Positioning

Carrying on from the previous article, I want to expand on the Be Seen page. There is a sequence of images on this page that shows the best position for you to be in when moving down the road in light traffic. I cannot express how important it is to make sure you are seen. The easiest way to do this is to wear bright gear as in Hi-Viz and luckily the law makes it easier still by mandating permanently on headlights. The part the rider has to play is still critical but is more of a game that can save you from hurt. The idea is a simple one and can be fun to play. The idea is to see how many drivers faces you can see in their mirrors when you come up behind or beside them.

You have probably seen the signs on the back of big trucks that reads "If you can't see my mirror, I can't see you!" This sign is actually a valuable piece of advice. Make sure you can see the drivers face either in the rear view mirror or side mirror. Add another car to the mix and things suddenly become more challenging. it's a fine balancing act. I also mentioned before about Eye Contact. This is crucial, as I said before. Stare if you need to, but make sure you are still doing your mirror checks and are still aware of everything that is happening around you. See if you can get enough Eye Contact to make it possible to get a nod in. Take a look at the picture here. What you see is a car at a cross roads and a motorcycle approaching. As you can see the motorcycle is in the middle of the lane. Assuming that the car is at a stop sign and the motorcycle has right-of-way through the junction and the speed limit is 35mph, the motorcycle is covering 51.3 feet per second (1mph=1.4667 feet per second) that means the bike will be right in front of the car in about 1.25 seconds, if the bike were closer to the center line it would give up to another 1/4 second but if they were closer to the curb imagine how much time they would have to be spotted, closer to a 1/4th of a second. The yellow line is clearly the best line to take when nothing is coming toward you. To establish Eye Contact as soon as possible is necessary as you only have 1.5 seconds before you could be trying to share the same time and space on the road as the car. Unfortunately this isn't possible at present so the whole car/bike time/space sharing idea usually results in twisted metal and often broken parts and sometimes broken bones. Most modern bikes have powerful brakes, loud horns and are very maneuverable so you can usually avoid an accident by getting out of the way or forcing the driver to see you and hopefully stop before blocking your way forward. Giving the driver every chance to spot you has to be considered the smart thing to do. It is a defensive strategy, but by holding your position, being ready for anything and making early Eye Contact the rider is effectively claiming the right to proceed. This demands the driver respect your position as a legitimate and authoritative claim to clear the junction before they move. If this were a four-way stop things would be slightly different, but it still makes sense to be seen as early as possible. The advantage of a four-way here is if there is also an approaching vehicle as it gives the rider the option to move back into the orange area, as seen here,

when pulling up to and through the junction.

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