With winter now a distant memory, motorcycling becomes something that many can enjoy, rather than just a hardy few. As you cruise along the roads, you’ll be sure to keep a keen eye out for drivers.
You’ll look well ahead to see if the drivers waiting to pull out have spotted you or whether those you look to pass have realized you are there. Yet even doing that may not prevent one of them from hitting you.
Some of the drivers who you feel sure have seen you won’t have. They might have been looking in your direction, it might appear that they had their eyes fixed straight on you, but some of them will not have realized you are there. There are two principal reasons for this
They’re not expecting to see a motorcycle
Inattentional blindness is a phenomenon believed to explain why so many drivers look straight through motorcyclists without noting they are there. Their brain cannot take in everything around them all at once, so it focuses on seeing what it considers important and what it expects to see, which in the case of drivers is usually other four-wheeled vehicles.
Other vehicles obscure their view of you
There’s a lot of visual clutter on the roads, and you, on your motorcycle, only make up a small fraction of it. When a driver looks your way, something might block their view of you. It might be the post of a street lamp, a billboard or the other vehicles on the road. Sat atop your motorcycle, you present a low and narrow object which can easily be obscured from view at the precise moment the driver looks your way.
If, in the aftermath of a collision, a driver tells you they didn’t see you, don’t get mad. Instead, take it as an admission of their guilt that can help you get the compensation you need.