"They're out to get you: study finds cyclists face paranoia about drivers"
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
study finds cyclists face paranoia about drivers
(26 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don't know which is the healthier alternative:
- the belief that they're all out to get you
- the belief that they don't care about you and your injury or death is just a result of them not caring
The outcome is the same, after all.
Posted 5 years ago # -
People at the wheels of their automobiles are thinking about what to have for tea tonight or whether or not to proposition their colleague on Friday.
There is a great technique in Motorcycle Roadcraft of taking control of your inner monologue and making it a neutral list of perceived hazards and action plans should they become dangers, but frankly I can't see it catching on for walking-pace traffic on George IV Bridge.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"People at the wheels of their automobiles are thinking about ..."
That amazingly funny video they're watching on their mobile that someone shared..
(THUD!)
"Oh sh1t I think I just hit something/one. Better switch off the phone quick."
Posted 5 years ago # -
"There is a great technique in Motorcycle Roadcraft of taking control of your inner monologue and making it a neutral list of perceived hazards and action plans should they become dangers"
Isn't this what we all do all the time while cycling?
Posted 5 years ago # -
There is a great technique in Motorcycle Roadcraft of taking control of your inner monologue and making it a neutral list of perceived hazards and action plans should they become dangers
Just as valuable when cycling
It's equal portions evaluating what you can't see, just as much as what you can.
It can be so small as mindfully noticing the street lights move all to one side. (on a 2 lane road the lights are always on the outside of a bend)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Isn't this what we all do all the time while cycling?
I doubt that the inside of cyclists' heads are knowable....but I expect many folk have evolved versions of this technique.
The police rider instruction is to actually say the words out loud until it becomes natural enough to become a silent monologue. The need to look for things to say sharpens you perceptions - see @Klaxon's lights and my favourite - the dashed white lines in the centre of the road getting closer together as you approach a hazard.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"There is a great technique in Motorcycle Roadcraft of taking control of your inner monologue and making it a neutral list of perceived hazards and action plans should they become dangers"
This should be one of those "other people don't do this?" things, like washing your hands, shoulder-checking when lane-changing or turning off your phone in the cinema. At the very least everyone should be aware of what's around them, approaching them and what they can stop in time for, whatever their transport mode, but the existence of (for example) the passenger side's invisible brake pedal demonstrates that some people do not start slowing as soon as a potential hazard has been identified.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Yep - speaking about all the hazards you can see or anticipate is a very educational part of the advanced driving / roadcraft training.
Funnily enough on most urban roads 30mph is too fast to be able to articulate them. To be able to identify and mention all the hazards, you initially find yourself slowing down ...to about 20!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Did they not do a study a while back, in Edinburgh I think, where they gave cyclists mikes to record thoughts?
I seem to remember it did showed that experienced cyclists would just calmly list through the potential dangers of the next section of road.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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When you don't have to think about balance, or the cold, or bumps in the road, or muscle cramps, or even random undertaking/overtaking, or even shoulder checks, the typical motorist ought to have brainpower to spare for observations. But driving is just too easy now, and besides, nothing ever really happens anyway… What's the harm in not bothering to look beyond that gap?
Posted 5 years ago # -
"Did they not do a study a while back, in Edinburgh I think, where they gave cyclists mikes to record thoughts? "
http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=14145
I did a thing wearing a Google Monocle and verbally annotating my cycling from Inverleith Park/Carrington Road/Crewe Toll roundabout/Ferry Road then back down either Arboretum Road or East Fettes.
Posted 5 years ago # -
driving is just too easy now
Bring back non-synchromesh gearboxes and ignition advance/retard controls, that's what I say!
And 50 horsepower should be enough for anyone.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Bring back non-synchromesh gearboxes and ignition advance/retard controls, that's what I say!
And take out the seatbelts and airbags.
Posted 5 years ago # -
They should once again mandate smoking a pipe when driving
Posted 5 years ago # -
They should once again mandate smoking a pipe when driving
And cycling. Calm everyone right down.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Smoking doesn't always slow people down.
Posted 5 years ago # -
No air transfers that year. Proper tour that were.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@wingpig I love the idea of you in an old-school style monocle narrating your ride aloud as you pedal.
@Iwrats that route could be @sallyhinch's next holiday.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"Bring back non-synchromesh gearboxes and ignition advance/retard controls, that's what I say!
And 50 horsepower should be enough for anyone."
Manual choke, manually adjusted wing mirrors, and manual wind down side windows. Just to make life interesting, keep drivers "mindful" and get a bit of exercise winding window up and down to boot. Keeps the head clear.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@unhurt - I think we're allowing a week to do one stage of that
Posted 5 years ago # -
Manual choke, manually adjusted wing mirrors, and manual wind down side windows.
It's not that long since I had a car with all of the above, and not in a 'classic' sense!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Even by guardian standards, this is a shockingly poor article. Rambling, contradictory, misunderstands data, fails to join the dots...
Are drivers hostile towards cyclists?
Some are, some aren't. But enough of them are (and it only takes one to kill you) that it's reasonable to see drivers as hostile to cyclists.
There. It didn't take 770 words to sum that up, did it?
Posted 5 years ago # -
I would say most are just bad drivers rather than hostile although there are a fair number that are both
Posted 5 years ago #
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