roadcraft site

Without having read this thread (or the posts before or after this one);
you've hit the cat on the head there Bill.
Fark it shits me (and shits me and shits me) when people do something stupid
and then carrying on telling everyone ELSE how to ride (and how they should
dress while riding).
I KNOW how to ride; that's why I don't make stupid learner-mistakes like
you've just done.

 

Mate; if you're riding but NOT anticipating something happening (or
EVERYTHING happening) then you're gonna' get hurt no matter how much of a
gap you leave!

 

My belief is that in most circumstances people DO react in sufficient time
to avoid a crash... It's just that in a lot of cases they do the WRONG
thing as a result of that reaction!!
I've certainly done it myself. I've had crashes where had I NOT reacted I
would've been OK but the very fact that I had a lightning reaction resulted
in pain and gravel-rash!

 

Yeah but I've been in sort-of that situation and I've been surprised that my
body HAS reacted even though my mind wasn't really on-the-subject.
I've genuinely been surprised that I'd already dropped 30kph and set myself
up for evasive action before I've even consciously worked out what's going
on.
I seriously doubt that you did absolutely NOTHING for 1.5 to 2 seconds after
you saw the movement of that emu.

 

Haven't done so yet

Yeah, I know what you are saying, but I still don't think .4 seconds
is a good mark to refer to. I doubt whether that 1.5 second value was
plucked out of thin air, I'm sure it was researched.

 

There wasn't that much time. The truckie behind me thought I'd hit a gravel
patch (it was on a bend). He didn't even see the emu until I pointed it out
to him. It was still under the bike.

I mean for Christs' sake, there are no predators, why do emus need to be
camouflaged. Couldn't they come in dayglo?

Theo

 

Setting aside the fact that these things evolved before the dinosaurs
went extinct, when there probably were one or two raptors around, what
would you call human beings and dingoes if not predators?

Consider yourself lucky. Its extinct relative the Elephant Bird of
Madagascar apparently weighed 450kg, compared to your average 60kg emu.

 

The RTA can employ as many researchers as they like determining what
an average person's reaction time is, etc. but when someone in another
department is writing a learner book, creating examples which
specifically highlight the importance of considering reaction time,
gap distance, speed, even if they do refer to the research, do you
think they're going to use an example which show the best case
scenario, or the worst case scenario?

Nev..
'07 XB12X

 

Yeah, no denying that.

I still think it is going to be more like a second than half a second
in most circumstances . . .

 

I think people are confusing reaction time with time taken to begin
braking. I think that, when you're waiting for something to happen,
there's approximately a 1/3 second reaction between seeing something and
your muscles starting to move. Then there's the time taken to actually
grab the brake lever, set up the suspension and start effective braking.
I can easily see 1.5 seconds in that.

The big problem is that, in most cases, you leave a 2 second gap, and it
gets filled by other traffic. Gaps of less than a second are pretty much
the norm from what I've seen - unfortunately.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:12:42 +1000

I find it depends.

If my lane is moving faster than the other, then it gets filled
sometimes yes. It's not a given though.

If there's a lot of traffic so that most people leave less of a gap,
then the gap I leave is more obvious, but if the traffic is also
moving at a reasonable rate, say within 10-15% of the speed limit,
then there's not that much lane changing going on.

Does depend on the time of day too. If it's getting closer to a usual
deadline, such as 9am, then there's more traffic carving as people
feel they are late.

Zebee