I’m not sure I agree with that. I’ve been riding almost 25 years now and I can remember plenty of times where I saw a person looking *right at me *and still they pulled out. I believe that inattentional blindness is a big factor, but also the several issues in the must-watch (for motorcyclists)SMIDSY video.
No doubt in plenty of cases, people aren’t even trying to look, but I’ve talked to people who were genuinely flustered that they looked, didn’t see me, and then there I was. Hell, I’ve had it happen. Motorcycles are just tougher to see and uncommon enough to not register sometimes.
That is absolutely not the point I was making. I’m saying he can’t claim he was unaware there was a motorcycle somewhere near.
The problem is that while the typical driver hears the bike, it doesn’t register that the driver should keep an eye out for a small, hard to see, possibly faster vehicle nearby.
I was actually going to suggest S turns on a motorcycle before I saw the video. Great video because it demonstrates how little space a motorcycle takes up visually. What isn’t talked about is the single headlight. If it is in a fixed position relative to a car then it appears to be a street or porch light in the distance. It simply doesn’t register that’s it’s a moving vehicle like 2 car headlights do because it’s rare for street lights or house lights to appear that way.
Newer cruisers have serious light packages that make them stand out. My older 650’s headlight is the exact opposite. It’s just a single light source at night that gives no sense of reference to anything. By that I mean car headlights are all similar in distance to each other. Enough of a similarity that you get a sense of closing distance as the car approaches. A single headlight is just a point of light and as it comes closer it gets slightly larger but there is no reference point for it to register.
I’ll give you an real world example of how invisible this bike can be. I was riding at night on a divided highway (in the left lane). I normally ride in the next lane of the car in front of me and trail it so I can use the car’s headlights to extend my view farther forward. It makes it easier to see deer. Anyway, I was so focused on this that I was a bit late to notice a car coming at me in my lane. It’s an easy enough mistake to make on a highway with access roads connecting it. The driver, IMO, didn’t perceive my motorcycle as a moving vehicle. When I changed lanes and laid on the horn the driver immediately saw me and turned his flashers on. He realized that he was on the wrong side of the road. But we were a second or two away from a head on collision. I’m guessing we were 15 car lengths apart because I was 5 cars behind the car I was pacing and I was looking 5 car length’s ahead. Maybe it was a little more but you get the idea. I was just another single point of light down the road. If I wasn’t so focused on looking for deer and FOD the car would have registered with me much farther away. As in MILES away.
Since the driver wasn’t weaving and quickly reacted to my swerving into the other lane I believe that he was sober at the time. I think it really freaked him out.
I’m amazed at how little volume that takes. I often slowly turn my radio down when I see flashing lights to see what volume it takes to drown out the siren. It takes almost nothing. I invite everyone to try this next time they see an emergency vehicle.
BTW, I started using “S” turns at night as a way of panning the headlight back and forth on country roads to look for deer off to the side. It’s been quite useful. It was later on that I started using it in the daytime as a way of alerting cars. It’s the same principle of rapidly flashing my brake lights to signal traffic behind me that cars are stopped ahead. 10 rapid flashes is much more noticeable than a single steady brake light.
I added additional LED brake lights to the sides of my bike’s license plate. Every time I brake, the lights pulse 4 times quickly, 4 times slowly then go solid. And in front, I intend to add a pair of driving lights on the forks to make the light triangle the safety guys go on about. In the meantime, at least my bike has two headlights, spaced for apart (relative to most bikes, that is). And it has cornering lights in the headlight assembly that kick in when I lean more than five degrees, so I have decent options for conspicuity up front.
Back in the early 80s, I had a Voedesky Cyberlight (Not my bike, between the license plate and brake light). It varies the flash rate (slow pulse to rapid stutter) with severity of braking. The Mountain View(SF Bay Area) PD motorcycles also had them.
ETA:also had a pair of brake light/plate frame and combo turn/running lights front and back.
