivers not doing so well in this area when driving around our town centre. It turned out that he had recently been on a "driving awareness course" that avoided him getting points on his licence. His view was, that as with everything in life, 'familiarity breeds contempt' and that people doing a regular short journey, that is repeated many times, tend to switch off their normal driving skills and rely on instinct to get them to and fro. This is born out by statistics showing that the majority of minor RTA's happen within 3 miles of the home address. He was very open about him being one of these 'robots', as he put it, until the shock of being found speeding, made him realise what he was doing. The cyclist, being so vulnerable, may not be so liable to fall into this trance like state, but with so many journeys taken by car being with only the driver on board, I can understand how this is happening. I can be at work all day, and be on automatic pilot, with out really having to think about what I am doing, I can get through an entire days work, and then when asked what I have been doing today by Mrs Psycolist, often, cant tell her a dam thing I did. I have never been a car driver, but I see this type of driving in family members and friends all the time. I usually try to bring it into the conversation without appearing to be judgemental, but it never really seems to sink in or have any lasting effect. When I ride my bike, I ALWAYS make sure other road users and pedestrians know what I am intending, where I am going, and I try to make sure, with eye contact, that they have seen me. I still have cars pull out on me as though I am invisible, pedestrians walk off the pavement in front of me, and have their dogs and/children to walk into my path of travel. When riding, road, trail or cycle path, I have learned to assume that every one else is a d%*k head, that they do not know what they are doing, or where they are going, and to expect the unexpected. 50 years of riding, off and on, and I am still in one piece, just about.
.
