stewart,
I've seen two accidents already today, both at corners.
On my short cycle to work I arrived at a busy intersection where there was the flashing lights of our friendly cops. There was a bus, with a VW golf on two wheels, wedged between the traffic light pole and the side of the bus. There were many people standing around wondering exactly how that could have happened.
At lunch, (after riding my 83 bianchi to drop off a birthday card for my niece), I noticed a very noisy bike going pretty fast on the side walk at the intersection in front of our store. As I turned to check traffic before crossing the street, the kid on the bike totally nailed a gentleman coming out of a phone booth. Wow, he hit him good. Several shopkeepers got to him before me (the kid, that is) good thing too.
Grant McLean Toronto.Ca
O \O/ _< \_ _< _ (_)>(_) (_)>(_)
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 12:42:42 EST From: StuartMX4@aol.com To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Re: Psychology of Driving Message-ID: <5b.49c75a02.2d889692@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Message: 8
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.