madact said:
I blame it on TV and computers :wink: - they train people to ignore anything in their peripheral vision, and the accompanying lack of exercise leads to an inability to turn the neck...
A friend of mine also has a theory that many younger drivers have been taught to drive by Nintendo, in games such as Grand Theft Auto and the like. :lol: He might be right, the way I see them go around here.
In my very short rides today, of about 30 minutes total, doing watt measurments and the like on DGA, I saw two near accidents. One of them there was a police SUV *right there* and they did not even attempt to go after the speeding and dangerously-maneuvering driver (nor did he appear to call it in, during the 30 or 40 seconds he was still in my view). That driver ran a stop sign, going *around* the police SUV waiting to turn there, and almost hit several vehicles that were westbound on Northern Ave., who managed to brake and dodge (barely) while he barreled around the corner and onto Northern, heading west. I'm just glad I wasn't anywhere in front of this guy.
The second one was almost at the end of my ride, where someone again barrelled thru a stop sign, with traffic coming, and then proceeded to do a U turn right in front of more oncoming traffic approaching that sign (but slowing down already for the stop or he would have been hit by them), then he barrelled BACK THRU the same stop sign without stopping, and gunned his engine at what sounded like full throttle, easily going double the 25MPH speed limit, possibly more, by the time he was far enough away for me to be unable to judge that sort of thing.
At least a handful of others did stupid things like pull backwards out of their driveways without looking, slam on their brakes with the car halfway in the road (with the driver positioned over teh sidewalk), then back very slowly the rest of the way out now that traffic stopped to avoid hitting them. THat happened twice, and I usually see it at least once on every trip I make no matter where I go in the valley, usually several times. I'm so used to seeing it I almost don't think anything of it.
"Stoptional" right turns on red or at stop signs is another big big problem, and I see a fair number of collisions caused by it, but none of the ones doing it today got hit.
People turning into gated apartments have a common problem: the ungated area is only big enough for one car length, so that one car can pull in, key their entry number, and go. The gates close VERY fast on many of these, so that a car following behind cannot get in without at least scraping their paint and potentially destroying the gate or the side of their car (or both). Often, a car will pull in, and a car behind them (naturally with no signal going, since I often find I am the only person on the road using them) pulls partway past them and then hangs a sharp right, so that they are sticking out at an angle pointing *back* into traffic, blocking most of the righthand lane. But the problem is that when they keep going before turning,the person behind them doesn't know they're going to, and continues at full speed down the road.
That doesn't usually result in a collision, but sometimes the resulting swerve *around* the pulling-in vehicle *does* result in a head-on collision with traffic in the opposite lane, since many of these entrances are on narrow streets with little room for error.
Another popular thing to do on multilane roads where there are at least two lanes heading in the same direction on the apartment gate side, is for the person wanting into the gated area to be in the lane farthest from the sidewalk, and suddenly swerving across traffic to get in there, almost always with no signal beforehand. Poeple are so used to it that again it does not usually result in collisions, just angry shouts, horns, and the occasional gun-waving.
I'm so used to it that I always slow down when approaching apartments, so that I can slam on the brakes when they do this, because I know they do not see me in the bike lane, and probably wouldn't care if they did.
But having a dual-height vehicle might be nice, for situations where they might actually notice it.
Oh, and roundabouts--many people here drive around them the wrong way to make left turns, because they don't understand the concept, despite the big signs with the picture showing how to go around it....
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