Why You Don't 'See' Motorcycles on the Road

Interesting article: Why You Don't 'See' Motorcycles on the Road

 

the best radar detect is actually vision, I can almost all ways see a cop car before they see me because I have trained my vision to spot things very fast= do to riding fast most of the time. If your use to driving fast or riding fast you can see things fast. A good example is a airplane pilot

 

Aside from this SUV driver who is not paying attention at all, for those drivers actually paying attention but who claim not to see a motorcycle, this is a phenomenon called "inattentional blindness." They do not have a motorcycle, so motorcycles are not on their radar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness

I think we have all experienced something similar. Buy a car, say a VW Jetta. Every day forth you will notice every VW Jetta on the road. Previous to that day you may never have even noticed that car. The population of Jetta's has not changed, but you have changed.

Having something, and understanding it, gives us a much greater perception of it. This is why I now suggest that all new drivers take the MSF course. Even non-motorcyclists. That would be enough to put the motorcycle on their radar and eliminate a great deal of inattentional blindness.

 

Interesting this finds it's way here, cool, I just read it on my face book feed. I like your thinking there Knight Maybe just maybe they'd get the big picture goes along the same lines as RVers needing a full blown CDL so they know whats what, especially those that pull a boat or car behind em.

 

Does all this pertain to Harleys too?

Another factor is the "I don't give a shit about anybody else on the road except the person I am texting".

Another one that is really neat is the one that says, I am in a ton and a half four wheel rig surrounded by steel and your ass in on a less than a half a ton piddly ass little motorcycles which means I am the meanest MOFO in the Valley and I can prove it.

 

Only the ones without a C-5 for a fairing.

 

LOL..

To see how big that bird really is on this Utube of a take off two what I think are Sukhoi stunt planes roll across the screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmD5w7z8iDk

 

The An-225 is a good bit larger than the C-5, which made it the logical choice for HD to ship said fairings in.

All truth aside, quite miraculous either one can get airborne!

 

We owe it all probably to a couple of those old Chinese guys who were around several centuries before Orville and Wilbur...

Never seen one of those An-225s but my personal critera is measured on who has the best flight lunches. Give me a PB&J or a meat loaf sandwich any time over cabbage and spuds.

 

Good read indeed, and putting this into personal context I will say that even the season affects the extent a motorcycle is cloaked. Due to the bizarre semi-winter this season I rode a LOT of miles during the normal 'stowed' months. As the season wore on drivers either noticed me less, or gave even less of a shit that I was occupying "their" roads.

 

Visual perception is fascinating and we don't pay enough attention to it. It's still poorly understood by scientists and unheard of by most people, even the ones designing bikes and gear and making legislation. This is why most of the hi-viz stuff they put on riding gear does nothing. Little flashes of colour, that don't add up to a clear outline that the brain can recognise. Most bikes and most gear fit this category. Hi Viz vests, often do as well as the shape is broken up by reflective tape.

Plain colors with high contrast and easily recognised outlines are the most effective way of getting over the brains perceptual shortcomings. The same effect comes into play when people go hunting for the first time. They usually do this with a parent or other mentor. That person often spends a bit of time pointing out animals to the youngster. It is amazing how hard it is to see a prey animal sitting in broken cover. More experienced hunters tend to have an intimate knowledge of every part of their prey and their brains can pick out tell tale bits, like an ear or leg and then put the jigsaw together. So car drivers often do look right at us but the brain simply doesn't recognise any obvious shapes and ignores us or it fails to put the jigsaw pieces together in time. Ride like you're invisible because, in a very meaningful way, you are.

There are some patterns that seem to be really well ingrained in most peoples brains. Plain white helmets, I suspect are one of them, there is some research to back this up, but I think there is some truth to it based on my own observations.

Most animals are also pretty much hard wired to look for eyes. I suspect that twin headlights are more easily recognised than single ones. My VFR is a pretty big winner on most of these scores, plain colour (and yes black is actually a high contrast colour, red may be better, or yellow, but black isn't all that bad as long as there's lots of it and the shape isn't too fussy), twin lights, twin running lights. I stick a white lid on and I rarely have issues with people pulling out on me.

The thing to remember in my opinion is that there are no magical talismans that ensure that we are seen. You can do SMIDSY weaves, you can wear all your most visible gear, ride a plain coloured bike with twin lights, a modulator, running lights, loud pipes and so on and we still have to remember that they still may not even be looking, let alone "seeing".

 

Looks like BB likes to sneak on planes and not pay.