Apologies if you've already talked about this and I've missed it.
Just caught the latest Think! road safety advert, aimed at getting car drivers and motorbike riders to look out for eachother.
Starts off with a Corsa bean can being driven along a road. Check mirror, see motorbike "now you see him".
Check mirror, no bike "now you don't"
check mirror, see motorbike "now you see him.
Corsa bean can slows down, indicates (I think!) to turn right into a side road, checks mirror, no bike, so starts to turn. Then there's a crunch, motorbike is on the ground "now you don't"
Problem with this is, if the motorbike rider could see the car slowing down to turn right, what was he doing riding up the side of it? Even if you weren't sticking rigidly to the rules, and simply slowing down behind it, surely you'd undertake it on the other side, and not in the direction of the side road?
These Think! adverts are always so well intended, but go wrong at the last minute.
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The DSA would be better advised in altering the out of date way their driving manual instructs drivers to set their mirrors which create large blind spots to the rear quarters of the car, big enough to hide another car, let alone a bike. There isn't always time for an over the shoulder check in modern traffic conditions.
The principle of the ad is good though, we can't always rely on the other guy to do it right so encouraging everyone to take the accident avoidence onus on themselves is something I would agree with.
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"The DSA would be better advised..."
What exactly is their advice? (at the risk of hijack).
V
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The DSA would be better advised in altering the out of date way their driving manual instructs drivers to set their mirrors which create large blind spots to the rear quarters of the car...
How do you adjust a mirror so that there isn't a blind spot? Is this possible? (I know you can buy those little stick-on things that enable you to see in the blind spot.)
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The official advice is to set the door mirror so that you can just see the side of the car from your normal driving position. However, if you set your interior mirror as normal then lean sideways so that your head is touching the side window THEN move your door mirror out, again so that you can just see the side of the car you will dramatically widen your field of vision. After setting the mirrors like this watch as vehicles approach from the rear, and you will find that as their image disappears from your interior mirror it is already in the door mirror and will remain there till it is in your normal peripheral vision. To use the method effectively you need to develop the habit of interior mirror / door mirror observation.
Takes a bit of getting used to at first, but since trying this method I find my awareness of what is behind me is much greater, particularly when being overtaken. When I drive my wife's car now (she hates me messing too much with the mirrors) I notice how much less rear view I have.
I tried this after reading it on an American website, apparantly it is now being recommended by some US road safety organisation, can't unfortunately remember who or what the website was.
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That's odd, I've been using Tom's MO for years, I always thought that was how it was supposed to be. I rely far more on my door mirrors than the interior one, possibly/probably because where I live any gap between lanes big enough to be squeezed through will be squeezed (or forced through!) by something if I don't assert ownership of my lane by blocking them out, and the only way I can effectively maintain this is via the door mirrors.
If I am inside-overtaking a car on the bike I always give a gentle toot to alert a possibly dozy cager, although with unsilenced drag pipes, twin headlights on, and a handful of throttle and a noisy downshift are generally enough ;+) Probably in UK using the horn is some form of offence or other...?
(Sidenote: those of you who have driven American cars will be familiar with the message on the door mirrors "objects in the mirror are closer than they appear". I just got from the States a great set of bike mirrors with the inscription "******** in the mirror are closer than they appear". Mindful of Forum rules I will leave you to fill in the gaps without overt clues. Now all my mates want them.....)
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How do you adjust a mirror so that there isn't a blind spot? Is this possible?
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yes, see
www.healthboards.com/ubb/Forum113/HTML/001550.html
"Getting rid of the blind spots: adjusting your car's side mirrors
This is from a GEICO article about George Platzer's method of adjusting your car's rearview mirrors to get rid of the blind spots. George is a consultant who holds a few patents on mirror design. .... "
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yes, see www.healthboards.com/ubb/Forum113/HTML/001550.html
Thanks for posting that as it hadn't occured to me that a blind spot was anything other than something you had to live with and watch out for.
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"* Sitting in the driver's seat, lean to the left until your head just touches the side window."
Wow, that's some lean... ;)
Sorry.
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Been out a while that one PG but the message is timeless I suppose.
I thought the same thing when I saw it at first, although we don't know if he signals or not.
There's a new one out, aimed at motorcyclists, it's 2 mins long and can be viewed here; www.davidreviews.com/playmovie.asp?ID=2004082201
How did you spot it was a Corsa, I'm sure I've only ever seen an interior shot, are you a bit of a spotter with dashboards then??!!
PP
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>>Starts off with a Corsa bean can being driven along a road
Not heard a car called that since someone in our YHA group christened my orange Pug104ZS the bean can in 1993 - It stuck; SWMBO and I still fondly remember it as such.
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Apologies if you've already talked about this and I've missed it.
Yep ;o)
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=16180
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If I remember correctly you can hear the indicators clicking in the advert, and I thought it says in the highway code not to overtake at a junction. I know from experience that bikers come off worse in accidents, I had the bilateral fracture of my ankles to prove it, but the advert shows both parties were at fault. Surely it would be better if door mirrors were convex so you could see more.
The advert that gets my goat is the one where a child is run down, and the back wheels on the car are spinning, while the front's are locked, surely the ad should say THINK, get an MOT:-)
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With the technology getting cheaper by the day, I would like to see CCTV replacing mirrors on cars. Full view to the rear on a single display positioned so it cn be seen with minimal head movement and no blind spots.
Much more useful than eletric doors, sunroofs, reversing sensors and all the other toys that are fitted nowdays.
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Thank PG! I thought I was the only one sitting on the sofa wondering whose fault it really was if the moped overtakes a car indicating right. The ad\'s message is clear - you\'re a driver, you\'re always wrong.
An interesting take on the ad is at:
www.sniffpetrol.com/Mopedcampaign4.gif
Apologies for the language....
{Link made de-clickable. If you want to see it, you\'ll have to copy/past it into your url window. DD}
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I think the point is: Does it matter whose fault it is, if you can avoid it happening?
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I think the point is: Does it matter whose fault it is, if you can avoid it happening?
No, of course not, and if I ran a moped over, even in those circumstances, I would be gutted.
But the advert suggests it is the driver's fault.
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But the advert suggests it is the driver's fault.
I'm not sure it does really. It certainly doen't specify that it's the mopedists fault, but I don't think it goes further than that.
If I remember rightly the tagline is 'Look out for each other'.
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That's the impression it left me with - the mopedist is injured and YOU should have prevented it.
Where are the ads for mopedists asking them not to be so utterly stupid?
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