Speed awareness course....interesting but.....
Discussion
vonhosen said:
Scans don't by definition take long. Thing is you visit the hazard/information 3,4,5 or more times in your journey to it with it starting when it is at the horizon (which may take 20-30 seconds or more to get to) each time assessing any change & updating it within your driving plan.
i.e. The first scan is when it's at the horizon & you can see it's a sign but you can't see the detail, as you move towards it the next time you throw your vision forward your vision goes beyond it & as you scan back you process what more detail you can get from it this time & update, then the process starts again with it being clearer still & so on.
Vision scans works from far to near, not near to far (near to far invariably stops your vision getting to the horizon as you tend to stop lifting it when you see something of interest in the foreground & you're already on top of it).
I have to admit I penned 3 replies and each one was somewhat defensive, but I have realised that the correct answer is that I need to 'up my game' in the observation department. i.e. The first scan is when it's at the horizon & you can see it's a sign but you can't see the detail, as you move towards it the next time you throw your vision forward your vision goes beyond it & as you scan back you process what more detail you can get from it this time & update, then the process starts again with it being clearer still & so on.
Vision scans works from far to near, not near to far (near to far invariably stops your vision getting to the horizon as you tend to stop lifting it when you see something of interest in the foreground & you're already on top of it).
40 years of trouble free riding, while looking for danger, threats etc below eye level, but it has all changed now. Usually I could judge what a speed limit is without needing signs. The road, the traffic, the weather, and I have always managed to set my safe speeds without problem.
However, the goals are all changed now, the biggest threat is now from above head height: speed signs. More focus is needed looking for speed signs than looking for pot holes, errant cars, roadside hazards etc. It is a full time chore.
Even traffic lights and stop signs have a low level indication that something is happening, lines on the road etc. Speed signs have nothing.
In the area I was riding today Uttoxeter-Alton-Cheadle, the speeds go up and down faster than a yoyo. There is just so much roadside furniture with all the other various signs and clutter it is so easy to miss a speed sign.
I rode right past another pair of 30 signs going into Uttoxeter, from a 50, and never noticed until I saw a 30mph repeater sign, so I turned round and went back to see where I had missed them. Plain as day, both sides of the road, full size 60cm speed signs, 10 feet from the ground. And I had missed them. They were not far before a bunch of major roadworks that totally distracted me from my hunt for speed signs.
Exactly. Couple of miles in a built in 40 and it suddenly changes to a 30, then the same further on a couple of miles.
The explanation from our instructor was all the changes are made over several years, due to fatalities, accidents, complaints, incidents, and they keep changing, adding, removing signs and regulations.
Leaving Uttoxeter roundabout heading towards Alton Towers it is 50mph for maybe 200 metres, then 40 for 200 yards, then back to 50 again.
Heading out of my home town on A518 it is 30mph, you hit a big roundabout, and when you turn left, right there, 15 feet above your head, is a 40 sign. The speed limit goes up, for 200 yards, then goes up to 50. The dozens of times I have turned left at that roundabout over the last seven months since we moved back here and I have never even noticed that sign, it is so far above your line of vision, you literally have no to be looking for it to see it.
The explanation from our instructor was all the changes are made over several years, due to fatalities, accidents, complaints, incidents, and they keep changing, adding, removing signs and regulations.
Leaving Uttoxeter roundabout heading towards Alton Towers it is 50mph for maybe 200 metres, then 40 for 200 yards, then back to 50 again.
Heading out of my home town on A518 it is 30mph, you hit a big roundabout, and when you turn left, right there, 15 feet above your head, is a 40 sign. The speed limit goes up, for 200 yards, then goes up to 50. The dozens of times I have turned left at that roundabout over the last seven months since we moved back here and I have never even noticed that sign, it is so far above your line of vision, you literally have no to be looking for it to see it.
The road over Buxton pass way has a rigidly enforced speed limit, with average speed cameras as well as, I've been told, helicopter patrols in summer, because of the amount of bikers who get killed trying to, er, 'get there sooner'.
I found it hard to actually keep up to the speed limit, let alone break it. There are some very surprising ever-tightening corners to be found. Fun can be had while still being legal.
I found it hard to actually keep up to the speed limit, let alone break it. There are some very surprising ever-tightening corners to be found. Fun can be had while still being legal.
Edited by King Herald on Monday 31st July 22:21
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