Biker visibility

maumau

maumau

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When a red traffic light changed to green and I was second in line to turn right we moved into the intersection waiting for oncoming traffic to pass. When there was a break and the next approaching vehicle could be seen in the distance the car in front of me turned. A nano second later a motorcyclist came flying past, shaking his fist. How he missed t-boning the turning car I don’t know. Without realising it he had been completely invisible against the backdrop of cars.

His bike was red, filthy dirty with one small dim yellowing headlight, it wasn’t a delivery bike. The biker looked about 28/30 and was in black leathers with a black helmet. I can’t guess the bike power but it was smaller than a big bike and bigger than a little mosquito thing. The rider must have been going flat out in the morning traffic.

Please guys visibility is critical and to those young guys with their skinny little arms showing, get some protective clothing or ask your mom to get it for you.

This isn’t aimed at experienced riders or those whose bikes cost more than a small car. They have rows of bright lights and the riders usually wear safety gear over their leathers so they can be seen.
 
I am glad that you have brought this up, as this is something that really freaks me out..

We have page after page and argument after argument about running with your headlights on, and most of the people who are against it cannot get it into their skulls, that it is important to BE SEEN by other road users, whether you are on a bike or in a car.

What people don't seem to realise as well, is if the sun is behind you - (early morning travelling from East to West, and sunset travelling from West to East) you may be able to see people coming towards you, because the sun is highlighting them, but they cannot see you! The only way that they can see you is by you running with headlights on.

There are other low light or poor light situations where this happens - much like the one you have talked about, but until everyone starts running with lights on, we are going to continue to kill people who are basically running around in "invisible" mode!
 
As a general rule, both my SO and I always ride our bikes with brights on.
 
I want to know, lane-splitting…

Say a car want to turn right and is waiting to do so, hence oncoming traffic, may a biker pass the car on the right?

I witnessed something brutal a few years ago.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
I want to know, lane-splitting…

Say a car want to turn right and is waiting to do so, hence oncoming traffic, may a biker pass the car on the right?

I witnessed something brutal a few years ago.
Click to expand...

If you over take any vehicle on it's right, whilst it is indicating to turn right you are a douchebag - irrespective of what vehicle you drive - of the highest order and you fully deserve what will probably happen. That being said, just because a bike can fit in those gaps doesn't mean they should. I often shake my head and fellow riders when they're trying to get through a gap that they just can't fit through. No matter how much you rev your engine or hoot, sometimes a gap will not form.

Edit: Reading your post again, it's a bit ambiguous. The hence oncoming traffic bit really throws me off.
 
Last edited:
Fulcrum29 said:
I want to know, lane-splitting…

Say a car want to turn right and is waiting to do so, hence oncoming traffic, may a biker pass the car on the right?

I witnessed something brutal a few years ago.
Click to expand...

No. Biker should see you indicating to turn right and give you right of way. That is, of course, if you are indicating...
 
Lane splitting is a privilege and not a right. Some bikers seem to think its the other way around.
 
XennoX said:
If you over take any vehicle on it's right, whilst it is indicating to turn right you are a douchebag - irrespective of what vehicle you drive - of the highest order and you fully deserve what will probably happen. That being said, just because a bike can fit in those gaps doesn't mean they should. I often shake my head and fellow riders when they're trying to get through a gap that they just can't fit through. No matter how much you rev your engine or hoot, sometimes a gap will not form.
Click to expand...

The only reason I'm bringing this up is due to me being the car behind the car which indicated to turn, I did not see the bike approaching on my right and as the car made the turn they connected. This story actually got ugly in the community.

The car was also already in a position to make the turn, so the biker must had knew that it was going to be a close cut.

This is where it had happened.

Intersection.jpg

A similar accident in that location happened when a scooter coming up behind also made the turn along with a car, so the car naturally ran over the scooter...
 
Fulcrum29 said:
I want to know, lane-splitting…

Say a car want to turn right and is waiting to do so, hence oncoming traffic, may a biker pass the car on the right?

I witnessed something brutal a few years ago.
Click to expand...

Can/may is a very different question from "should".

Personally I never ever do this whether on the inside or the outside of the corner as you simply cannot predict where cars will go and always have to assume they didn't see you.

I do however skip the queue at turning only lanes if the light is red and I can get right in front so that I can get into the corner before the car does and they know I'm there before even starting to turn.

Sometimes and I'm not proud of this I'll go over the painted lines to park in front of a car rather than next to it. This is a situational awareness choice where I feel unsafe once I reach the gap between cars, something you can't always anticipate beforehand and where I feel I'll rather break the law by passing over the lines than put myself in danger. I DO NOT make a habit of stopping across the lines as many bikers do.

*****

As for the original post it grates my nerves when I see other bikes with either very dim or no lights. But often even with full brights on and high visibility clothing cars simply don't acknowledge your existence for one of those reasons...

1. The cars simply don't look for you and therefore don't see you. It's not that you aren't visible enough, it's simply a case of the driver not paying enough attention or not caring to pay enough attention to notice you. I know this to be true as I've been in situations where drivers have looked me in the eye where I can see subconsciously they acknowledge my existence, but then consciously still do something stupid to put me in harm's way.

2. On many modern cars the A-pillar (the front most frame of the car around the windscreen) is so thick/wide that at a half turned angle such as in this description a bike between other cars will be genuinely invisible. It's not wide enough to block out the two cars but is wide enough to block out the gap between them. I find this often happens to myself as a biker when driving my mother's Honda Jazz in particular and somewhat in my Golf 5 but almost never in my Opel Corsa which hardly has an A-pillar worth mentioning.
 
Slootvreter said:
It's totally legal, and a motorcar driver that cages a biker in, is a prick.
Click to expand...
Ja, turning right at an intersection while indicating that I am turning, really 'cages' those bikers intent on illegally overtaking me.
 
Just remember it's a jungle out there. Puzzles me that you bikers don't fall off navigating cars and pot holes. I'd be a nervous wreck.
 
... and cages.

Life is apparently hard for bikers.
 
Bikers need to remember that lane splitting or sharing is very low on our priority list. It's not that we do not care about bikers, but rather we don't "think bike" all the time.

Well, at least for me it is ^.
 
maumau said:
Just remember it's a jungle out there. Puzzles me that you bikers don't fall off navigating cars and pot holes. I'd be a nervous wreck.
Click to expand...

Bikes are incredibly stable when moving at such a speed that gyroscopic precession dominates. It varies from bike to bike, but it's at approximately 15 km/h when gyroscopic precession starts to dominate. At that speed the bike is still easily influenced by any inputs, but the faster you go the more stable the machine becomes. At 120 km/h, you have to push on your bars a lot harder to influence the bikes direction than you do at 15 km/h.

Also from an outside perspective, it looks like pure chaos. Inside the helmet it's a different story, a good rider will be watching the cars on both sides, a minimum of 3 cars ahead if not more. Any twitch from a car, and a few milliseconds later the rider has responded. This of course assumes you're doing a reasonable speed between the cars and aren't riding with a huge speed differential.

Also high beams. I ****ing hate it when fellow riders ride with their high beams on. You just becomes a ball of light making their distance and speed difficult to judge, rather get a head light cover that changes the light to amber or yellow. Also when they sit a few metres (< 10) on your ass and the lights shine directly into your rear view mirrors, it's annoying as hell. Proper riding skill and prediction trumps all forms of ad-hoc attention attractors, e.g., hi-viz vest, bright lights, loud pipes.
 
scudsucker said:
Ja, turning right at an intersection while indicating that I am turning, really 'cages' those bikers intent on illegally overtaking me.
Click to expand...

Who singled you out? :confused: I'm talking about whitelining in general. If you block a biker trying to pass on the white line in traffic on purpose, you're a prick.

cpu. said:
Bikers need to remember that lane splitting or sharing is very low on our priority list. It's not that we do not care about bikers, but rather we don't "think bike" all the time.

Well, at least for me it is ^.
Click to expand...

Not driving on the white lines is not really a feat that requires massive focus, but yes, bikers being more vulnerable means they should exercise extra caution.
 
XennoX said:
Also from an outside perspective, it looks like pure chaos. Inside the helmet it's a different story, a good rider will be watching the cars on both sides, a minimum of 3 cars ahead if not more. Any twitch from a car, and a few milliseconds later the rider has responded. This of course assumes you're doing a reasonable speed between the cars and aren't riding with a huge speed differential.
Click to expand...

Great post.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
I want to know, lane-splitting…

Say a car want to turn right and is waiting to do so, hence oncoming traffic, may a biker pass the car on the right?

I witnessed something brutal a few years ago.
Click to expand...
No I wouldn't think so! The guy isn't looking for a biker passing him on the right he is looking for a break in traffic so that he can turn. When he sees the break he will turn and the biker will go straight into him! If you have to pass in that situation pass left.
 
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