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The disproportionately high number of motorcycle-related traffic accidents may be linked to the way the human brain processes—or fails to process—information, according to new research published in Human Factors, "Allocating Attention to Detect Motorcycles: The Role of Inattentional Blindness." The study examines how the phenomenon of inattentional blindness, or a person's failure to notice an unexpected object located in plain sight, might explain the prevalence of looked-but-failed-to-see (LBFTS) crashes, the most common type of collision involving motorcycles.
According to human factors/ergonomics researchers Kristen Pammer, Stephanie Sabadas, and Stephanie Lentern, LBFTS crashes are particularly troublesome because, despite clear conditions and the lack of other hazards or distractions, drivers will look in the direction of the oncoming motorcycle - and in some cases appear to look directly at the motorcycle - but still pull out into its path.
The study authors suggest training drivers to be more alert for motorcycles.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday January 06 2018, @04:39PM (5 children)
Stopping for a stop sign is stupid, in a car or on a bike. If there's no traffic, and you can see well enough to verify this, you don't need to stop. All stop signs should be changed to yield signs instead.
But it's worse on a bicycle, because the transition time between taking your foot off the pedal (which frequently means you have to disengage a clip), putting it on the ground, then starting again and getting the clip re-engaged is probably the most likely time you'll wreck on a bike, and doing so in an intersection is the worst place to do it. And at the same time, you're using one arm to give a hand signal, so you don't have both hands on the handlebars. Personally, I'll slow down enough to look around and make sure there's no cars around (which means I don't slow down at all if there's no cars at all in visual distance anywhere, as with wide-open rural places), and proceed with caution through the intersection. If there's cars, I'll generally try to slow down enough to almost-stop, without having to unclip, and then proceed when it's my turn.
Honestly, I'm a little sick of this "cyclists are assholes" thing. I've seen both types, and generally most cyclists I've seen are just fine: they wear helmets, use lights at night, follow traffic laws mostly (unless they're stupid), ride safely, etc. I have seen some assholes of course, but I wouldn't call them a majority. Maybe I'm in the wrong places or something. And lycra is the most sensible thing to wear on a bike: wind resistance is a real thing, and skintight clothes really do perform better when you're moving, which is why people wear them for every almost other kind of exercise these days.
(Score: 2) by tekk on Saturday January 06 2018, @07:50PM (3 children)
That's why in some states there are explicit laws which allow cyclists to treat stop signs as yields. In general a lot of the "dangerous" behavior for cyclists is the same reason motorcyclists do the same "dangerous" stuff: it keeps you moving and away from traffic, because stopped and near cars are the 2 biggest danger factors.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday January 06 2018, @08:52PM (2 children)
According to my quick bit of research, those "some states" are comprised of: Idaho, and.... that's it. I think Delaware and California are considering such laws.
But you're exactly right about the "dangerous" stuff.
There's also a law in Virginia (not sure about other states) that bicycles and motorcycles are allow to go through red lights after stopping and waiting 120 seconds, enough for two full cycles of the light, so they don't get trapped if the light doesn't detect them.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @09:55PM
That's a dead red law. In WA. it's not a time period, the light has to go around once without giving you a green at which point you can go anyways as long as it's safe.
There's one big issue with it that cops may or may not recognize it as a legal excuse for ignoring a red light.
(Score: 2) by tekk on Saturday January 06 2018, @10:48PM
Quick search said it started in Idaho, it was added to Delaware last year, and various municipalities have added it in Colorado. As far as the 2 cycle thing, I think that's a thing here in NC but that may just be hearsay. Depending on the traffic (cyclist) sometimes I deal with a light, but if it's, say, a left across a 4 line highway I usually use a crosswalk if it's available. Perks of a bike rather than a motorcycle :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 07 2018, @05:09AM
It's not stupid. If it's a four way stop as opposed to an uncontrolled intersection they didn't put those stop signs or stop signal up just because they had left over money in the budget. The stop signals are there for a reason and if you run it anyways and something happens, then you're the one that's going to be at fault.
Stopping completely for an uncontrolled intersection tends to be rather silly unless the visibility is poor though.