.png "Powered by vBulletin")
Ride Safe
Based on your assessment, I would sooner make myself invisible by getting as far away as possible from cagers. (It's not always possible but only in the moment)
Look at them as obstacles in the road instead of objects that think. Do their thinking for them...and when you can't, let them have the right of way.
It takes total concentration & commitment to operate a motorcycle safely. It takes even greater ability to manuever from point A to B with the courage/courtesy/wherewithal in making the right decisions. We're not perfect and neither are all operators on the road.
Your clincher leads me to to believe that WE riders need to balance confidence & cockiness--that is the challenge.
Ed
Originally posted by Brendan W
View Post
Cagers look right through us......... An everyday experience for most riders which has fascinated me for many years. I would like to share my homespun philosophy on the particular subject of cagers not seeing riders.
Warning - I may have dreamed up all this stuff to stay sane.
What if it's actually true that cagers don't see us when they are looking right at us and it's not carelessness or disrespect?
Reading research in the 70's it was reported that to cagers, motorcycles were the least conspicuous vehicles on freeways, however the most conspicuous were police motorcycles.
At one point in the 80s Volvos pulling out in front of cycles in the UK got so bad you could buy aerosol cans of Volvo repellant for your bike. Most reckoned Volvo were too successful in their safety cage marketing and drivers felt invulnerable.
My IT friends tell me that there is no way the brain processes all the data collected by the eye - the brain applies a need to know filter based on perceived threats or opportunities and perhaps cultural conditioning.
It's famously said that if the human eye were an instrument it would be returned to it's maker for repair.
My first flight instructor taught me the difference between looking into a space and seeing into it - sort of the optical equivalent of hearing and listening.
We all know the stories about the sad lives of the immortal, the invisible and King Midas and how their powers ultimately lead to tragedy. Guess what. I think riders are actually invisible in some situations. When we say we're invisible what we really mean is that a cager person has had no respect or care for me and has chosen to treat me like a lower life form with no rights. Socially 'invisible' if you like. The truth could be a lot weirder than that.
Depending on the demands on the brain at the time I believe a driver can look into a space , make eye contact with a rider on collision course, relegate the threat level to low and then their brain completely erases the rider and his or her machine. They never actually saw you and you don't exist.
I don't think there is much point in getting mad at them for some perceived failing, lack of courtesy or respect. That will only reduce your survival chances.
The way I look at it I have to deal with true invisibility and it's not the cagers fault. Makes us superheroes in a way
Warning - I may have dreamed up all this stuff to stay sane.
What if it's actually true that cagers don't see us when they are looking right at us and it's not carelessness or disrespect?
Reading research in the 70's it was reported that to cagers, motorcycles were the least conspicuous vehicles on freeways, however the most conspicuous were police motorcycles.
At one point in the 80s Volvos pulling out in front of cycles in the UK got so bad you could buy aerosol cans of Volvo repellant for your bike. Most reckoned Volvo were too successful in their safety cage marketing and drivers felt invulnerable.
My IT friends tell me that there is no way the brain processes all the data collected by the eye - the brain applies a need to know filter based on perceived threats or opportunities and perhaps cultural conditioning.
It's famously said that if the human eye were an instrument it would be returned to it's maker for repair.
My first flight instructor taught me the difference between looking into a space and seeing into it - sort of the optical equivalent of hearing and listening.
We all know the stories about the sad lives of the immortal, the invisible and King Midas and how their powers ultimately lead to tragedy. Guess what. I think riders are actually invisible in some situations. When we say we're invisible what we really mean is that a cager person has had no respect or care for me and has chosen to treat me like a lower life form with no rights. Socially 'invisible' if you like. The truth could be a lot weirder than that.
Depending on the demands on the brain at the time I believe a driver can look into a space , make eye contact with a rider on collision course, relegate the threat level to low and then their brain completely erases the rider and his or her machine. They never actually saw you and you don't exist.
I don't think there is much point in getting mad at them for some perceived failing, lack of courtesy or respect. That will only reduce your survival chances.
The way I look at it I have to deal with true invisibility and it's not the cagers fault. Makes us superheroes in a way
Look at them as obstacles in the road instead of objects that think. Do their thinking for them...and when you can't, let them have the right of way.
It takes total concentration & commitment to operate a motorcycle safely. It takes even greater ability to manuever from point A to B with the courage/courtesy/wherewithal in making the right decisions. We're not perfect and neither are all operators on the road.
Your clincher leads me to to believe that WE riders need to balance confidence & cockiness--that is the challenge.
Ed
Comment