Subject: Visibility and Drivers
The following is quoted with permission by the author, from the July '97
issue of "Airmail" Newsletter of the Airheads Beemer Club. This is a group of motorcycle
riders of the "Airhead Boxers" (BMW motorcycles with air-cooled engines).
Some of the article won't pertain, directly, to bicycle riders (i.e.: the
lighting systems) but the gist of the information presented should shed
some light on why we don't get seen when we're biking...
-------------
"Get Horizontal"
by B. Jan Hoffman
43% of all motorcycle accidents occur as a result of an oncoming
vehicle turning across the path of a rider. Drivers simply fail to
recognize the motorcyclist's right of way. Their typical lament is "I just
didn't see him". You might lament "How the hell is that possible, you were
looking right at me, you zoned-out space cadet!"
Some motorcyclists may feel that drivers deliberately choose not to
see us. They feel that drivers resent us because of our agility,
acceleration, or designer leathers. Others suspect that some car drivers
must be anally retentive psychopaths who compensate for their fear of
flying by driving to kill.
In the urban rain forests of LA or New York, that may be true. But
elsewhere, most drivers really don't see motorcycles. Well yes, their eyes
see us, but the image doesn't register in the brain. Why is that?
Some intelligent doctor types have postulated that the brain is an
organ which rejects, rather than gathers information. They believe that if
all the information collected by the senses were to register, the brain
would experience sensory overload and blow its fuses.
For example, all the billboards, signs and other visual messages along
the road can't possibly register in the brains of car drivers. That would
cause sensory overload. To prevent that, the brain tends to organize the
world into systems; those which are important to the activity at hand, and
those which aren't. The car driver's brain has learned to exclude the
non-essentials, and to focus only on those objects which are a threat to
survival. On the road, those objects are predominantly other cars.
Because cars are much wider than they are tall, the brain systematizes
threats as objects characterized by horizontal lines.
Things characterized by vertical lines are eliminated from
consciousness as non-threatening, extraneous information. Trees, lamp
standards, sign posts, bridge abutments, buildings; none of these vertical
objects are liable to jump out in front of the driver to threaten his
existence.
Along comes a motorcycle. The driver's eyes give it a quick visual
scan and the brain determines that this too is a vertical object. No
threat. No further focus required. Zone out. Continue replay of last
nights debauchery.
The next thing you know, the driver turns left across your lane even
though you can see him looking right at you!
In my early days of riding, an experienced rider hammered at me
ceaselessly with the message that "You are invisible out there!" All I
heard him say was "Be careful". I didn't understand at the time that he
was saying "To most car drivers, you are literally invisible."
Anyone with experience on a bike knows that he was right. Many a
novice rider has departed the corporal world because he rode his bike the
way he drove his car; as if he could actually be seen.
My advice is, if you don't want to be horizontal, look horizontal.
How do we do that? One way is to use running lights. Many Japanese bikes
have orange running lights up front integrated into the signal light
housing. That gives some sense of horizontal perspective to car drivers.
Some Harleys have a pair of white driving lights alongside of the
headlight. That's more effective due to the increased candlepower.
I've often lamented the lack of stock running lights on unfaired
airheads. A single headlight does not give a sense of perspective, and
therefore tends to disappear into the background. I replaced the stock
signal lights on the front of my Roadster with 4" round signal/running
lights. They immediately and dramatically improved the etiquette of the
other users of the road. Some Airheads have disparaged the aesthetics of
my "police" lights. I find the impromptu installation of a Buick grill
even less attractive.
I've also converted the rear signal lights to signal/running lights.
As with the additional front lights, they made an immediate improvement in
the etiquette of other road users.
I realized the importance of rear running lights when I was following
a friend home from Barley Therapy one dark evening. To my surprise, rather
than focusing on his GS tail light and spacing myself accordingly, I soon
found myself gauging my distance from the rear end of the car ahead of him.
His pathetic little taillight simply dissolved into the brighter lights
of the car, and his bike effectively disappeared.
If this can happen to me, you can be sure it will happen to car
drivers, who are not attuned to motorcycles.
So, get horizontal. Convert your signal lights into signal/running
lights. If you are going to apply reflective tape to your bike, jacket or
helmet, make horizontal or diagonal lines rather than vertical ones.
Most of all, negotiate our streets and highways as if you are
invisible.
------------------
For those of you interested in more info regarding the "Airheads" their
website was at http://www.vci.net/~mcl/ahs/airheads.htm but the link is dead now.
Be seeing you...
John Moore
This page was last revised on: August 26, 2006.
Contact us.