Pavement paranoia
It may be that all crashes and near crashes provide a chance to learn how to ride more safely.
I recently learned of a near crash situation that is perhaps not all that rare.
Riding on a two lane highway, a rider was forced to the very outside edge of the pavement in his lane because a driver, following a slowly moving and tall van, became impatient and decided to pass without confirming the absence of oncoming traffic.
This situation could be partially abated by two maneuvers that many of us already use but not consistently (at least in my case).
One is the "Drunken Sailor" maneuver. Our visual cortex is not so great in detecting motion towards or away from us. OTOH, it does a great job when the movement is across the visual field.
This maneuver is simply teeter tottering the bike from the vertical axis, side to side. It does't require much movement and in fact over doing it can put oncoming traffic into panic mode with unfortunate avoidance maneuvers.
The other is Lane Position when faced with an oncoming truck/van/bus with trailing traffic (usually containing frustrated/anxious drivers).
Consider moving your lane position towards the outside (but not the edge) of your lane to provide a better sight line for the trailing traffic.
I imagine this works best when combined with the fist maneuver.
YRMV
NOTE: This thread has been condensed.
It may be that all crashes and near crashes provide a chance to learn how to ride more safely.
I recently learned of a near crash situation that is perhaps not all that rare.
Riding on a two lane highway, a rider was forced to the very outside edge of the pavement in his lane because a driver, following a slowly moving and tall van, became impatient and decided to pass without confirming the absence of oncoming traffic.
This situation could be partially abated by two maneuvers that many of us already use but not consistently (at least in my case).
One is the "Drunken Sailor" maneuver. Our visual cortex is not so great in detecting motion towards or away from us. OTOH, it does a great job when the movement is across the visual field.
This maneuver is simply teeter tottering the bike from the vertical axis, side to side. It does't require much movement and in fact over doing it can put oncoming traffic into panic mode with unfortunate avoidance maneuvers.
The other is Lane Position when faced with an oncoming truck/van/bus with trailing traffic (usually containing frustrated/anxious drivers).
Consider moving your lane position towards the outside (but not the edge) of your lane to provide a better sight line for the trailing traffic.
I imagine this works best when combined with the fist maneuver.
YRMV
NOTE: This thread has been condensed.
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