The perils of biking

His observation and anticipation looked pretty crap on occasion to me. There was at least 4 or 5 grabs at the brake where he could have seen it and dealt with it much earlier. And a couple of times he started to set off at traffic lights then saw a vehicle running the red.

Originally Posted by Stig

And not one single collision. Maybe all junctions should be the same way over here. I can't remember which country it is but there is one where they took away the priority traffic law at cross-roads and made it a who dares wins situations. Apparently it worked very well with accidents going down instead of up.

Mexico is like this, the biggest drug dealer in town goes first, evryone else makesno assumptions. In cities there are priority systems and laws, but unless there is actually a red traffic light they are largely ignored.

Didn't look so bad to me. I also think riding a scoot rather than a big noisy bike makes people more likely to take the wee wee and pull out on you. I ride a lot in London and whilst you do get the odd person miss you, if you are agressive and don't d*ck about, most drivers will not cut you up provided they have seen you. I think drivers weigh up sub-consiously what you are driving and decide if they will get away with it or not. scooters send out a pretty lame message to other road users - I know this isn't true with the super scoots, but people assume it all the same.

[yorkie_chris]

I have repeatedly seen people take the p*ss more when I am wearing leathers (they were cheap, I look a d*ck), compared to when wearing normal black kit.

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

I have repeatedly seen people take the p*ss more when I am wearing leathers (they were cheap, I look a d*ck), compared to when wearing normal black kit.

It's true. so long as people look in the first place, looking mean will quite often make all the difference. I find with my dirty bike and large metal bits sticking out the side (luggage) I don't get too many people trying to stop me filter!

People definatley do make a subconcious split second risk assessment before they maneouvre, and it's a primal thing, it's not about whether there will be and accident or whether the car will get damaged, it's instinct and in the subconcious and it's only weighing up what the risk is of them getting hurt, nothing more.

If a big firkin truck is coming along thier desired path, risk of being hurt is 10 out of 10 and the foot stays firmly on the brake pedal, if they see a bike, when they are sitting inside a steel cage, risk is 2 out of 10. That's why you get drivers that have clearly seen you pull into your path. And they don't even know why they did it as once they realise that they could have killed that biker, most would eventually admit that what they did was stupid.

We will never change subconcious primal instinct, ane however much we train drivers to use concious thought in their decision making, and however good the driver is, there will always be the odd bad morning when the switch off and go back to driving without concious thought. Unfortunately for alot of drivers that is every morning! We just have to be aware of it.

[mikerj]

Originally Posted by Stig

And not one single collision. Maybe all junctions should be the same way over here.

South Asian traffic is regulated by their religious beliefs, if they die (and it's a very frequent occurrence) they accept it was time for them to die, rather than it being a preventable accident because they were driving/riding like complete idiots. They are also very relaxed, you rarely if ever see raised tempers. If that was over here there would be piles of twisted wrecks at every junction within hours and major road rage incidents.

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by philbut

It's true. so long as people look in the first place, looking mean will quite often make all the difference. I find with my dirty bike and large metal bits sticking out the side (luggage) I don't get too many people trying to stop me filter!

High vis too, oddly, seems to make people take the p*ss.

But other people reckon they get more room when wearing it, meh who knows.

Originally Posted by Dave20046

looked like one of them big yam scootery things. burgman or something?

i thought it was a yam scoooter too, in which case it's no surprise people were taking the mick, scooters are practically non existent on the road in most people's minds

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

High vis too, oddly, seems to make people take the p*ss.

But other people reckon they get more room when wearing it, meh who knows.

Not wore my Hi-Viz since coming off because it was torn in the slide as a proper PRO Hi-Viz rider you may be interested to know I've only had 2 moments of heavy braking on the commute whilst riding without. Thats nearly a month of inner city filtering with only 2 incidents worth remembering (and one of those was an intentional ar5ewhole) 2 incidents per month is about average, so its made little or no difference to weeks when I've worn it.

That said I know if I HAD been wearing it then the merc wouldnt have pulled up to block me filtering, driver got "dave'd" for his stupidity, co-incidently it could actually be the same silver car I had to avoid last week.



"dave'd" is a term I've employed following the actions of a certain dave20046 it is used to summarise when a rider pulls up along side a car drivers window and angryily shoots a look of discust towards its driver whilst taking the throttle to the rev limiter a couple of times.