A drill bit that saved a life

[semenza]

  Choose analogies, and comparisons carefully in this topic.  And please avoid hot button phrases that are borrowed from other political and social concerns. We don't need to end up delving into other "issues".

Thanks,

  Seth

 

[Cheese]

I've owned and ridden motorcycles for over 57 years...so I have some history.  [smile]  The thing I learned years & years ago is that despite the fact that a motorcycle has some size to it...has some height to it...and has some noise to it...automobile drivers sometimes genuinely do NOT SEE a motorcycle.
I know that's weird but I've discovered the same phenomenon personally while driving a car and although being hyper sensitive to motorcycles, I almost trashed several motorcycles because I "didn't see them". I now understand that situation and am hyper careful.

So on to recumbents, if your 401K has gone south recently or if you're tired of paying child support for those "entangling alliances" I'd heartily encourage you to purchase and ride a recumbent on a daily basis. That will take care of your monetary depleting issues within a week or two of ownership.

Cool bikes, fun to ride but they do offer up the death wish on a daily basis. If a motorcycle is "invisible" when it's 50" above the ground, how visible is a recumbent when it's only 30" above the pavement? I sold mine after 2 weeks...

 

[Coen]

So on to recumbents, if your 401K has gone south recently or if you're tired of paying child support for those "entangling alliances" I'd heartily encourage you to purchase and ride a recumbent on a daily basis. That will take care of your monetary depleting issues within a week or two of ownership.

Cool bikes, fun to ride but they do offer up the death wish on a daily basis. If a motorcycle is "invisible" when it's 50" above the ground, how visible is a recumbent when it's only 30" above the pavement? I sold mine after 2 weeks...

Haha. The one time I was hit was from the flank. So a 2.5m long, 1m heigh, 0.75m wide bright colored object with reflective coating on the sides. Drivers that can't see that... should be stripped of their license.

The enclosed recumbent I have, being a tricycle and >0.75m wide gives me the right to ignore the "mandatory" part of bicycle paths in the Netherlands. Hugely increasing my safety.  [wink] That's another thing Germany has on us, besides the better behaved drivers; their courts trashed the idea of these "mandatory" cycle paths if they are junk.

On what drivers supposedly "see" and "not see". It's funny that they tend to claim they didn't "see" my as a cyclist. But somehow, if I (tall) have a 15mm copper pipe in my right hand they do. They just ignore everything that doesn't affect their own safety. That's why they cross they bike path without looking but do look onto the road they want to cross. And that is why I choose more and more often to ride on the road instead of on the bike path. Because they _do_ look at what's at the road... as they know... rolling onto the road blind might get them into their coffin... but crossing the bike path blind... will never kill them. It's that type of asshole drivers that need to be stripped of their license. As a bonus, it could save us about 500+ lives a year. Or 40.000 in the USA...

P.s.https://www.fox26houston.com/news/c...shoots-road-rage-driver-on-houstons-east-side
Driver uses car as weapon, cyclists shoots driver, driver charged with assault, cyclist goes free.

 

[mino]

...
They just ignore everything that doesn't affect their own safety.
...

CORRECT!

Thats us how a brain naturally works.

To act otherwise one needs to ACTIVELY CORRECT the natural behavior. No, this is not an excuse. But it is how it is so I have to stand with Cheese here. People are fallible. We are not machines.

[member=15585]Svar[/member]
Apologies if taken sideways.
Over here, in CZ, jokes are still allowed. We shed the totalitarian society just 30 years ago so people are kinda immune to the "rather not make jokes lest you insult someone" culture. Of course I knew you were not a Lady ... [wink]
May I recommend a good book on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_Švejk

 

[pixelated]

There are various human factors in play when Motos or bicycles interact with cars and their drivers.

One big one is the SMIDSY. Bikes of all sorts don't present good visual representation of their speed and distance when viewed nearly straight on, such as at a  road intersection.


And another is that our brains tend not to see the things we don't expect to see. That one probably has some relevance to operating woodworking machinery too, though I don't know if it's been examined in that context.

 

[Coen]

...
They just ignore everything that doesn't affect their own safety.
...

CORRECT!

Thats us how a brain naturally works.

To act otherwise one needs to ACTIVELY CORRECT the natural behavior. No, this is not an excuse. But it is how it is so I have to stand with Cheese here. People are fallible. We are not machines.

Those unable to correct should not have a license. Simple as that.

My point is that they actually do see, -or actively don't even look-, and choose to ignore what doesn't affect them. Like crossing the bike path without even looking but coming to a full stop to look at the carlane...

And that's why riding the recumbent in the car lane is safer.