Why You Don't 'See' Motorcycles on the Road

[allanoue]

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cult...s-on-the-road/

[VaFish]

I think this goes along with why Motorcyclists are better car drivers and have fewer accident claims in their cars. Motorcyclists have to look around more for survival.

[greg737]

My solution: a headlight modulator. It absolutely changes the game. People see you.

I've got one on both of my bikes (EX250 and GSF400). I'm very careful and polite about when I switch on the pulsing headlight feature of the modulator, I only use it where there's traffic of the sort that can kill you if they don't see you (multi-lane undivided for example, where drivers make surprise left turns or where there are lots of side street that suddenly spit out cars onto my road).

[verboten1]

Originally Posted by greg737

My solution: a headlight modulator. It absolutely changes the game. People see you.

I've got one on both of my bikes (EX250 and GSF400). I'm very careful and polite about when I switch on the pulsing headlight feature of the modulator, I only use it where there's traffic of the sort that can kill you if they don't see you (multi-lane undivided for example, where drivers make surprise left turns or where there are lots of side street that suddenly spit out cars onto my road).

So, always.

[adouglas]

My solution: A helmet you can see from orbit.

Since my head is the highest point on the bike and my jacket is pretty much obscured by my riding position and headlight glare, I find that this is the best way to improve visibility.

It really does work, and demonstrably so.

I'm not as convinced re headlight modulators because they can be dazzling/distracting.

Yes they do grab attention very well, which is the real key to survival for us. However, I feel they may grab too much attention and distract, annoy, or even enrage the driver.

I know that when some tool going the opposite direction insists on keeping his high beams on, it is counterproductive. For one thing, I'm so blinded that I can't actually see the road clearly any more. For another, it takes my mind off of Job 1, which is operating my vehicle.

My goal is to negate the SMIDSY and nothing more. I find the helmet serves the purpose well.

[greg737]

The headlight modulator does not "flash" the headlight, nor does it use BRIGHT. Instead it gently MODULATES the headlight power between 20% and 80%. If that causes other drivers to fly into a foaming rage then maybe they shouldn't be allowed out on publc roads.

[allanoue]

My strong recommendation:
SMIDSY swivel

Link to original page on YouTube.

[SLOWn60]

Originally Posted by allanoue

My strong recommendation:
SMIDSY swivel

Link to original page on YouTube.

This is proven best practice.

[choneofakind]

Remember that Modulators are no bueno if you're using HID headlights. Halogens and HID's do not function the same way.

Modulators are great for snagging attention, but they must be used sparingly and for a purpose. Otherwise, other traffic gets complacent with the flashing light and it no longer means anything significant to them. Personally I find them annoying after the second flash when I am in a car and see a motorcycle with a modulator, but I guess the modulator worked seeing as I saw them quickly...

[greg737]

I can't pretend that I don't know anything about human factors, I've been a professional pilot since 1989, 20 years combined service Air Force and Air National Guard, 16 years of flying at a major airline (yeah, that's right, you entrust your life and the lives of your family members to me without a second thought), I'm an Air Force trained Saftey and Crash Investigating Officer, Crew Resource Management course facilitator and I'm certified in Risk & Resource Management.

When I say that headlight modulators are effective I'm not just whistling Dixie out my ass.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by allanoue

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cult...s-on-the-road/

Very good article, Al.

Thanks !!!

[VaFish]

Why not use both a modulator and the SMIDSY weave?

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by greg737

I can't pretend that I don't know anything about human factors, I've been a professional pilot since 1989, 20 years combined service Air Force and Air National Guard, 16 years of flying at a major airline (yeah, that's right, you entrust your life and the lives of your family members to me without a second thought), I'm an Air Force trained Saftey and Crash Investigating Officer, Crew Resource Management course facilitator and I'm certified in Risk & Resource Management.

When I say that headlight modulators are effective I'm not just whistling Dixie out my ass.

Your solution has merit and I think is close to being as effective but the swivel is also more fun then blinking your lights.

[choneofakind]

Easy Greg, I never said you were wrong. You can put it back in your pants.

All I was saying was don't ride around with the modulator on full time during daytime. The modulator needs to used for a purpose when traffic would benefit from it, not just turn it on with your bike and forget about it.

And it's not an option with any form of HID headlights

["A"]

As a bicyclist for over 25 years and a motorcyclist over 2 decades, I have put more miles on 2-wheel vehicles than most people have in cars in this country.

Realizing that I am an outlier, my methods for survival on 2-wheel vehicles on public roads are somewhat unconventional for the masses to adopt; but they have serves me well over the last 25 years and they continue to serve in my daily 2-wheel commute in the busiest metro area in this country, NJ, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen..

Making yourself visible to other vehicles is one important factor of survival; not only with your gear, but also with how you maneuver your own vehicle.
I weave within traffic lane to attract attention, especially prior to stopping at a traffic light. Position your vehicle where you are not boxed in by the vehicle in front of you.

Always look for "ways out" instead of slowing or stopping, because as soon as you touch the brakes, you are limiting your options to avoid obstacle.
When the brakes are being applied, 2-wheel vehicles have less available traction to maneuver, operator is more likely to fixate vision on the direction of travel and miss out on options.
Always look 3-4 vehicles ahead, not just the vehicle directly in front of you, planning ahead always allow more time to react.
In most situations, 2-wheel vehicles are far more maneuverable and far better at avoiding impact than other vehicles on the road. Know your vehicle (well), practice and use its capabilities to full advantage.

All these can be done without spending money on your vehicle and transferable skills among all vehicles you operate.

[cbinker]

I still stuck on the part where he sat at the stop sign for 30s? I would have been back on my at 5s.

Originally Posted by greg737

I can't pretend that I don't know anything about human factors, I've been a professional pilot since 1989, 20 years combined service Air Force and Air National Guard, 16 years of flying at a major airline (yeah, that's right, you entrust your life and the lives of your family members to me without a second thought), I'm an Air Force trained Saftey and Crash Investigating Officer, Crew Resource Management course facilitator and I'm certified in Risk & Resource Management.

When I say that headlight modulators are effective I'm not just whistling Dixie out my ass.

Cool story bro, but being a pilot has nothing to do with urban survival. now your safety skills and risk and rescue management may have some substance.

[choneofakind]

No, actually it does. I'm with him on this. Piloting (from what I've read and pilots I've talked to) is all about risk reduction and being aware of what's around you. It's a lifestyle, not a job. Career pilots that I've spent time with are interesting people because of that.

[RacinNinja]

I've always been taught to ride like you're invisible. Assume every car coming out of a driveway will turn in front of you. Assume the car beside you will change lanes into you. Don't assume that flashing your headlight at someone will make them see you. Don't assume that car sees your turn signal or brake light. See them before they see you!

[Panda]

Great tips in this thread.

Not sure where the anecdotal "proofs" come in to play or why though...

[DEFY]

How to get noticed on a bike:

[CaliGrrl]

Originally Posted by RacinNinja

I've always been taught to ride like you're invisible. Assume every car coming out of a driveway will turn in front of you. Assume the car beside you will change lanes into you. Don't assume that flashing your headlight at someone will make them see you. Don't assume that car sees your turn signal or brake light. See them before they see you!

That's my theory, too. I apply it while on a bicycle, and doing it while on my motorcycle now. Be out of where they can hurt you before they get a chance.

So far, so good. Defensive driving.

[Singh2jz]

Originally Posted by VaFish

Why not use both a modulator and the SMIDSY weave?

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by greg737

When I say that headlight modulators are effective I'm not just whistling Dixie out my ass.

Clearly stated in multiple posts that they do work. That's not at issue.

The point is that there's more to safety than just grabbing attention.

When attention is taken away from a critical task, then that task suffers -- said task being driving the car safely. So awareness, not HOLDING attention to the exclusion of all else, is what matters.

I too am a pilot but not a professional. I was an aviation journalist for about 10 years, much of which was spent writing about general aviation safety. Been away from the scene for some time.

Query for you: Are any of the various alarms and warnings on the aircraft you fly cancelable? Can you silence them, and is that part of your training? An alarm that continues to sound/flash is distracting, which is not a good thing when you need to focus on flying the plane.

["A"]

IMO, no amount of gear you can put on your bike, nor yourself that can substitute for the skills and experience that you obtain from practice or training.

You can have the headlight modulator (or even flashing lights & sirens) and all the reflective clothing on you; without the skills to predict and recognize dangerous situations, there is still less chance of avoidance or survival on public roads.

[greg737]

Query for you: Are any of the various alarms and warnings on the aircraft you fly cancelable? Can you silence them, and is that part of your training? An alarm that continues to sound/flash is distracting, which is not a good thing when you need to focus on flying the plane.

First, your "query" starts out as a query (the first two sentences) but then turns into an assertion/statement of fact in the last sentence. This makes it difficult to answer because an assertion presented as if it were a question is a little insulting (for an of-the-moment example just watch any of the "journalists" on CNN or MSNBC dialogue with a Republican candidate).

Second, the assertion/statement of fact portion of your "query" sets up the headlight modulator's effect as being an "alarm" or "warning" somehow on the same semantic level as any one of the cockpit systems of a Transport Category Airliner in the hands of a crew of highly trained and evaluated CFR part 121 ATP-certified pilots. There's really no useful comparison to be made here (attempting to connect those two dots would be a mess).

I don't present the headlight modulator as "the solution" because it isn't. All I say is that based on the human factors (cognitive abilities, instinctive forces) at play in many traffic situations a headlight modulator is an effective tool for reducing the number of people (cagers) who may, on any given day, kill you. The number of people who simply will not see you during your ride/commute will probably never be reduced completely to zero, but the headlight modulator helps to push the number downward.

[adouglas]

Woah, chill. Just trying to have a conversation. No insult meant.

Allow me to strip it down to specific yes/no questions in hopes that you, a person with direct experience, might answer:


1) Can you silence alarms in the aircraft you fly?

2) If so, are you trained to do so?

If I might add a third, subjective question...

3) If the answer to either of the above questions is yes, then what in your opinion is the reason for that?

I do believe that the basis for an assertion that distractions (whether "alarms/warnings" or not*) impair the ability to operate a vehicle safely is sound and supported by research. I am clearly stating this as my own opinion and nothing more.

I agree that modulators grab attention and on that basis, are definitely effective. In my opinion (and nothing more), they can be too distracting, especially if left on continuously. I base this solely on my personal experience of seeing them in use. Reading through the contributions to this thread, this opinion appears to be shared by others.


* Reference the so-called "sterile cockpit" FARs, which speak directly to distractions that could interfere with the performance of crew duties.

[greg737]

Aviation is an onion, it has layers.

The most basic layer is:

- Maintain Aircraft Control
- Analyze the Problem
- Take the Appropriate Action
- Maintain Situational Awareness

... and everything else that happens in the act of aviation is subordinate to and contained within this layer. Reaching the professional level represented by a job at a major airline indicates your ability to reliably/consistently do these four things.

I have plenty of personality flaws but I do these four things very, very well. There's an old pilot joke that goes like this: "What do pilots use for birth control? Their personalities." Which is to say we're very likely to offend.

in other words, the people who can't manage this get weeded out of aviation well before the point of piloting an airliner with your family members on board.

In my opinion (and nothing more), they can be too distracting, especially if left on continuously. I base this solely on my personal experience of seeing them in use.

So you're warning me there are lots of drivers out there on the roads of America who are just barely able to function, who are so overburdened by the act of driving a vehicle on public roads that having to look at a pulsed headlight for a moment or two would cause them to lose consciousness or have a seizure or drive into a ditch or retain a personal injury lawyer and sue you for distracting them?

Reading through the contributions to this thread, this opinion appears to be shared by others.

Well, it's America, everyone's entitled. They're not all correct, though, are they? Right now there are lots of people who think Socialism is right for America (feelin' tha Bern!).

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by greg737

Aviation is an onion, it has layers.

The most basic layer is:

- Maintain Aircraft Control
- Analyze the Problem
- Take the Appropriate Action
- Maintain Situational Awareness

... and everything else that happens in the act of aviation is subordinate to and contained within this layer. Reaching the professional level represented by a job at a major airline indicates your ability to reliably/consistently do these four things.

I have plenty of personality flaws but I do these four things very, very well. There's an old pilot joke that goes like this: "What do pilots use for birth control? Their personalities." Which is to say we're very likely to offend.

in other words, the people who can't manage this get weeded out of aviation well before the point of piloting an airliner with your family members on board.



So you're warning me there are lots of drivers out there on the roads of America who are just barely able to function, who are so overburdened by the act of driving a vehicle on public roads that having to look at a pulsed headlight for a moment or two would cause them to lose consciousness or have a seizure or drive into a ditch or retain a personal injury lawyer and sue you for distracting them?



Well, it's America, everyone's entitled. They're not all correct, though, are they? Right now there are lots of people who think Socialism is right for America (feelin' tha Bern!).

Wow you totally ignore his questions and respond to comments you totally misunderstood.

[greg737]

Nice use of emoji. Really adds some sting to your analysis.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by greg737

Nice use of emoji. Really adds some sting to your analysis.

[adouglas]

Originally Posted by greg737

So you're warning me there are lots of drivers out there on the roads of America who are just barely able to function, who are so overburdened by the act of driving a vehicle on public roads that having to look at a pulsed headlight for a moment or two would cause them to lose consciousness or have a seizure or drive into a ditch or retain a personal injury lawyer and sue you for distracting them?

Have you driven on American roads?

I did not say that "looking at a pulsed headlight for a moment or two" would cause big issues. That is a false assertion and misrepresents what I did in fact say.

Since you value linguistic precision so highly, let's look at the videotape:

Originally Posted by adouglas

I agree that modulators grab attention and on that basis, are definitely effective. In my opinion (and nothing more), they can be too distracting, especially if left on continuously.

Originally Posted by adouglas

So awareness, not HOLDING attention to the exclusion of all else, is what matters.

"Looking at a pulsed headlight for a moment or two" is (in my humble opinion) clearly about awareness. 'I see you. Moving on.'

"Holding attention to the exclusion of all else" is clearly (again IMHO) about distraction. 'I see you and am fixating on you.' This is because holding attention by definition means attention over time... not just "a moment or two."

Am I suggesting that headlight modulators can potentially hold attention as well as capture it? For some drivers, yes -- the same people who will allow an incoming text to pull their eyes off the road to read it. This is my personal belief. For disciplined drivers who focus on operating the vehicle, not so much.

For an interesting case study in the human factors of fixation and distraction (even among highly trained and experienced air crews), take a look at the 1972 crash of Eastern Flight 401. The entire flight crew was preoccupied by a burnt-out landing gear indicator light and failed to notice that the autopilot had been inadvertently disconnected.

101 people died.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter...nes_Flight_401

In that case, they were aware that the light wasn't lit. But it then held their attention and distracted them with horrific results.

[greg737]

Yes, I was agreeing with you, there are lots of less-than-functional people who are nonetheless licensed drivers.

Perspective is important:

The history of aviation (powered, heavier than air, flight) is 113 years. The Eastern Airlines accident occurred in 1972. Nearly 40% of the entire history of aviation (powered) has elapsed since then.

Almost nothing remains of the methodology and mindset that existed in that cockpit. It's all been replaced. This took a while and it took a lot of effort within the industry to do it and, yes, there were other incidents/accidents with similar causes that did happen along the way, but I can say that with regard to aviation "that was then, this it now" truly applies here in 2016.

Really, really, really big numbers are hard for the human mind to grasp. The number of scheduled airline flights that have taken off and landed without (a significantly causally related) incident since that Eastern crash is beyond mind-boggling. While it's fun to focus on something sensational, regardless of the fantastically microscopic statistical anomaly it represents, we live our lives in the arena described by the other 99+% that is daily reality.

Which is to say: 99+% of drivers, even including some of the very bad ones, look up and see the headlight modulator and think to themselves, "hey, that means there's a vehicle there, moving toward me". They simply add this information to their ongoing situational awareness picture and act accordingly. And somewhere less than 1% go somewhere else within their significantly altered mental state.

["A"]

Originally Posted by greg737

Which is to say: 99+% of drivers, even including some of the very bad ones, look up and see the headlight modulator and think to themselves, "hey, that means there's a vehicle there, moving toward me". They simply add this information to their ongoing situational awareness picture and act accordingly. And somewhere less than 1% go somewhere else within their significantly altered mental state.

I'd say more than 25% of drivers I encounter during my commute between Manhattan and Brooklyn are paying more attention to their cell phones while driving than anything else.

[RacinNinja]

Originally Posted by "A"

I'd say more than 25% of drivers I encounter during my commute between Manhattan and Brooklyn are paying more attention to their cell phones while driving than anything else.

I see at least that many and 4-5 per day blatantly run a red light, if not more.

[allanoue]

People not paying attention are easy to avoid, I can see them a mile away. It is the person who looked at me and I thought I made eye contact with that almost killed me.

[CaliGrrl]

I'd say more than 25% of drivers I encounter during my commute between Manhattan and Brooklyn are paying more attention to their cell phones while driving than anything else.

Same here in L.A. Cell phones, shaving, makeup, movies on their dashboard, and one guy was reading the newspaper spread out on his passenger seat. It's disgusting how some people "drive" while paying almost zero attention to where their vehicle is in fact headed, and what may be in that path.

Originally Posted by allanoue

People not paying attention are easy to avoid, I can see them a mile away. It is the person who looked at me and I thought I made eye contact with that almost killed me.

Good point.

[RacinNinja]

Originally Posted by allanoue

People not paying attention are easy to avoid, I can see them a mile away. It is the person who looked at me and I thought I made eye contact with that almost killed me.

Except the ones behind you....those are the ones that worry me the most.

["A"]

Originally Posted by RacinNinja

I see at least that many and 4-5 per day blatantly run a red light, if not more.

I encounter 4-5 per every minute of my commute.

[demp]

Can anyone tell me which modulator they're using? I'm looking at this one:

http://www.comagination.com/modBulb.htm

but when I hit the add to cart button I get a message from paypal saying there' an issue with the merchant's paypal account and they can't accept money...

[RacinNinja]

Originally Posted by demp

Can anyone tell me which modulator they're using? I'm looking at this one:

http://www.comagination.com/modBulb.htm

but when I hit the add to cart button I get a message from paypal saying there' an issue with the merchant's paypal account and they can't accept money...

Is this for a Ninja or your V-Star? If the V-Star, which headlight bulb does it use?

This is a reputable supplier. http://kisantech.com/