Blind car drivers? It's your fault. Really, it is
Your destiny is in your own hands
Be seen, you
Making car drivers see you is an art form that you learn from experience and narrow scrapes.
It’s a fact of riding a bike that you’re harder to see than a double decker bus, it’s obvious isn’t it? You're small, fast and mostly, totally obscured by the average A-pillar.
As an antidote to this, some people take the high-viz route and with enough dedication it’s quite easy to look like a cross between a radioactive lollipop woman and an IAM instructor’s instructor. Each to their own.
I’ve sort of developed my own technique of being seen and it’s largely based on placing yourself and your bike in the part of road that makes you the most visible to the hazards that you spot and anticipate – if that makes sense?
When I was an arrogant seventeen year old (as opposed to an arrogant 45 year old) I believed that blind faith in my own ability would protect me. Several impacts with cows (x2), sheep (1) and cars (3) were enough to prove me wrong – not that I realized it at the time. I blamed farmer’s fencing in poor repair and myopic car drivers without realizing that, all along, it was my fault.
To ride a bike quickly and safely you have to be part mind reader, part paranoid and part clairvoyant. Oh, and super smooth and predictable. To think ‘oh, I just knew he was going to do that’ is a winning thought. Prediction is a life saver.
Obviously there are things to help you predict. Like any cod mind-reader/spiritualist/magician there are tools out there to help you along the way. Let's call it cheating.
Road signs are an obvious one. How many time have you piled through a blind corner on the edge of side grip only to discover a car pulling out of a junction just past the apex. The fact that they started pulling out before you even arrived in view makes it your fault. The sign was there to warn you that a junction lay around the turn. I’ll labour the point no more.
Riding into work this morning – and I know this is a dangerous thing to say, not wanting to tempt fate and all taht – I was amazed by how few cars were chopping me up. Then I remembered that my bike is fitted with LED lights in the front of the wing mirrors. Honda claim it’s part of their ‘face recongnition’ technology. Apparently human beings are programmed to sit up and take notice of anything resembling a face and the LED lights in the front of my wing mirrors are they ‘eyes’ of my VFR’s ‘face’. If I was still seventeen I’d probably believe that it was just my razor sharp reactions keeping me out of trouble but now I’m starting to believe that they may be onto something…
How do you avoid trouble? Would love to hear your tips…
Discuss this story
Full beam everywhere, anytime, all the time, as standard. I dont care how irate oncomming motorists become, even colleagues arn't spared when i follow them into work in the morning - unless its one of the Office girls. Continental lorry drivers appear to take most offense out of all road users. R6 lights are best ive had so far, by a long way. Couldn't afford a race pipe to alert motorists to my presence, so gutted out the cat myself. to be honest its a bit bodged, but works good. Keep it in first or second in most urban situations and filter through traffic as agressively as i can looking for the most space up ahead to get myself into. The exhaust is very effective, just whip the clutch in when you see plod. First two years and no crashes, had a couple altercations with car drivers though. The only time ive crashed was when i tried to ride home through a country lane pissed up in the early hours and ended up in culvert - but everyones done that havent they.
Posted: 23/09/2010 at 20:03
Rules of survival: Rule 1: All car drivers are blind Rule 2: The rest are actively trying to kill you Rule 3: If it's a Volvo or a taxi and it looks like it might, it definitely will.
Posted: 24/09/2010 at 02:07
i would add:- Rule 4: Ride and behave like Ennio then expect people to hit you because your a cunt and you need a lesson. If you think full beams and loud pipes are going to help you, your in for a surprise.
Posted: 24/09/2010 at 03:19
Ennio. Go fuck yourself. The End.
Posted: 24/09/2010 at 07:41
Everyone who dosen't look for bikes is without doubt out too kill you, many just don't know it yet! Main points most ex-couriers soon learn are: Over taking at Junctions is rediculous 90% of the time, if you aren't sure what the car infront of you is planning, then why risk it all too get past em, you might end up with no spleen and a fractured pelvis which I'm pretty sure sucks. Ride wherever you can see the most of oncoming hazards. This may mean being in the oncoming lane at times as it's simply safer at times when you have a clear view of anyone else who may be planning on using it. Remember "You pay road tax for both sides of the road!!" Don't ride close up behind cars unless you can clearly see atleast one of their side mirror's. This means if the car infront of you has too break suddenly, if for some reason your reaction too their idiocracy isn't 100% you can just sail by them too one side or the other, many times meaning you just keep going whilst they deal with whatever they breaked for. Try too realise how much danger you're in at all times. Kind-a-like a Danger-o-meter that is guided by your own paranoia of every single possible hazard that you can think of, including, suicidal animals. (If you've every hit a fox at 70mph you'll understand the rediculousness of em!) and retarded/stupid/on their phone drivers. And ride at the speed and lean angles appropriate for your danger-o-meter!! Obviously a bit slower and with a smaller braking distance if it's got all crazy dangerous all of a sudden, which is usually due too poor road management/design. Ride 90% of the time within the distance you can break in. If you can see the point where you can stop the bike by then you're fairly safe from most hazards. Expect the unexpected, assume everyone else on the road passed their test in Venezuala or similar where the test is quite frankly rubbish and most pet hamsters could pass. (No dis-respect venezualen?s) AND finally! The number one rule is too stay FOCUSSED on the task of staying rubber side up, coz crashing your pride and joy and getting injured isn't cool and usually ends in you holding up other people whilst you're picked up off the road, which sucks! Ride safe, I don't all the time but if someone reads any of the above and it saves em from a crash surely it was worth babbling on about the lamest subject known too mankind - safety.
Posted: 24/09/2010 at 08:52
That is all awesome advice, thanks Thomp! I try to follow most of that at advice, but sometimes I get complacent :/ Good to be reminded from time to time! And I totally agree with the title of the article - car driver hit you/you hit a car? It's always -your- fault. Ride like that and it'll save your life. Has saved my skin quite a few times I can tell you!
Posted: 24/09/2010 at 16:11
How about: Never think that just because someone else is a rider that they've noticed you or have correctly judged the speed you are doing. To explain: a couple of years back I was riding an ER5 toward a junction at some speed, I was on the bit of road that meant I didn't have to give way and the vehicle I saw approaching from my right was a bike. Great, I thought, they'll spot me, I can carry on. The rider started crossing from right to left in front of me, I saw him finish crossing in my left hand mirror... The cagers do the same thing there, usually going the other way though. Another one is learn from your mistakes. I take that particular junction a lot slower now, and, if possible, tuck myself in between a couple of cars, I may not be as visible that way but they tend to stop for the cars giving them extra time to notice me.
Posted: 25/09/2010 at 00:10
In the western world, we assume there are rules for everything, that everyone must and will obey. We even expect animals to obey them. In other parts of the world, you must drive / ride in total self defence because there's only a few rules, not thousands of them, and most people dont obey them. In a way its actually safer because it forces you, and most others, into defensive mode. You can't just tear through intersections because you theoretically have the right of way, or you may die. But that's what we do, all the time. My riding instructor told me, ' you can blame the other person as much as you want, and you're probably right, but tell that to the leg you just had amputated. You on a bike are always the loser, unjust maybe, but reality. Reality rules over justice, always has always will. Its up to you to avoid the accident. An accident is always your fault because you should have seen the danger.' It all came shockingly true one day. I was passed by and then was following this unknown biker in a very busy urban thoroughfare. A truck turned right, right in front of him. The truck was totally in the wrong, no question. The bike hit it. The poor guy died. Reality bit him, hard. Sadly I must admit it was his fault. He was just tearing through, doing the speed limit, the law perfectly on his side - but it didnt matter. I saw the truck coming and I stopped, quite safely actually. Still a big wake up call. I thanked my instructors words.
Posted: 25/09/2010 at 04:36
I ride as if everyone around me is drunk and still testing for their driver's permit. I never ride up anyones ass; when I am passing a vehicle I do it with urgency and no hesitation. When riding in a group I'm usually in the back watching out for myself and don't get caught up in the racing mentality (I try not to at any rate). I also think about my wife and how it would be horrible to leave her a widow. Wearing hi-viz kit helps: white helmet and boots, reflective piping on my jacket. Ride with conviction but never beyond your skill level, pay attention to everything around you, use your peripheral vision at all times, and give yourself plenty of room to stop. Treat everyone else on the road (including other riders) as if they are drunken idiots, but most of all (speaking from experience) never, ever disrespect your motorcycle. Complacency can kill you.
Posted: 25/09/2010 at 21:08
Well said tuono808 took me a few off's to realise most of that but as mentioned by pyndman sometimes you don't get a second chance to learn from YOUR mistake.
Posted: 27/09/2010 at 11:50
Accelrating too fast within the speed limits can cause problems. It makes changing lanes invovle as much checking as pulling out from stationary. It may be legal but coming off a roundabout on those dual carriageways with lots of them, the car want's to overtake the lorry and is doing 40 the car behind is at 30 close to the exit and the lorry on 20 having lumbered round. Car moves to overtake and a bike comes off the roundabout straight up to 70, leaving 30mph difference just when their two paths match. Or like being stationary in a 30 limit and trying to change lanes.
Posted: 28/09/2010 at 18:11
One of the biggies for me is cars doing unsignalled u-turns, including from parking spaces/the roadside. Have had two close calls in cars and two or three on bikes with people doing that. Last one that did that, I was lucky the driver didn't freeze up and actually completed the turn. I look very carefully at stopped vehicles. Also agree about passing at junctions, especially ones where you know cars frequently queue for a turn. Either go on the other side of them (if safe), or wait until after the junction to pass.
Posted: 29/09/2010 at 15:13
Big loud can. No matter how much effort you make to help cars see you and avoid potential collisions by your own good riding, there are still going to be things you don't succeed in anticipating and other road users who don't see you. My thinking has always gone along the route of "if the bike is loud, its one more thing that is noticable, if they haven't seen me there is a chance they will hear me." A driver that is annoyed by your exhaust, is a driver that has realised you are there.
Posted: 29/09/2010 at 16:11
Look at the car and the driver's behaviour. If the drivers's peering at signposts, if there's a map in sight or the car has lots of stickers that say it's from somewhere else, he's probably not local, doesn't know the road and could take any turning without warning or stop suddenly if he thinks he missed his turning. Don't overtake - on either side - at junctions until you *know* what the car's doing. You can lose a car in your blind spot, so do life-savers, and a car driver can lose you in his blind spot. The blind spots on truck are much bigger! Of course sometime they won't see you anyway, they're programmed to look for car-shaped things and you don't fit the profile, so do something unexpected  Enjoy your riding!
Posted: 29/09/2010 at 17:50
I got taken out last year by a car driver who just didn't look. The witness said so. The insurance companies have agreed that it ![]() ![]() ![]() was so. While I was still on the ground, next to my smashed up, brand new bike, he got out of his car, leaned over me and started to argue his case. It turned out he wasn't blind; Just a complete twat ! ![]() ![]() What can you do when someone doesn't look at all? I'd already slowed down for the junction!
Posted: 29/09/2010 at 18:07
Main beams? NO! Far too difficult to judge your speed and distance away - you look futher and slower than you really are, exactly what you don't want! Loud Cans? NO! You'll only be heard after (if?)you've gone past, not from the front. They only serve to piss off other road users and the general public, and will do more than anything else to get biking banned, especially in national parks etc. I'm all in favour of everything else said above.
Posted: 29/09/2010 at 18:43
Wing mirrors? Car drivers don't use them - A light weave, a safe distance behind them, will get you noticed far more quickly in their rear view mirror. Politeness - A wave of thanks, or sorry, does wonders. The ones that like us will feel better about themselves, the ones that hate us will feel better about the world. Eye contact - Do you want to jump that queue of traffic at the lights? Then pull up alongside the car at the front, lift your visor and ask - 9/10 times they will wait for you. Have done this loads of times when finding myself on the right side when wanting to turn left at lights. Blame - Is irrelevant. Impoliteness - Do whatever the hell you need to do to get noticed. If you think that car is going to straightline the roundabout across your path, then use your horn and tell them you are there. You can then be polite AFTER they have seen you.
Posted: 29/09/2010 at 23:20
Keep your distance - nothing worse than having some twat burning a hole in your retinas and weaving around from wing mirror to rear view and to opposite wing. By the time car's worked out where you are he'll be ploughing through a line of stationary traffic with you in tow. He'll lose his no claims, what will you lose? Filtering - watch every vehicle. Women texting their mates and drifting, blokes watching you then drifting. If you're blocked, is it worth vandalising someone's car over? A tap on the window is one thing but if someone was to put a dent in my shiny door I wouldn't be fucking happy about it. I'm not happy at getting blocked either but it's all part of the rich fabric of life - if you feel the need to react violently everytime things don't go your way, leave the bike at home and get a bus. Be the bigger person and blow him away at the next junction or lights. Undertaking - just don't. By the time the dozy bastard has seen you, thought about it, worked out the correct course of action and acted, you'll be alongside just as he swerves madly out of your way. Non bikers have absolutely no perception of how quickly modern bikes can accelerate. I drive a car and ride a bike, probably like most of us. I move over for bikes, always have, but have been caught out a few times by 100mph plus rocket jockeys. If my car is getting bigger quicker than you'd like, assume you're going too bloody fast and get out of the throttle. And finally, if you're negotiating a sweeping right hander, cranked way over with your wheels an inch from the centre line, your head is on the wrong side of the road. Amazing how many bikers don't seem to realise that.
Posted: 29/09/2010 at 23:45
Have to agree that high beams at night is not the best, you can be blinding oncoming drivers. I read that we all think they are blind anyhow, but there is no good reason to tempt fate! Also my bike has two lights side by side, single beam is a single light. Now imagine high beam two close dots of lights... viewed from afar at night what would most other drivers interpert that as? A car far off, they distance between the lights increases as cars approach. So remember you may be mascarading as a distant car but running on high beams. I also agree on making youself seen, I am not talking orange vests per se. But hang behind a car and weave a little being sure you are in thier rear view mirror before overtaking works wonders. Not said thus far two simple ways to be notices, Flash high beams, and use your horn. I often give a small flash and "beep" before overtaking this works equally well in city driving as highway. A word on positioning. Stay away from the curb as far as possible. You have a lot more chance to react to cars opening doors, cars entering, dogs, cats, small children chasing balls. Be cool, be smooth, be predictable. Other drivers need time to react to you, is you are driving in an unpredictable manner, they will not know what to expect even if they see you. Emergency braking, ABS... blah, blah, blah. I am the worlds best stopper! Just remember that bus behind you ain't! Do assume cos you can stop fast that this is the safest thing to do. In my experience it is getting out of the way fast. Yes, brake hard, but also head for the shoulder or center of the road if there is someone behind you. let the cagers collide. Drive like a maniac, die a maniac. This is just a personal take. But I feel there is far, far too much emphasis on going fast. There is so much more to riding than speed. There's the feeling of freedom, there's the element of being closer nature (pls don't hit the trees). Speed, may be all there is for some, but for others like myself, slow down, soak it all up and enjoy the ride. Who cares if a ganny on a bicycle passes you? Life is wonderful when riding, make sure that life is not unduely shortened.
Posted: 30/09/2010 at 04:26
Loud cans DO work and they CAN hear you from in front of you. Unless you're going faster than the speed of sound???
Posted: 01/10/2010 at 13:03
I'm fascinated by the mentality of the "against" argument over loud cans (in respect of safety). As noise is a basic sensory stimulus, a louder can must positively affect a biker's chances of being noticed. I think we have to accept that as a reasonable statement of fact - and I know from experience that drivers, particularly in urban areas, pay more attention to loud bikes. Whether or not this inspires admiration, casual observation or revulsion is simply moot. Honestly - so what? Safety is paramount. After all, the police use sirens to the same effect and for the same reason. Try telling them that these are an unjustifiable nuisance and observe the response. Exhausts facing backwards? Don't worry, the amazing phenomenon of wave reflection deals with that. Excessive noise? You don't have to hoon around everywhere on the limiter in 1st! Virtually anything modded with perhaps the exception of a racing v-twin with very loud straight-through exhausts can be ridden with a tolerable degree of consideration for others. Riding at night? Baffle up and check your lights. As for those that will still be upset by reasonably behaved and respectful can-equipped bikers, I argue that these types would be annoyed by Mother Teresa - as if I could care less for their opinions. I'll never be made to feel guilty by man or law for looking out for my own neck. I simply cannot relate to those that will.
Posted: 04/10/2010 at 11:07
Some do not even see emergency vehicles with all horns, sirens and lights flashing
I mean what chance do we have if they will pull out in front of one of these , sorry officer but I did not see the light and high viz vest!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean who is safe from these drivers
Uploaded with ImageShack.us I have a new motorbike slogan for a new think bike campain You would not step in front of a bullet so why pull out in front of a motorbike
Side bags are not designed to stop motorbikes, do not pull out in front of them
The child seat in the car is not tested for pulling out in front of motorbikes Don't do it
Uploaded with ImageShack.us Up till know its alway shown the biker dead or injured, maybe its time to show them they are not immune from death He did not see that coming, neither did you or your kids, don't pull out in front of a motorbike
There is a reason why bullets are small don't pull out in front of a bike
Posted: 05/10/2010 at 07:56
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