Roadside detection cameras.

[Hopefuldave]

I’ve always thought sitting as a passenger with an air horn and camera on a stick would be fun. Plenty of footage to post.

My bike has a Steibel Nautilus air horn, I sit alongside and give 'em a bit of 139 dBA so they're otherwise distracted. Some carp their pants, from the look of their faces...

I wear earplugs when I ride, the tinnitus, actually.

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[DaveB]

I would put the distraction caused by oncoming daytime running lights on a par to using a mobile phone!!

Apologies for drifting off topic.

When I was younger you could easily spot a motor cyclist approaching on his bike if he had the headlight on.
Now they are just another light that you actually ignore while looking.

 

[Greeves246]

Sat behind a car on a motorway and the woman driving kept leaning over to the left, as she did so her speed would decay then speed back up. As I passed her she was actually spoon feeding a baby. A lifetime ban would be too lenient.
As another motorcyclist I see lots of drivers texting whilst driving especially in slow moving traffic but drivers who throw fag ends out of the window is a particular hate. Greeves 246

 

[ajlelectronics]

Sat behind a car on a motorway and the woman driving kept leaning over to the left, as she did so her speed would decay then speed back up. As I passed her she was actually spoon feeding a baby. A lifetime ban would be too lenient.
As another motorcyclist I see lots of drivers texting whilst driving especially in slow moving traffic but drivers who throw fag ends out of the window is a particular hate. Greeves 246

Yes, another one! Had a woman in a Mini do it to me twice on my commute. The first time I was really polite and explained that it was landing in my eyes etc. Second time I explained it to her more energetically but still politely. Next time I saw her, was when I had overtaken a line of traffic down by the old prison in Gloucester for those who know. She was at the head of the traffic but I pulled in safely and with plenty of room. Next thing I know she had aimed her car at me trying to run me off the road. That camera footage DID go to the Police.

 

[mike os]

Should be automatic removal and destruction of phone and 6 points

 

[Farside]

Apologies for drifting off topic.

When I was younger you could easily spot a motor cyclist approaching on his bike if he had the headlight on.
Now they are just another light that you actually ignore while looking.

I've been thinking of tinting my headlamp French (selective) yellow for exactly that reason.
Quite legal and a bright yellow headlamp does stand out a bit.

 

[voipio]

Apologies for drifting off topic.

When I was younger you could easily spot a motor cyclist approaching on his bike if he had the headlight on.
Now they are just another light that you actually ignore while looking.

Last week, I was coming up to turn left at a give way junction at a bend on the road about to be joined and, from the right, so to speak, but more or less straight ahead, there was a van coming towards me with a single, badly adjusted headlight. I was about to start to turn left when I realised the van didn't actually have the light. It was a motorcyclist in front of him, who had managed to completely mask their presence with their own headlight!!

On numerous occasions, I've seen a single "bright light" motorcyclist who, when they get closer, I realise is not alone. There are several other bikers with them, unseen, because of the light. So, basically, one biker with their "me-me-me" bright light(s), is putting his mates lives at risk, just because he wants "to be seen".

Sorry to keep on about this, well actually I'm not sorry. It's important! Here's something you should all try, to see for yourselves. I bought one of those cheapo folding compact mirrors for the toolbox, to replace one I'd lost. This one was less than £4, and has LEDs near the edges of one mirror. When I looked at my face with the LEDs on, and lined the reflection of the end of my nose with one of the LEDs, I found the end of my nose disappeared!! I couldn't see it at all, because of the "ring of inhibition" masking effect, extending some distance away from the LED.

Why is this important? Because, at any moment, we're only taking in visually about 1% of what's in front of us. Our brains effectively "paint" the rest of the image in front of us to create an impression of seeing the whole picture all of the time. It's why magic works. Magicians make use of this effect, by diverting the 1% we're seeing away from what they're really doing. Our brains continue to "paint" the rest of our view, making us think nothing has changed. In the case of the van and biker example above, my brain was filling in the blanks of what I couldn't see around the headlight, with what my brain "knows" about vans. That is why DRLs, and bright lights in general, are a real danger to road (and site) safety.

 

[jimbo84]

Drives me mad, drivers coming round bends on roads head down texting, it's pure luck more people than there are aren't killed/injured, number of times you see it. About a month ago followed the worst driving I've probably ever seen by a woman on her phone messing about with her mate in the passenger seat, you'd have thought they were in an automated driving vehicle the way they were behaving, drifting over to the other side of the road multiple times into oncoming traffic, then realising then pulling sharply back to their side, sat at the lights after they'd turned green because they hadn't noticed they'd changed.

The other worrying thing is most of these phones are worth more than my car

 

[RWD3M]

Drives me mad, drivers coming round bends on roads head down texting, it's pure luck more people than there are aren't killed/injured, number of times you see it. About a month ago followed the worst driving I've probably ever seen by a woman on her phone messing about with her mate in the passenger seat, you'd have thought they were in an automated driving vehicle the way they were behaving, drifting over to the other side of the road multiple times into oncoming traffic, then realising then pulling sharply back to their side, sat at the lights after they'd turned green because they hadn't noticed they'd changed.

The other worrying thing is most of these phones are worth more than my car

Don't confuse worth with cost!

 

[Hopefuldave]

Last week, I was coming up to turn left at a give way junction at a bend on the road about to be joined and, from the right, so to speak, but more or less straight ahead, there was a van coming towards me with a single, badly adjusted headlight. I was about to start to turn left when I realised the van didn't actually have the light. It was a motorcyclist in front of him, who had managed to completely mask their presence with their own headlight!!

On numerous occasions, I've seen a single "bright light" motorcyclist who, when they get closer, I realise is not alone. There are several other bikers with them, unseen, because of the light. So, basically, one biker with their "me-me-me" bright light(s), is putting his mates lives at risk, just because he wants "to be seen".

Sorry to keep on about this, well actually I'm not sorry. It's important! Here's something you should all try, to see for yourselves. I bought one of those cheapo folding compact mirrors for the toolbox, to replace one I'd lost. This one was less than £4, and has LEDs near the edges of one mirror. When I looked at my face with the LEDs on, and lined the reflection of the end of my nose with one of the LEDs, I found the end of my nose disappeared!! I couldn't see it at all, because of the "ring of inhibition" masking effect, extending some distance away from the LED.

Why is this important? Because, at any moment, we're only taking in visually about 1% of what's in front of us. Our brains effectively "paint" the rest of the image in front of us to create an impression of seeing the whole picture all of the time. It's why magic works. Magicians make use of this effect, by diverting the 1% we're seeing away from what they're really doing. Our brains continue to "paint" the rest of our view, making us think nothing has changed. In the case of the van and biker example above, my brain was filling in the blanks of what I couldn't see around the headlight, with what my brain "knows" about vans. That is why DRLs, and bright lights in general, are a real danger to road (and site) safety.

In the interests of "safety", new bikes (as far back as my 2006 Kwak, at least) have always-on headlights...

Something interesting (but almost certainly not considered by makers and legislators), as far back as WW2 day fighter planes were being fitted with bright lights (usually in wing leading edges) to help them disappear into bright skies, probably the same effect?

Dave H. (the other one)