I drive a motorcycle. What can I say; I take my chances and watch out for the other guy, the guy on four wheels.
I’ve gone down a few times. They say it’s not a matter of “if,” but “when.” Sand, gravel, oil, wet leaves, ice, depending on where you live and drive, they all take a bike down. So do inobservant drivers, careless drivers, distracted drivers, impatient reckless drivers, they all have their own brutal way of taking a biker down.
How many times has it been said, “I didn’t see him”? Biker down, the bike on one side, or perhaps underneath, broken and twisted; the rider on the other side, or pinned in, crushed and mangled—all because he was “unseen.”
Not too long ago I myself almost became another statistic. It was close, very close. Would I have survived the collision? I don’t know. And, what did the other driver say to me: “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you.” “Yah, you got that right!” I thought.
It was so obvious to me why she didn’t see me. When she came to the stop sign at the intersection (where I had the right-of-way, no stop-sign for me, crossing cars were to stop and wait for me), she barely stopped at all. She made a “California Stop,” which is to say she rolled through the stop sign. Actually she did more than merely “roll” through, as I saw it.
In short, she (yes, it was a woman, but men are just as bad), did not stop in order to look; rather, she looked in order to see if she needed to stop; that is, she preferred to just keep going. There is a big difference between the two modes: stopping to look or looking so as to keep going. And that’s why she did NOT see me!
This was not a main thorough fare that we were on. It was a back road intersection, not a lot of traffic. She did not expect much cross traffic. She certainly did not expect a motorcycle. Not looking for much, she saw just what she was expecting and hoping for—nothing! Thus, she failed to see me. And guess what! I was wearing one of those loud orange colored vests, over my leather jacket, the kind that road workers wear. I couldn’t have been dressed more appropriately in order to BE seen.
Her blindness was not the fault of the motorcycle being too small to see. Her blindness was in her head, in her attitude, in her presumptive expectation. She really did not want to be bothered with the stop-sign at all. As I said above, she barely stopped at all. She more than coasted through the intersection, failing to even slow down very much, let alone come to a complete stop in order to look. This is why her only defense to me was, “I didn’t see you.” So true, she wasn’t really looking for me, or anyone else for that matter. She felt badly. She apologized. But she didn’t own up. She excused herself both inwardly and outwardly by implying that bikes, motorcyclists are just too damn hard to see. NO! That’s not it!! She didn’t see because she simply glanced with a perfunctory look, hoping not to have to stop at all. And so, her blindness was one of intent and spirit, attitude and mindset!
So, don’t blame the motorcyclist with the implied accusation—motorcyclists are just too damn hard to see. They’re not! Not if you really bother to look, really look at what’s coming or what’s crossing at an intersection. Driving requires attentiveness, something our society seems to be losing more of over time. We now split our attention into multiple channels and we proudly and happily call it the ability to multitask. We’re in a hurry. We don’t want to slow down, let alone stop. And so goes our driving as well.
The next time you almost hit a motorcyclist, or worse, actually do bring one down; and you defend yourself by proclaiming, “I never saw the guy coming!” Think about what you were really doing at the moment. Your thoughts, your intentions, what really preoccupied you at the time the accident occurred or almost occurred? Then ask if it is really fair for you to imply blame on the so-called “invisibility” aspect of the motorcyclist. As if we motorcyclists are driving around wearing an invisibility cloak, just to scare the bejesus out of auto-drivers with our so-called sudden appearance out of nowhere.
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