Scary stats on invisible cyclists

[mrcharly-YHT]

I'm always surprised that we've allowed drivers to have a screen with directions in front of them. It's unsurprising that those who've grown up with Sat-Nav don't see the obvious hazard of such a distraction, they live in a world where undivided attention is the norm.

Did you mean: "they live in a world where divided attention is the norm."

I'd say that people who have grown up with computers and gaming are very accustomed to processing multiple inputs. It's quite impressive, actually, but I don't think it produces good drivers!

[bikey-mikey]

This explains to me why drivers waiting on BIG roundabouts, or indeed approaching the laughably called 'give way' line, when you watch their heads, look very briefly over the give way line, and then they turn their heads 90 degrees right to look at cars and lorries way back around the roundabout.

It's as if they don't need to look in the middle of those two areas, because any car that is there will have already passed, by the time they pull out...

If the area back around the roundabout is clear, they just pull out....  They are not trained to look in between for us slower moving targets !!!!!!!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Which is why it's a good idea, as you approach their entrance, to look the driver in the eyes - assuming you can see through their tinted windscreen - and sometimes to move sideways within your lane; makes you look bigger and the sideways movement can be more eye-catching than simple approaching linear movement.

[Exit Stage Left]

I'm always surprised that we've allowed drivers to have a screen with directions in front of them. It's unsurprising that those who've grown up with Sat-Nav don't see the obvious hazard of such a distraction, they live in a world where undivided attention is the norm.

Did you mean: "they live in a world where divided attention is the norm."

I'd say that people who have grown up with computers and gaming are very accustomed to processing multiple inputs. It's quite impressive, actually, but I don't think it produces good drivers!

You're right about the divided attention thing. Young female Sat-Nav users might be the ones who we need to look out for. I'm a 55 year old non Sat
-Nav male.

Drivers                 % that failed to spot cyclists

Sat nav drivers                     23.7

Non-sat nav drivers                 19.0

Female drivers                      25.6

Male drivers                        17.1

Drivers aged 20-29                  31.1

Drivers aged 30-39                  20.7

Drivers aged 40-49                  21.6

Drivers aged 50-59                  20.9

All drivers                         22.0

[hatler]

Drivers                 % that failed to spot cyclists

Sat nav drivers                     23.7

Non-sat nav drivers                 19.0

Female drivers                      25.6

Male drivers                        17.1

Drivers aged 20-29                  31.1

Drivers aged 30-39                  20.7

Drivers aged 40-49                  21.6

Drivers aged 50-59                  20.9

All drivers                         22.0

Strewth !  That's scary. Have you got a link for those stats ?

[PhilO]

Drivers                 % that failed to spot cyclists

Sat nav drivers                     23.7

Non-sat nav drivers                 19.0

Female drivers                      25.6

Male drivers                        17.1

Drivers aged 20-29                  31.1

Drivers aged 30-39                  20.7

Drivers aged 40-49                  21.6

Drivers aged 50-59                  20.9

All drivers                         22.0

Strewth !  That's scary. Have you got a link for those stats ?

They look like the ones from the article referred to in the OP. As per the discussions on page 1, 'failed to look directly at' <> 'did not see'. It's not comforting, but it's not as scary as it looks.

[jogler]

There is no incentive to look properly.Drivers are allowed to injure cyclists,kill them even,without fear of appropriate penalty.

[bikey-mikey]

Yes, I know of a German coach driver who hit me, and quite possibly didn't even see me, and who was released by the police without charge, or even it seems the consideration of a charge

[bikey-mikey]

I'm pretty sure his insurance premiums have taken an alarming jump though.......

[Pickled Onion]

As per the discussions on page 1, 'failed to look directly at' <> 'did not see'. It's not comforting, but it's not as scary as it looks.

Or, given the number of anecdotes of drivers who do look directly at you, then state categorically they didn't see you, it might be more scary than it looks!

[jogler]

Where is the category for those who do look,do see you & still carve you up 'cause they just DGAF.

In fairness it's possible that they are simply crap at judging speed & distance

[red marley]

There is no incentive to look properly.Drivers are allowed to injure cyclists,kill them even,without fear of appropriate penalty.

I don't think it's the extreme cases, involving death or even a collision that necessarily need stiffer sentences. Or at least, I don't think stiffer sentences in those cases would have much of a direct effect on behaviour. After all, compared with the consequences of killing someone, whether a driver considers a penalty might be 2 years or 10 years is probably fairly low down in their priorities while on the road.

Where there does need to be stiffer sentencing, and importantly, enforcement, is in the 'careless' behaviour that can increase the likelihood of collision in the first place. Driving safely is hard, and requires considerable effort to go with the responsibility of moving a big lump of metal around at speed. We shouldn't tolerate the short cuts in vigilance that lead to the kinds of stats being quoted here and that's where enforcement and penalty can have an effect. As ever, blogger Bez puts it rather well.

[rabbit]

Everyone suffers from the human condition.

The drivers that 'fail to spot' are not evil.  Or out to kill you deliberately.  Missing cyclists in your field of vision is very different to deliberately cutting as close as frickin possible to a pair riding two-a-breast to 'prove a point'.

It's life, humans aren't robots. 

I'd rather take my chances with the traffic as it is than be mollycoddled into driving everywhere at 20 mph....which I guess won't be a popular view on here, but hey ho....another part of the human condition is that we all have different opinions. 

[mattc]

I'd rather take my chances with the traffic as it is than be mollycoddled into driving everywhere at 20 mph....which I guess won't be a popular view on here, but hey ho....another part of the human condition is that we all have different opinions.

Is anyone suggesting driving EVERYWHERE at 20mph?

That's a fucking weird opinion. But is indeed part of the human condition that some will hold  fucking weird opinions.

[Martin]

I like to think of myself as invisible to all road users; even with Christmas lights hiviz etc;

when I see a vehicle ahead; or hear one behind, I think to myself "I'm invisible; what do I need to do to reduce the chances of being in an accident" and act accordingly *

it's avoided any accidents with other road users (which is the most important thing to me above all else) so far

* often this involves what some OTP might call "assertive" riding but I don't use words like that

[bikey-mikey]

If I hear a loud engine coming up and I'm completely sure the road is otherwise empty, I do tend to throw in a major wobble before getting back to a sensible position.

Seems likely that the brain of any driver on autopilot might see the wobble, and that might make it think I might wobble again, and then give the body instructions to steer a bit further away from me!!

[jsabine]

Aye, I've been known to use a tactical wobble or two as well. Or sometimes pretending to be entirely unaware of the motor vehicle behind me as I move very, very gently a bit further away from the kerb - I'm convinced there are situations where a glance behind gets interpreted as an invitation to pass fast and close, generally immediately before a pinch point.

[mattc]

I like to think of myself as invisible to all road users; even with Christmas lights hiviz etc;

when I see a vehicle ahead; or hear one behind, I think to myself "I'm invisible; what do I need to do to reduce the chances of being in an accident" and act accordingly *

it's avoided any accidents with other road users (which is the most important thing to me above all else) so far

* often this involves what some OTP might call "assertive" riding but I don't use words like that

What difference does the word make?!? What matters is your riding.

[teethgrinder]

Is there another set of stats to show what percentage of motorists have seen cyclists at night wearing dark clothes and without lights, or jumping red traffic lights?

[fuzzy]

Last night I was driving a Mazda 6 towards a mini roundabout in rain, on a steet lit road, single carriageway, one lane in each direction, at 10:00 p.m.- here.

As I approached the roundabout, I scanned several times to the right and was about to accelerate, turning right when I suddenly spied the front wheel of a bicycle as the bike negotiated the roundabout from my right. I stopped in time to not scare the rider (as far as I know) but it did scare me.

The wheel and rest of the bike and rider was first spied through my windscreen, I did not see either the bike of the rider as I scanned to my right. The bike was equipped with a front light and the rider was wearing a light coloured helmet and dark top clothing.

At the time I had absolutely no idea why I didn't see the bike earlier. After a few moments reflection, I concluded a combination of factors contributed-

a) The rain drops on the side windows and outside the sweep of the wipers refracted the light from the street lamps and bike light so that it didn't register with me.

b) The relatively low speed of the bike (upright bike, rider not progressing particularly swiftly) may have meant that the light on the bike was occluded by the drivers door mirror for the whole of my approach to the roundabout.

c) I was tired and my observation fell far below the standard it should have been.

This scared the crap out of me and reinforced my decision to always wear a light on my helmet when riding at night as it gives another light source to register with an attentive driver.

[clarion]

I wish all motorists encountering a similar situation reflected on it so carefully.

[Pickled Onion]

Could he have been obscured by the A post? Some roundabout approaches curve so that the angle of the arc travelled by an approaching car exactly tracks the speed of a cyclist - so if you're obscured by the A post, you stay obscured while faster (or slower) vehicles are not.

[hatler]

I work very hard when driving at moving my head around so that I see round the A post.

On a wet night I too lost a cyclist in the background lights directly ahead of me, I was waiting to turn off a main road to the right. I saw him before I started moving, but it was that incident that persuaded me that I needed to have both a fixed and a flashing light on the front of the bike. That and the fact that the night before when I was on the bike someone nearly drove head on into me at a TL crossroads where I was waiting to turn right and he was aiming to do the same but coming from the other direction.

[TimC]

The A post on many cars is now so thick (due to crash-worthiness regs, mainly) that it obscures a very considerable amount of the driver's view - and particularly in just the place that you need that view when approaching a roundabout. My last daily driver - an XC90 - was particularly bad in this respect, but my current Fiesta really isn't that much better. I've seen this flagged up in a number of road tests in car magazines, but it's not reflected in either better car design or reminders to the driving public to try and compensate for the lost field of view. Sadly, the result is many emergency stops approaching roundabouts, and occasionally something worse.

Fuzzy, I absolutely recognise the situation you describe! These days, I make a big effort to look round the A-pillar and slow down far more than I used to when approaching roundabouts.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Just an impression, but I think big roundabouts - dual-carriageway and motorway junctions, for instance - can be better in this respect than smaller ones. I suppose it's because the angles are different, or maybe it's because the greater size means you take that much longer to cycle between previous exit and the next entrance that you are bound to move a bit in relation to the driver.