PSA: Motion Induced Blindness. Why drivers hit bikers.

[trof]

Got an email about this.
Don't think the term 'Motion Induced Blindness' is accurate.
It's more like 'Fixed Vision Blindness'.

Why so many motorcyclists and bikers get hit by drivers who should have been able to see them.

"Steady fixation favors disappearance, blinks or gaze shifts induce reappearance. All in all reminiscent of the Troxler effect, but stronger and more resistant to residual eye movements."

Anyway, this graphic is interesting and ...instructive?
http://www.msf-usa.org/motion.html

My rant:

The first time I strapped into a cockpit, my instructor said "Keep your head on a swivel."
To a newbie student pilot, the training base traffic pattern looked like a somewhat organized beehive. There were airplanes everywhere.
So I did keep my head on a swivel and scanned, scanned, scanned.
That was almost 50 years ago, and I haven't hit another airplane yet.
I drive the same way.

ALL cars have blind spots.
Windshield pillars, door pillars, etc.
If you're not constantly moving your head (your actual 'point of view'), especially at intersections, there can be large, hard, moving objects hiding in that blind spot.

On this subject...many of us seniors have 'handicapped parking' mirror tags.
If you read the tag it states "REMOVE BEFORE DRIVING".
I keep mine on the dash and hang it AFTER I park.
How many idiots do you see, everyday, driving around with their "I'm Special" tag boldly hanging from the rear-view mirror?
This creates a HUGE blind spot in a very dangerous location.
Police should start issuing at least warning tickets to violators.

<steps down from soapbox>
Peace

[saras]

1. More lame excuses. They don't see them because they JUDGE THEM AS UNIMPORTANT

It creates the huge difference between drivers who are bicycle-aware and those who aren't. They are two distinctly different groups statistically, with large behavioral differences when driving.

Drivers already do this for things they weigh as valuable. From an earlier era there are many reports of people who saw, clearly, everything else in an intersection - pedestrians, dogs, street name signs, etc. but DIDN'T see the bicyclist riding through the middle of it.

I suspect a lot of them are the same people who walk around with headphones on, utterly clueless as to how much disruption they are causing around them by getting in people's way.

[trof]

3. Fixated? Did you try the graphic?

[saras]

15. Yep. I learned to see through that stuff as a kid - I thought everyone did.

I used to think that that was the PURPOSE of publishing optical illusions - to teach you how to no longer fall for them.

In the graphic, if you take responsibility for what your eyes do, the illusion never happens. At least with me, it only works if I choose to go into a sort of half-trance state and watch the squares rotate round and round and round and round and round and round and round...

If I scan the scene, left-to right, top-to-bottom, the way I would while driving, consciously NOT stopping for "interesting" visual effects - no problem. The yellow dots stay where they are, they stay yellow, the green dot blinks on and off, and the blue grid rotates, except when it stops for a second (slow computer? part of the illusion?). It's not hard, though, to get one of the yellow dots to hit your blind spot for a half-second, but that's not long enough to cause trouble while driving.

And the article describes a similar process taught by a pilot. To me it's common sense, and a complete requirement while driving.

I suspect that most drivers are in that half-trance state most of the time. Nearly everyone in my personal life tells me they experience driving vastly different than me, and for them it's much more about "going with the flow" and much less about noticing and responding to things.

[Arugula Latte]

13. I really want to see bikers, and I'm terrified of hitting one,

but sometimes they ride on the shoulders of busy streets at dusk or dark with absolutely nothing to make them noticable until the last second -- no reflectors, no lights, not even light clothing -- nothing. They are putting WAY too must trust in drivers' abilities to see them.

[Bigmack]

23. YES. Couldn't agree more

and I'm a serious bicyclist. I try not to ride much at nite, but when I do, I make SURE that I've serious reflector lights on the bike and lite colored clothing on me. The thing that irritates me MOST about my fellow bicyclists is the tendency of too may of them to insist on their "right" to ride way out in the lane of traffic they're traveling in - often two or three abreast. Talk about ASKiNG for trouble! We always try to ride on the shoulder when there's a good, paved one, or way over to the right side of the lane if there's no shoulder, and in areas of heavy traffic, we ALWAYS ride single file. There's NO point in insisting on the right of way when I weigh 130 pounds, with the additional weight of my bike, and "they" weigh.....a thousand pounds plus! Bicyclists should always assume that motorists do NOT see them, and act accordingly.

[Saving Hawaii]

26. You're a 'serious bicyclist'... are you a commuter or a recreational cycler?

Because if you've done any commuting in urban areas I think you'd realize how unrealistic what your suggesting is. It's not safe. Sure, you can recognize the dangers and avoid most of them (dooring for example), but telling people to stay out of a lane of traffic without mentioning dooring is just asking for trouble.

And in all my time of riding a bicycle, the vast majority has involved taking lanes (including merges to turn lanes) on busy multi-lane streets. I've never come close to being hit doing that. I've twice been nailed by right hooks on the relatively rare occasions that I'm riding streets with bicycle lanes (neither were even busy streets). Both were daytime accidents, and I'm a big guy dressed in regular civilian clothing (not urban ninja camo). "Sorry I didn't see you" was what I heard both times. To be honest, I intentionally avoid streets with bike lanes now. Slow surface streets are my friend, but I'd rather ride a 35mph 4-laner in the lane than hang out in a bicycle lane. My experiences suggest it's a lot safer.

[RebelOne]

2. I have come very close to hitting bikers.

All of a sudden they are on your left side where you did not see them.

[trof]

4. I'd really like to hear comments on the graphic.

It's telling.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. If I look at the center, then the outer spots do occasionally seem to disappear

If I move my eyes around, they don't disappear.

I always try to keep from staring at one point while driving. One problem I've found, however, is that the part of the car frame that separates the windshield from the passenger and driver side windows, blocks a substantial part of my view of left-front and right-front.

[customerserviceguy]

17. I really didn't think it would "work" for me

because I'm not terribly susceptible to optical illusions and such, but this really made me say, wow.

[gratuitous]

5. Another thing to keep in mind

I commute 25 miles a day by bicycle, and there are all kinds of things I've learned over the last several years. First, be VISIBLE. I have flashing lights front and rear, I wear an optic yellow jacket or safety vest. I don't think I ride fast enough that someone could credibly allege that I "came out of nowhere," but I never want to come to in the hospital and hear "The dude said he never saw you!"

The other major piece of advice I have for cyclists is be where you're supposed to be, doing what you're supposed to be doing. Don't whip in and out of traffic, don't ride against traffic on the wrong side of the street, and don't switch from sidewalk to street and back again all the way up and down a street. Wait your turn. Be courteous.

[trof]

8. Yes. All good. But 'fixation' can still be a problim for car drivers.

As the video link shows.

[snagglepuss]

28. Serious cyclist here. Never owned a car, have commuted up to 16 miles a day, never been hit.

One reason I believe I've never been in an accident is related to the graph. Years ago I heard a scientist talk about the head movements of animals. HE said animals are hard-wired to respond to even the smallest head movements in animals around them, this is particularly noticeable in birds but also in people who automatically look up when they see, for example, someone looking up - it's a defense mechanism.


From then on, when cycling I constantly swivel my head checking my left side and intersections knowing that drivers coming up beside will notice my head movements even if they are zoned out. Since I bike in heavy traffic all year round and never have got into an accident, I think there is a correlation.

[madokie]

6. My little tag goes in the center console until I park

and if I can find a place that is only a few spaces from the handicap parking I use it instead. Someone worse off than me may need that spot.
Why can't we all just get along and be respectful of our fellow man/woman

[trof]

7. Exactly!

Thank you.
I do the same.

[uppityperson]

9. That graphic is very cool. I made the really big and still they disappeared.

That is very interesting graphic, thank you.

[trof]

10. THANK YOU!

Somebody finally watched it and THEN commented.

[uppityperson]

12. You know DU.

Take part of a subject line, nit pick it, attack, deflect, take it off to one side and...

Interesting graphic and it explains a lot. Not moving your head or eyes or focus, you do miss a lot.

[snagglepuss]

11. The graphi is unbelieveable. I'd add pedestrians and bicyclists should keep swivelling

their head as well. Most walkers and cyclists walk or bike like zombies, their head never turn.

[TheWraith]

18. True. I've had people literally walk out in front of my car without noticing.

Literally, they're just crossing a busy street without ever even bothering to see that the traffic isn't clear.

[Taitertots]

14. I wonder if that principal could be used with images of people instead of dots n/t

[LadyHawkAZ]

19. Most of the blind spot problem in this town is

the kind that covers stop signs. All stop signs. And red lights. And yield signs. And CROSS TRAFFIC DOES NOT STOP signs.

It's a blind spot phenomenon known to exist in the area immediately surrounding cell phones.

Utah plain sucks. I cannot wait to get the hell out of here.

[Fumesucker]

20. A vehicle on a collision course with you keeps a constant bearing.

From your point of view that vehicle is only increasing in size, not moving laterally.

Our vision is attuned to motion, the vehicle on a collision course appears immobile.

Having a moving object in your field of vision, like the parking tag swinging on your mirror only increases the likelihood that your vision will be distracted by that motion from the immobile object about to hit you.

I can tell you from long experience as a rider on both bikes and motorbikes that eye contact is deadly, people will look right straight at you, make eye contact and then pull in front of you anyway. Don't trust eye contact.

ETA: Ride in such a manner that if you were invisible no one would hit you anyway, that's really the only way to survive long term on the street on two wheels.

[Silver Swan]

21. I found it interesting

That if I removed my glasses, I saw all the spots, all the time. With my glasses, they alternately seemed to disappear.

(I don't drive, so don't worry that I will forego glasses.)

And I do respect bicycle riders. My former spouse was an avid bicyclist who died with his feet in his toe clips.

[Devil_Fish]

22. I've been on a motorcycle for 20 years.

I learned quickly that if you want to stay alive, assume that people don't see you. Assume that they will drift into your lane. Assume that they will run red lights and if they do happen to see you coming, they will stop directly in your path.

[ohheckyeah]

24. That's an amazing graphic.

If you keep your eyes moving the yellow dots never disappear. But, fixate on the center green dot and they disappear either individually or all at one time. I had no idea that fixating like that would make things disappear.

[Dembearpig]

25. Fascinating Optical Illusion

The yellow dots truly disappear from sight -- so much so it really is hard to believe they are still there all along.

[Keystone Writer]

27. An unexpected blindspot encounter.

I almost hit a kid and how it happened shocked me, because it would have happened with her father's supervision. I came to a four way stop sign, all the while as I braked I kept my eye on the man on the bike that was crossing the road I was intending to turn into. Even as I stopped, I kept my eye on him, and then proceeded to turn left. What I didn't see was his daughter who was crossing the same road catty corner. She was actually riding diagonally across the four way lane and had assumed I had seen her!

I slammed on the brake and in shock, looked at the father. He shrugged, recognizing it wasn't my fault, but oh my God!