If you haven't got a plan B
Discussion
you haven't got a plan.
I had a humbling experience yesterday.
Like all of us I consider myself a better than average driver: 30+ years of 'biking means I think that everyone else on the road is out to get me, 25+ years of living on the Continent and I know that they're out to get me.
So I reckon I've got the defensive driving pretty well sussed... until yesterday.
The scene is a empty French motorway (two lanes each way) and I've been put in the outside lane by cones making it single lane. I'm doing 90km/h as per the temporary speed limit. It's a downhill slope and I can see an on-ramp which is also coned so that the traffic coming on is fed into the inside lane for a couple of hundred metres.
There's a car on the on ramp, joining the motorway, so I keep an eye on it and prepare to ease off (plan A) with the option to brake if necessary (plan B).
The other driver doesn't follow the marked out curve and stay in the lane intended for him but just sails blithely through a gap in the cones directly into my lane. No panic, I brake, quite hard but not dangerously so. Plan B working fine.
Mr X. finishes his turn and looks in his mirror, sees me bearing down on him, mouth opens in a big "OH" and he brakes. All I retain about the next few seconds is saying "f
king hell," repeatedly about 5 times and standing on the brake as hard as I possibly can.
Luckily, I scrubbed off enough speed not to hit him. It made me think though. You see all the while I was doing the braking, I had stopped thinking. Once I was in plan B, I didn't "realise" that it was now plan A and that I needed a new plan B. And once I got to the really hard braking, all thought processes stopped. On reflection, I could have avoided Mr. X simply by driving through the cones, but it didn't occur to me, as my thinking had frozen.
Oh yeah and thank God for ABS because the idea of cadence braking didn't even enter my head: it was just push as hard as I could on the brake pedal and hold it there.
I had a humbling experience yesterday.
Like all of us I consider myself a better than average driver: 30+ years of 'biking means I think that everyone else on the road is out to get me, 25+ years of living on the Continent and I know that they're out to get me.
So I reckon I've got the defensive driving pretty well sussed... until yesterday.
The scene is a empty French motorway (two lanes each way) and I've been put in the outside lane by cones making it single lane. I'm doing 90km/h as per the temporary speed limit. It's a downhill slope and I can see an on-ramp which is also coned so that the traffic coming on is fed into the inside lane for a couple of hundred metres.
There's a car on the on ramp, joining the motorway, so I keep an eye on it and prepare to ease off (plan A) with the option to brake if necessary (plan B).
The other driver doesn't follow the marked out curve and stay in the lane intended for him but just sails blithely through a gap in the cones directly into my lane. No panic, I brake, quite hard but not dangerously so. Plan B working fine.
Mr X. finishes his turn and looks in his mirror, sees me bearing down on him, mouth opens in a big "OH" and he brakes. All I retain about the next few seconds is saying "f
king hell," repeatedly about 5 times and standing on the brake as hard as I possibly can.Luckily, I scrubbed off enough speed not to hit him. It made me think though. You see all the while I was doing the braking, I had stopped thinking. Once I was in plan B, I didn't "realise" that it was now plan A and that I needed a new plan B. And once I got to the really hard braking, all thought processes stopped. On reflection, I could have avoided Mr. X simply by driving through the cones, but it didn't occur to me, as my thinking had frozen.
Oh yeah and thank God for ABS because the idea of cadence braking didn't even enter my head: it was just push as hard as I could on the brake pedal and hold it there.
nigelfr said:
Like all of us I consider myself a better than average driver: 30+ years of 'biking means I think that everyone else on the road is out to get me, 25+ years of living on the Continent and I know that they're out to get me.
thenesselte said:
You started off with a defective plan..your plan A should have been "Everyone else on the road is an idiot"..and taken it from there..
Reading the post kinda helps 
ApexJimi said:
nigelfr said:
Like all of us I consider myself a better than average driver: 30+ years of 'biking means I think that everyone else on the road is out to get me, 25+ years of living on the Continent and I know that they're out to get me.
thenesselte said:
You started off with a defective plan..your plan A should have been "Everyone else on the road is an idiot"..and taken it from there..
Reading the post kinda helps I'm also stupified that they looked in the mirror and thought the best action was to brake. Its like when someone pulls out of a side street or into a roundabout in front of you, then they see you coming, so they stop in front of you. D'oh!
You make a good point though, once plan B is in action, make a new plan b! Once it all kicks off there's rarely enough time or concentration available to start considering alternatives.
You make a good point though, once plan B is in action, make a new plan b! Once it all kicks off there's rarely enough time or concentration available to start considering alternatives.
Menguin said:
So he thinks breaking is the solution to being rear ended? Wow.
Seems to be an instinctive reaction with many people. Someone once pulled out in front of me to make a right turn and would have been easily clear if they'd carried on, but they saw me coming, panicked, and slammed-on, leaving me having to slam-on too so as not to T-bone them.mybrainhurts said:
Psssst...he gets this global warming stuff wrong too, but don't tell him I told you
You're standing waaay too close to me.Look MBH, stop stalking me: I've told you there's no hope. I don't believe in inter-species relationships: I'm Homo sapiens and you're Homo erectus
... or is that a gun in your pocket?
MitchT said:
Menguin said:
So he thinks breaking is the solution to being rear ended? Wow.
Seems to be an instinctive reaction with many people. Someone once pulled out in front of me to make a right turn and would have been easily clear if they'd carried on, but they saw me coming, panicked, and slammed-on, leaving me having to slam-on too so as not to T-bone them.I saw him and braked (hard but not violently) and would have just passed behind him, unfortunately he saw me and decided to slam on so I had to do everything in my power to avoid running straight into the side of him. If he had realised his mistake and carried on all would have been fine.
When you've only had your bike licence a few hours it's pretty f
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