This week, I would simply like to refer your attention to the following article that appeared in Two Wheels (October 2009, pages, 132-133). The piece is by Jeremy Bowdler, editor of that fine Australian motorcycling monthly. Despite the fact that the article was written with motorcyclists in mind, it is 100% relevant to cyclists as well. Indeed, I would suggest, even more so!

This is, quite simply, the most succinct, intelligent and insightful piece I have ever read on the mental models we all need to have when negotiating the clear and present danger that cars and their drivers represent to those who travel on two wheels. This article could save a life or two; even yours!

BEATING THE ODDS: STACK THE DICE IN YOUR FAVOUR ON THE ROAD.
Words by JEREMY BOWDLER

Sometimes riding on the road seems like a gamble at best, and a lottery at worst. There are any number of horror stories trotted out by well-meaning friends and family about why you shouldn’t ride, about how dangerous it is and about how they’re just trying to be helpful. It doesn’t have to be like that. You may not be dealt all the cards, but you can stack the odds in your favour.

Last month we talked about recognising your place in traffic, and how to work within the flow to get where you’re going more easily and more safely. This month, we’ll turn to the danger or warning signs you need to be able to recognise to avoid trouble – even before it happens.

Any gambler worth his or her salt gets that way by being able to read body language, by identifying “tells”, those involuntary tics or facial expressions that give away what the opponent is holding in their hand.

Riding a motorcycle is no different. There are any number of visual clues to help you along your way. It is a question of seeing them, registering what they mean and remembering them. Some are obvious, some are not but all help you develop a sixth sense about traffic.

And anyone who has been riding or driving or riding a bicycle or even walking with one eye open will have amassed a mental library of situations that require extra care – usually without thinking about it consciously.

You know the sort of thing: you’re walking on the road, you hear a car behind you, you step up onto the footpath without thinking. Bingo, there’s one tell, and you’ve responded to it.

The classic signs, or tells, in traffic are: a bus at a bus stop. VVill a pedestrian walk out into your path from in front of the bus? The bouncing ball on the road. VVill a kid run out without looking to fetch it? The orange traffic light. Is someone about to run the red? The pedestrian crossing. Will a pedestrian use it without checking it’s safe? The stop or give way sign. Has anyone else noticed it?

These are things every road user should take into account. The next level includes physical things like raindrops or working windscreen wipers on oncoming traffic means there’s rain ahead. Dust trails in the distance mean a dirt road, roadworks or traffic turning form the dirt onto the road (a tractor or a herd of cows?). A mid-corner vanishing point that moves closer indicates the corner is tightening up. One that recedes means the corner is opening out. Cowshit on the road may means cows ahead. A lot of roadkill means beware of animals. It’s obvious when you think about it. And when you think about it, you’re better prepared.

THE URBAN SPACEMAN

It gets harder in traffic, where you’re looking both for physical signs, but also for behaviour, which is made up of tells. The physical signs are the easier, and include such obvious things as buses – they stop often and pull out with little warning since they have right of way. They also can obstruct vision of what is in front of them, making it harder for you to make an appropriate decision about how to ride.

Taxis are unpredictable, are driven by drivers who may have been behind the wheel for 10 hours and often seem to treat the road rules as interesting theories not applicable to them. Always allow extra care and space around them. Especially when filtering in traffic.

Learner drivers are unpredictable and can do anything, anywhere, any time – including very weird lane-changing and frequent stalling. P1 drivers are more predictable and still cautious, though prone to some erratic driving. P2 drivers are predictably (and notoriously) confident
in their skills, with the skills to back up their confidence. Treat with caution.

These threats to Your safety are all easily recognisable, but there are other classes of vehicle that are worthy of your attention. Any car with a four-inch exhaust. Any car with a spoiler. Any car with a sub-woofer you can detect without opening the doors. Any WRX, Skyline, Lancer or ute. Come to think of it, any trade vehicle since often visibility is poor and the drivers are often thinking of other things or rushing to or from a job. And shit falls off utes all the time. Don’t follow a landscaping truck too closely or you’ll get a face full of sand. A friend of mine collected a sailboard in her chest on the Kwinana Freeway in Perth. Her CB250N wasn’t pretty.

Beware of couriers. Old beat-up cars may belong to drivers who don’t really care about their cars or other road users. Bright, shiny, spanking new expensive cars often belong to captains of industry who think they’re above the road rules and who might get shitty when you challenge them. 4WDs are the work of the devil.

SHOW AND TELL

Once you accept the unpredictability of these road users, that leaves the majority of the traffic and they’re the ones you really have to look out for because their tells are much more subtle. When You’re following a car, check to see that the brake lights work while there’s plenty of space. You don’t want to discover it just before you rear-end the Roller in front.

Fortunately, almost all vehicles have a tell built in. The indicators. These are used to let other traffic know that the driver is about to change direction to the left or the right as shown by the indicator. Or that they are going to go straight ahead. Or that they are going to turn to the opposite side of the indication. All of the above have happened to me, and I daresay I’m not alone. The one thing indicators usually indicate is that there is a change coming up. Though not always.

The corollary is that a lack of indication does not mean that a driver will not change direction. Cars may change lanes, turn corners, Pull U-turns or overtake at any time with no indication. Where this really hurts a rider is while lane-splitting or filtering.

Speaking of filtering, when filtering next to a line of parked cars, check their wing mirrors to see if there’s a driver in the car. This means the car will either pull out or a door will open. Check the wheels. If the front wheels are pointing into the traffic, there’s a chance the driver is ready to pull out. In fact, if you see a driver indicating, check which way the wheels are pointed. That’s usually a better indicator of the intended direction.

Watch for drivers smoking, eating, talking on the phone, reading a newspaper, doing the crossword while on the phone or weaving about a three-lane Freeway while spoon-feeding a baby in the passenger seat. If they’re doing something as well as driving, watch out.

A lot of hand movements means a driver is having an involved conversation with someone – either in the car of via hands-free. Avoid.

Watch a driver’s face if you’re worried they haven’t seen you. Make eye contact if at all possible because this creates a connection between the two of you. You are no longer a thing, you are a person and that may just make them think twice about turning in front of you. It may not, of course, but then you’re already on the defensive anyway.

Watch the traffic. Is anyone in an obvious hurry? Weaving in and out, tail-gating, leaning on the horn? Angry? Maybe. Late? Possibly. Unpredictable? Certainly. Give them space.

What about the totally erratic driver, drifting in and out of their lane, not indicating, slowing down, speeding up? Pissed? Probably. Overtired? Possibly? Dangerous? For sure.

In these situations, the best thing to do is to identify the problem and then make one of two decisions. Pass quickly, cleanly and with space and then keep an eye in your mirrors until you’re safely away. Or, stay behind and watch until you want to make your move.

Don’t pass close by and give the driver an earful. He/she might be wandering all over the road because he/she is reloading the sawn-off shottie and is gagging for some target practice.

A transport depot may mean diesel spills from over-filled buses or trucks leaving the driveway. School zones may mean speed cameras and increased fines but, between 8.00-9.30am and 2.30-3.00pm, they’ll also alert you to the fact that there will be harded, time-poor parents double parking, stopping without indicating and trying to squeeze into whatever parking space doesn’t exist so they can drop their beloved children as close to the school gates as possible, without having to actually get out of the car themselves because that’s not part of the deal.

These observations are merely the tip of the iceberg and they’re ones that have applied to our riding. Because you’ll each have your own riding environments, you’ll each have specific tells to add to the ones above. They key things are to keep an eye out, keep your eyes up and learn from what you see.

I remember one instance where a tell saved my family. I was in the car with the pillion in a million and the two kids in the back. Up ahead, a taxi indicated and pulled over to the left. I instantly buttoned off and slowed down.

“What are you doing?” was the question from the passenger seat.

I had just got to “He’s going to chuck a…” when the cab driver chucked a U-turn in front of us.

“How did you know he was going to do that?

I could just tell.