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Article (10) BECOMING MORE VISIBLE
- LOOKING OUT FOR OURSELVES
by Rod Jones
Not long ago I had an
interesting, but unsettling conversation about motorcycles with a fellow I
had just met. He was a biker, or at least he had been, and had even
had an old World War II WLA Harley at one time. Over the years, he
had always enjoyed his time in the saddle, especially the sense of freedom
and excitement. But, he explained, that was in the past. Then
he went on to tell me what ended his biker days. It started out as a
routine ride on a pleasant two-lane country road. He was cruising
down the road, a car in front of him and another behind him. As the
three vehicles approached a hill, a third car, coming up from behind,
decided to pass. Just as the motorist pulled out to pass, a vehicle
in the oncoming lane crested the hill. Rather than brake and pull
back in behind the slower traffic to avoid a head-on collision, the
overtaking motorist accelerated, passed the first car and cut sharply back
into the lane, right into the space occupied by the unseen motorcycle.
With no other alternative, the biker headed off the road, even though he
was traveling at over 60 miles per hour. Somehow, he kept the bike
upright and brought it to a stop after a couple hundred terrifying yards
through dirt and underbrush. Only his alertness, quick
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much to
shake off. The fun and enjoyment was gone and he gave up riding.
Like it or not, being
"invisible" to other motorists is an unfortunate reality of riding a
motorcycle. And while we are significantly smaller on the road than
most other vehicles, there’s more than just our size contributing to being
difficult to see. Although we can’t do much about our size (unless,
maybe, we add a sidecar), there are other things we can do and look out
for to improve our visibility and help fellow motorists see us.
First and foremost, we can
wear bright colors when we ride (our HOG Chapter orange T-shirt is always
a good choice). Also a white or silver helmet is more conspicuous
than a black one. We can increase the visibility of our bikes by
riding with the passing lamps turned on, if we have them, and by adding
additional running lights to the rear.
The choice of where to ride
in our lane should be based primarily on maximizing our visibility, as
well as building a space-cushion between other motorists and ourselves.
That means positioning in the lane should vary according to conditions.
We need to look for things that can obscure the vision of other motorists
around or approaching us, including road signs, trees, hedges,
pedestrians, and other cars, and adjust our lane position accordingly.
Even the time of day and
the position of the sun can become a critical visibility factor.
Remember how fighter planes in the old war movies always tried to attack
out of the sun so the enemy couldn’t see them coming. Well, that’s
good for attacking fighters, but bad for cruising motorcycles. We
can’t change the position of the sun, but we can at least be aware that
oncoming motorists may have difficulty seeing us under those conditions.
We can also look for
potential driver preoccupation with other passengers, eating, cell phones,
fogged windows, etc., that might cause them to be inattentive to us and
driving in general. Again, we can’t control the other motorists’
preoccupation, but if we at least recognize it we might be able to adjust
our own path of travel to minimize our exposure, or at least plan an
escape route if the worst happens.
Finally, we need to stay
out of other motorist’s blind spots. And by the way, those spots may
be larger than we think—a lot of drivers don’t have their mirrors properly
adjusted.
Remember, with a little
common sense and attention to improving our visibility, we can have fun
AND survive—even without a sidecar.
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