[CR]Re: Psychology of Driving

(Example: Framebuilding:Brazing Technique)

From: <StuartMX4@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 12:42:42 EST
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]Re: Psychology of Driving

You are right, Raoul, but I would put it another way. The car driver sees only what the car driver expects to see; the motorcyclist sees what the motorcyclist expects to see. I used to complain vociferously about cars (including a police car on one occasion) pulling out in front of my motorcycle. Then I noticed that when I was driving a very low car, motorcyclists pulled out in front of me. You see what you expect to see; what is not expected is not taken in during the short time available to the motorist. Perception okay;apperception hopeless. I complain bitterly about the idiot cyclists riding along the pavement outside my house without looking to see if cars are pulling out of their drives. I also complain about motorists pulling out on me from their drives when I am riding on the pavement. Classic content? Read the cycling and driving magazines of the whole of the last century. This is not a new problem. When I was a schoolboy, there was a road safety book illustrated by the famous cartoonist, Fougasse. Each accident ended with the victim being carted off in the bloodwagon muttering, "I was in the right." In the last one, a hearse replaces the ambulance. Do you want to be in the right and dead? Ride defensively. If you assume that the bastards are looking for an excuse to kill you and get away with it, you will probably survive.

Stuart Tallack in Battle of Britain Sussex looking constantly over his shoulder and pretending he is flying a Spitfire about to be zapped by a Messerschmitt if he doesn't spot it first.