SMIDSY surprise

[Wardy]

I was charging downhill into Chester le Street earlier today when a woman drove her car out of a side street on the opposite side of the road, right in front of me. If I hadn't managed to brake hard I'd have been right into her. I yelled "idiot!" and pulled into the side of the road. Was going to take her registration but I couldn't find my notebook. Started to get back on my bike and blow me down, she comes back up the road, stops on the opposite side and runs across to me. I thought I was going to get some aggro, but she was incredibly contrite and couldn't apologise enough, asking if I was ok etc.. As is usual, she was concentrating on the cars she could see and completely missed me and the bike. Wish every driver was as good about it.

 

[Enid Agnus Dei]

Bloody hell makes a change then and glad you are ok.

 

[sheddy]

just out of interest - were you riding in a dead straight line ?

 

[Wardy]

just out of interest - were you riding in a dead straight line ?

I didn't have my plumb-line and straight-edge with me I'm afraid...

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Only to be expected in Chester-le-street, it's the inbreeding...affects the eyesight
Only reason she came back was to check if you were prime breeding stock.

 

[Wardy]

Bloody hell makes a change then and glad you are ok.

Thanks Enid. A "first" for me in all my years of cycling!

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Seriously tho, glad you are ok

 

[Wardy]

Only to be expected in Chester-le-street, it's the inbreeding...affects the eyesight
Only reason she came back was to check if you were prime breeding stock.

Looked like she was young enough to be my daughter so I think we can rule out the latter claim! And having already climbed up to Burnhope for a "quick arvo spin", I think the first stages of exhaustion would have put paid to any stomping around the field!

 

[TonyEnjoyD]

Decent spin out then.

Her contrite apology is a rarity, I can say that I have never had one in 4 years of commuting and plenty run-ins

 

[Wardy]

Decent spin out then.

Her contrite apology is a rarity, I can say that I have never had one in 4 years of commuting and plenty run-ins

Makes a change from foul language or a fist under your nose Tony and I've had plenty of those in over 40 years in the saddle.

 

[Globalti]

just out of interest - were you riding in a dead straight line ?

What Sheddy is getting at is that quite often, drivers don't see motorcyclists or cyclists who are approaching straight towards them with no sideways movement. The human eye is pretty poor at spotting an object against a cluttered background, which is why camouflage works. However as soon as there is any movement, especially in the peripheral vision, the eye picks it up, which is why it's easy to spot somebody moving across a cluttered background. Imagine now that she was looking at moving cars but you presented a target that was stationary though growing slowly in size and you can understand why she missed you and was embarrassed about it.

As any experienced motorcyclist will tell you, when you see a vehicle emerging from a side turning, move out across the road so as to present a moving target, cover brakes (and horn or headlight flasher if on a motorbike) and watch the vehicle's wheels for rotation - this is easier than trying to spot movement while your perspective of the vehicle is changing.

 

[Wardy]

What Sheddy is getting at is that quite often, drivers don't see motorcyclists or cyclists who are approaching straight towards them with no sideways movement. The human eye is pretty poor at spotting an object against a cluttered background, which is why camouflage works. However as soon as there is any movement, especially in the peripheral vision, the eye picks it up, which is why it's easy to spot somebody moving across a cluttered background. Imagine now that she was looking at moving cars but you presented a target that was stationary though growing slowly in size and you can understand why she missed you and was embarrassed about it.

As any experienced motorcyclist will tell you, when you see a vehicle emerging from a side turning, move out across the road so as to present a moving target, cover brakes (and horn or headlight flasher if on a motorbike) and watch the vehicle's wheels for rotation - this is easier than trying to spot movement while your perspective of the vehicle is changing.

Perhaps my response to Sheddy's input was a bit facetious (and I must admit I missed his/her point) but I'm certainly not in the habit of weaving from side to side at 30mph downhill on a busy road in the hope that some idiot might see me in time. Think I'm going to have to resort to putting flashing lights on during the day, when cycling in urban areas. No doubt I can be happy in the knowledge that she was just "embarrassed" about "missing" me.

 

[Globalti]

Not directed at you particularly but I had other discussions on here last week and yesterday in which I pointed out that cyclists and motorcyclists seem to expect drivers to be perfect and fail to appreciate that everybody has bad moments. It's not enough to assume you will be given automatic right of way, you have to make allowance for human error.

Remember that crash video that someone posted about a year ago where a driver on a roundabout failed to see the cyclist, who was approaching very fast from his front quarter? Quite a few forum members commented that the lad was as much at fault as the driver because he was going too fast and assumed he would be given priority.

As I wrote, this is not directed at you particularly, it's just an observation.

 

[siadwell]

Another thing to consider is positioning on the road. Drivers of motor vehicles have become conditioned to look out for other motor vehicles. As these are usually a solid shape a couple of metres across that occupy most of the lane, it's easy to overlook a cyclist who's over towards the edge of the road.

 

[BSRU]

Another thing to consider is apparently at 20% of drivers drive with eyesight that falls below the required minimum standard for driving a motor vehicle.