Cager almost knocks down Jogger

[stiervulcan]

Originally Posted by OlHossCanada

Soooo... Stiervulcan, I guess if you want to be noticed in your big red Chevy, you are going to have to get some strobe lights, or at least modulators like our bikes!! <BG>

May be... can I get the horn too? and one for the bike!

We have yellow ones too, some red. I can see your point, I also tend to drive slower than most so I might have been in the same scenerio as the "SMIDSY" guy...kinda.

I just think it is funny to an extent, they are whipping their head from side to side very quickly. That is when I know they don't see me, no eye contact just looking down the road. The look on their faces as they hit the brakes full force, arms locked straight against the steering wheel is pricless

I don't think I will find this funny at all once I start riding, very scary thought. I will no longer be in my big red cage, the bike is bluish-green so not very eye catching. I have always been a defensive driver and offensive when need be, to get out of the way. I consider merging on the highway properly offensive driving, you got to get up to speed and in there. Idon't know what people are thinking when they slow down to merge.

[VN750Rider/Jerry]

First of all, what normal guy does not notice and enjoy looking at "shapely" young women, especially jogging?

I see one mistake she made here, and that was using headphones. Using a cell phone, even a hands free one, would have been just as bad. When you are in a dangerous situation, such as driving a car, riding a bicycle or motorcycle, jogging, or just plain walking, in an area where there is traffic, or any other danger that needs to be seen and or heard, you need to be paying FULL attention to what you are doing, and what is going around you. You do not need any distractions. If you want to listen to music or use a cell phone, first remove yourself from the dangerous situation. I have a stereo at home, and I have 8 track players in both my cages, but only use them out on the open road, never in town, and do not own an IPod or CD player with headphones.


By far the most visible color for a vehicle is white. Both my car and truck are white. As is my most used street helmet.

Pedestrians almost always do have the right of way if you hit one, unless it is a situation where they just sudden ran right out in front of you. Anybody intent on getting themselves killed can stand beside the road, and suddenly run out in front of a fast moving vehicle. There is nothing the vehicle driver can do at that point. Unfortunately, many pedestrians do just that, simply because they were not paying attention.

I also used to be a bicyclist, and still ride occasionally, but it isn't much fun anymore, since I have developed severe arthritis. One of the most dangerous things, actually THE most dangerous thing to a bicyclist is cars pulling out from cross streets or parking lots on your right. Most do not stop, and even where there are stop signs or stop lights, they run right past them, and past the sidewalk and bike lane before stopping, because the only thing they are concerned about is getting hit by oncoming traffic. If there is a bicyclist in front of them, he/she is now underneath their car, unless the bicyclist was paying attention, and expecting the car to do that, which they should always be, because the car almost always does that. Once the car does come to a stop, or slow roll, if they don't see any cars coming really close, they step on it and make a fast turn, often squealing the tires. They usually don't see motorcyclists either, so if you are riding a motorcycle, YOU need to see them, and expect them NOT to see you. Jerry.

[stiervulcan]

Jerry, I agree about the bicycling. People will look right at you and I believe that it just does not register. I was riding down a rather busy road and a cager was leaving a parking lot, he saw me but I knew he would gun it if there was a space. He looked at me but that was it, he saw me then started looking for cars so I went around the back of him.
Another time riding on the same road this a-hole thought is was funny to lean out the window and scream when they went by. I didn't see them coming since I was riding with traffic. I wished I had a gun but realized it was best that I did not.

[OlHossCanada]

Originally Posted by VN750Rider/Jerry

By far the most visible color for a vehicle is white. Both my car and truck are white. As is my most used street helmet.

I will agree that white is ONE of the most visible colors under MOST light conditions, especially those weather conditions where you are riding a motorcycle.

However if you live where you drive in snow and ice for 6 months of the year, a white car is like camouflage and virtually disappears in blowing snow, or in front of snow banks.

I still think the researchers are right when they say that bright yellow and green are the best compromise colors to be noticed taking all lighting conditions into account.

[OlHossCanada]

Well after reading through this thread and posting the last reply, I forgot to do what I came on for in the first place.

I went back to the intersection yesterday to look things over better, and to see what I had missed while driving and almost knocking the jogger down. The first thing I noticed were two 40 foot tall evergreen trees close to the intersection and blocking the view of the side walk except for the last 30 feet or so, until I was at the stop line or beyond it. There was also a large pile of snow in the corner of the parking lot, close to the trees and also blocking the view of the sidewalk for a considerable distance.

It became a lot clearer to me how I had rolled ahead several car lengths at a slow speed and never caught a glimpse of the young lady. I normally check at least twice in both directions before pulling onto an intersecting road. This has been a good lesson to me to make sure to take that second glance to the right for something unexpected, not just the expected.

Be careful out there, whether on 4 wheels, 2 wheels, or 2 feet, someone is out to get you, whether they or you know it, or not!

[Knifemaker]

Originally Posted by VN750Rider/Jerry

By far the most visible color for a vehicle is white. Both my car and truck are white. As is my most used street helmet....

Actually it is yellow. You might think something white would be easy to see or pick out, but tests on humans has shown that they are more likely to notice a yellow car before a white one. White of course would be borderline camoflage in snow, and a white shinny car can pick up adjacent colors , like green, when driving through shady foliage.

"Neon" yellow or chartruse, commonly refered to as Hi Visibilty colors, are 3 times more likely to be seen than flourescent orange. Road crews and hunter only pick the orange because of the colors it will be contrasting with, namely black asphalt and the green leaves.

Once the sun has gone down, colors are fairly useless and it is the lighting of a vehicle that causes it to stand out. Reflective strips, running lights and of course flashing lights are of good use at night.

There is in our subconcious the abilty to recognise things as "threats" to our well being. If a driver is not paying attention, it is quite possible for their eyes to register seeing a bicycle , jogger, or even a motorcyle ... but not pass that information on to the concious brain, as these objects do not constitute a "threat" to them , in their big steel cage.

The only way to overide this phenomina is to change the appearence of said bicycle, jogger or motorcyle in such a way that it no longer conforms to the image normally associated with said object. Bright lights, Neon colors, flashing/pulsing lights are usualy the best solution. Oddly, joggers can wear strobing lights but in it illegal to have flashing lights on a motorcycle.

Headlight modulators are legal in most states, but only help for those viewing from straight ahead...and can't be used at night. Neon colors , extra running lights will help , as will exaggerated movements. Anything to break the spell of inattetive drivers and make them conciously aware of your presence.

One should also remember to use their horn. A crisp "toot" to the car on the side road will not be seen as a signal for them to go ahead...as flashing your highbeams might, and has the advantage that sound is something they normally would not be expecting.

I rode a bicycle for many years before replacing it with a motorcycle. The key problem I noticed is car drivers are completely unaware how fast a bicycle can actualy travel. Their brain, even if it does see you conciously, somehow dismisses you on a bicycle because "you can't be going very fast" .

This is seemingly the same issue when you notice that car on the side street waiting to pull out. Although you are in fact far enough away from them that they could safely pull out , they seem to wait untill the last second to do so...after you now have closed the gap to the point that you will have to break to avoid hitting them. They just seem to take so long computing the speed you are traveling that by the time they figure it out...it is in fact too late...but they make their move anyway.

This seems to happen alot more when I was riding a bicycle as opposed to motorcycle...but then , it still happens now and then when I am driving my car... LOL.



Way back some years ago, I was driving a friends pick up truck back to his home after it had some work done on it at the shop. I was going through a residental neighbor hood and came to as stop at a intersection with 4 way stop signs. I could not see down the left road because of some large bushes on the corner, so I edged out a few feet to have a better look. At about 2 full seconds after I did this , a jogger had come onto the road on my right....and ran into the side of the front fender of the truck. Hard enough to bounce off and almost fall over.

The jogger...a man in his 20's, yelled at me "Hey watch out *******, you almost ran me over!"

My reply was " Run you over? I was sitting still, You ran into me dikwad, YOU watch where you are going."

He suddenly looked scared, and ran the back the other way. I go out to make sure he had not dented the fender, and saw him running back down the sidewalk from the direction he came. The fender was fine and I told my freind the story when I got to his place.

He then descrbed the jogger to me perfectly....seems the local runner has almost gotten killed a few times by folks in the neighborhood. There was even a rumor that he was legally blind..........



KM

[stiervulcan]

Originally Posted by OlHossCanada

Red is not the most visually attention getting color according to some studies that I can`t quote offhand.

I had an incident tonight that proves you right. I thought I was definitly getting into an accident.

It has been snowing pretty bad the last two days,and it was night time. But I was on my way to work and stopped for food. I pulled out onto the road which goes past a rather large parking lot, I can see a mini-van coming across the lot.

I am about to pass the exit he is heading to and realize he is not going to stop. I thought I was going to ram the side of him, i think he was doing 25 or so. This was all instinct cause I had to stop and think about it after it happened. I turned away hard, sending me directly at a utility pole, I turned back and floored it kicking the ass end away from the guy. Some how not jumping the curb and hitting the pole.

I was waiting for the crunch I don't know how close it was but I thought it was going to happen. So I slow down to about 15 rolling down the road thinking about it and saying holy **** holy **** holy ****...

This is the icing on the cake right here, I see a car coming at me about 6-7 houses away. Thinking this guy saw the whole thing and must be thinking that was close. It was a cop, I think wow talk about right place & right time. I am still going slow I watch him in my rear veiw go past the road the guy went on (he went straight, there is a street across from the lot exit) go to the end of the road and turn the opposite direction. I couldn't believe it, he watched it happen and did nothing.

Like I said I am used to the stop and jump but no stop at all! I still don't know how we didn't crash.