electric bike awarness

[galavanter]

With the popularity of electic bikes comes a new awarness for car drivers I had been sitting at a junction for a while waiting to get out and saw an elderly person on a bicycle a good distance away thinking I had time to get out I took my chance I got out safely but the speed at which the cycle approached startled me. being a keen cyclist myself and thinking I could judge speed safely has opened my eyes

[Si]

If I understand it correctly, the electric motor on a bike should only take it up to 15mph (otherwise it's a moped or some such and needs a license and insurance to be on the road). I don't think that would be an unreasonable speed to expect from a non-motorised bike, whoever is riding it (bit of a downhill and a tail wind can see this speed with no real effort). Of course, the one you saw might have been doing above 15mph but that would be down to the rider and so the motor doesn't really come into the equation.

I think it underlines the fact, though, that we should judge the speed of another on observing the speed that they are doing and not what they look like! I find this with the recumbent - because people don't know what it is they take a much better look at it rather than merely taking a nano-second to think "it's only a bike, bikes are slow, I can pull out now".

[tykeboy2003]

I've lost count of the number of time cars have pulled out in front of me on my bike and forced me to brake and take evasive action. Si is right, most drivers' assumption is that "a bloke on a bike is slow, therefore I can easily pull out in front of him".

[eileithyia]

Even worse is 'woman on bike so slow'. I used to get cut up 10x as much as a fellow 6ft2 well built bloke, when we both commuted into Leamington Spa.

Even a cycling work colleague did not believe i (or any women) could ride a bike at the speeds we can achieve.

Back in the '80's you woud be best not to assume that 'old lady on a shopper' was just that if you were driving around the streets of Cheylesmore, one particular such older lady was none other than Edie Atkins whose other bike was a 753 full on race bike and she could still knock some decent times.

Never underestimate a cyclist by their looks.

[kwackers]

Misjudging my speed is easily the biggest issue I have with 'normal' car drivers. I've lost count of the number of times someone has tried to turn right from my right and ended up alongside me desperately trying to make their car go so they can get into the correct lane.
I've also had people try to overtake to turn left or reach a pinch point before me and have to slam on to drop back when they realise they've not a cat in hells chance of getting there before I do. And then there are the pointless overtakes coming up to traffic lights...

I think it's all part and parcel of the whole "it's a bicycle, must get in front" mentality. (I blame it on the slow cyclists, if they tried a bit harder car drivers would be used to how fast we can go! )

[meic]

It doesnt really explain why they pull out of you while you are on your high power motorcycle though.

I do think that positioning has a noticeable effect. The fact that I ride my cycle where I would be on a motorcycle seems to deter a few motorists. It could be that I am laying claim to the bit of road they are planning to use. Where as cycling in the gutter means that you are not competing for the same space, is what I think they are "thinking".

[kwackers]

It doesnt really explain why they pull out of you while you are on your high power motorcycle though.

No, but it happens a lot less on my motorbike.
The bicycle issues I have there's usually no doubt they 'glanced' and saw me, trouble is they *assumed* they'd have time to perform whatever it was they wanted to do, usually the second glance as they're in the process of performing it is when they realise it's all gone pear shaped for them.

OTOH, on my motorbike they've invariably not seen me.
The funniest one ever was a young girl edging out of a road to turn left (parked cars to her left) paying no attention to me on her right. I realised what she was about to do and pulled up to a stop barely six inches from her drivers door, a huge fluorescent green motorcycle with a pair of high powered halogens on full beam and waited. When she turned to glance to her right she dropped a brick! For a second she very obviously thought I was still moving and she was nano-seconds away from death...

[Ayesha]

I've lost count of the number of time cars have pulled out in front of me on my bike and forced me to brake and take evasive action. Si is right, most drivers' assumption is that "a bloke on a bike is slow, therefore I can easily pull out in front of him".

Yes. Ford Motor Company proved this within a "Driver's perception of other roadusers" survey.
Apparently, cyclists are supposed to travel at 12 -14 mph ....

I guess that's about right considering the heavy MTBs that roll around.

I stay below 18 mph around town.

[[XAP]Bob]

I think it underlines the fact, though, that we should judge the speed of another on observing the speed that they are doing and not what they look like! I find this with the recumbent - because people don't know what it is they take a much better look at it rather than merely taking a nano-second to think "it's only a bike, bikes are slow, I can pull out now".

Yep - and drivers round this neck of the woods are learning to expect 20mph from a 'bent.

Did sound the air zound at someone this week - they were looking to pull out of a school gate. Nowhere near enough room to do so between me and the car I was about to overtake...

[galavanter]

I rode motorbikes for years and usually found that cars would not pull out until I was almost on them, so I should be more aware of other road users The junction in question the majority of people position themselves and slow down before crossing but this cyclist seemed oblivious to anyone else and flew round ,so my awarness mechanism has been rebooted

[RickH]

It doesnt really explain why they pull out of you while you are on your high power motorcycle though.

If they didn't make eye contact with the motorbike they may literally not have seen you! I remember seeing an experiment on TV (quite possibly on Bang Goes the Theory) illustrating that people don't see while their eyes are moving between 1 object & another.

The guy was looking at a city street scene on a computer screen and there was a program linked to some sort of eye motion detection that removed things from the scene while his eyes were moving. Alarmingly he completely missed the removal of a building of c10 storeys high, a double decker London bus and a load of other things! Scary really

Rick

[[XAP]Bob]

The eye/brain can't cope with the large scale motion, blurring and general other guff that happens when you rotate an eyeball.

It has to "go blind" while it moves.

This is one of the main reasons the offside rule, or for proper sportsmen, lbw are so hard for officials to get right.

There is a requirement to be focussing attention at two or more places within a very short time span - the eye just can't move (and stabilise) fast enough.

[Edwards]

Interestingly not long ago I remember reading about people struggling to catch up with electric bikes going uphill.
The thing I noticed in the original happening was the unexpected. In that you do not expect to see and old lady, on an old lady bike, pedaling slowly in an old lady style, with not a lot of effort as an old lady would, traveling at such a speed.
Especially if uphill so I can imagine more people getting caught out by this.

So raising awareness has to be a good thing for both parties involved.

[Elizabethsdad]

A while back I had the opposite experience. I was driving behind a cyclist and was waiting for it to be safe to get past but not really bothered as I knew the road would be going downhill shortly and they would pick up speed - instead they slowed down for no reason that I could see but it was then safe to overtake. I commented to my wife that I had been expecting the bike to speed up on the hill not slow down and she said she thought shesaw him riding one handed with the other hand in his pocket - presumbly to keepit warm.
On Tuesday I was riding home from work and stopped at a roundabout because a car was entering from my right and bumped from behind by another cyclist as they hadn't been expecting me to stop. No harm done but i was a bit miffed that he didn't say sorry until I said something when we were waiting at the next set of lights.

[Chris the Sheep]

pedaling slowly in an old lady style, with not a lot of effort

That might just be it.
I've noticed many times that when I'm riding into a headwind, spinning like mad but barely doing 10mph, drivers will wait for me when there's plenty of time to pull out.

Maybe some/many drivers assume that pedalling slowly = riding slowly?