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A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

portsmouthctc.org.uk

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Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#141

Post by def_true_false »

btrettel wrote: post #103
crunchlibrarian wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use an air horn in any context on me there is going to be trouble, I hope you're prepared for that. If you assault someone you should expect a proportional response.

> If you use an air horn in any context on me there is going to be trouble, I hope you're prepared for that. If you assault someone you should expect a proportional response. Fortunately, people like you seem to be fairly rare in my experience. After hundreds of horn uses (more than 500, easily), I might be able to count the number of times that people got noticeably angry at me for honking on one hand. I'm actually…

A simple "mechanical bike horn" (no idea if that's the right term, but Google image seems to find the right thing when searching for that) might be what you want for pedestrians. I've never seen an air horn that looked usable before, so thanks for that. Looks nice for cycling in traffic.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#142

Post by amanaplanacanal »

gomox wrote: post #93
chooseaname wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always use BGE. My dad basically nagged me into remembering it always. I tell people who have never done it, go find a parking lot with just a few cars in it and convince themselves that it works and that it is safer than twisting their head around to see backwards.

Turning your head backwards gives you wider peripheral vision with the properties described in the article (i.e. quick motion detection). When reversing in perpendicular pedestrian/cycle traffic (such as coming out a driveway, or if you accidentally ended up over a pedestrian crossing when the red light got you and you want to go back a few feet) looking backwards is much safer.

Requirement for a past job was that I take a traffic safety course, and one of the things they taught us was to never back up when you were caught out in the crosswalk because pedestrians will frequently walk behind the car. Better to sit where you are and feel stupid.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#143

Post by throwaway8689 »

btrettel wrote: post #81

Transportation cyclist here. This is a great article, but it only indirectly touches upon one of the most effective tools a cyclist could have: an air horn. I have an Air Zound air horn and I feel much less safe riding without it. I'll often give a few toots before approaching an intersection to increase the chance that I am seen. And it has probably saved me from some major crashes when I lay down the horn on someon…

Using your horn as feedback means you missed the moment.

It's all the times you anticipated a problem and used it preemptively that are keeping you from getting a ride in my ambulance.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#144

Post by Spooky23 »

Forbo wrote: post #101
gomox wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Ford car has smaller convex mirrors in the corners of the normal side mirrors and they are a godsend in busy city driving. I really miss them when driving other cars.

I'm surprised to see this is the first mention of convex mirrors. I get some of the stick-on variety for any car I'm driving, as it dramatically increases the viewing angle for my side mirrors. I get them for my friends to put on their mirrors, too. If a $6 item can help avoid any kind of collision, that's an insane ROI.

I agree with you on the stick-on mirrors.

My current car has convex mirrors built in, and I find them very distracting. The little $6 stick on is a superior product.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#145

Post by amanaplanacanal »

chooseaname wrote: post #72
nsnick wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying cyclists should wear bright clothing is blaming the victims of vehicle violence. https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/stop-victim-blaming-cy...

Is it? Is it really victim blaming or is it simply making a strong recommendation? We make strong recommendations for other things, like telling people not to walk alone in the dark. That's not considered victim blaming.

Should this also apply to pedestrians, or only to cyclists? Because everybody is a pedestrian once they get out of their car.

I used to walk to work, and I always wore a hi viz vest on winter mornings when it was still dark. But none of my co-workers (who still had to cross streets to get from the parking lot to the office) did.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#146

Post by def_true_false »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #126
polaritron wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partly, the instinct is about feeling trashy, and having to replace worn-out old junk as it accumulates stains, scuff marks, battle damage. It feels wasteful to have to discard perfectly useful items, because they look worn out. We all know that black, dark items tend show the least amount of wear, and in the interest of efficient frugality, some of us gravitate toward that instinct. You look at a white t-shirt, and…

Everything costs money. Everything has tradeoffs. Safety is no exception. It's all about management of risk. If you seek to mitigate all risk you'll find yourself with even more risk because your bank account is now empty. The internet is great at telling other people how to spend their money so of course everyone will tell you you need the "best" helmet and the "most" reflective jacket, etc, etc.

If you don't care about looks, you could just get some reflective tape (the kind used for trucks, e.g. V82). Use it on the bike and helmet and you'll probably be more visible than someone in a fancy jacket. Spending couple bucks on safety seems like a decent tradeoff.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#147

Post by lifeisstillgood »

craftyguy wrote: post #137
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well I submitted it - and i have not noticed any favouritism in the past :-) I suspect it's probably some mix of re-submitting affecting timestamps - I am not sure, which was why I asked. it's not terribly important. I think the problem to be solved however is hard, and i don't know of any obvious solutions, so perhaps "shit" is probably too harsh.

It is shit. Duplicate stories are arbitrarily allowed to be submitted (exact same article/url), while sometimes it actually works and prevents duplicates. Oftentimes you see submissions for an interesting article languish in the 'new' section, but then a user re-submits the exact same thing ('duplicate detection' algo at work, lol) and it's on the front page in minutes. Whether that user is a 'power user', besties wi…

I think it would be more effort to write your vision of the submission process than what is probably there.

The algos is presumably a straight up string compare with some url decoding, but any amount of idiotic GET key value pairs can screw that up.

I find Occam's razor the best explanation for these kind of things - I suggest not taking it to heart too much.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#148

Post by _ea1k »

noratonsto wrote: post #92
chooseaname wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always use BGE. My dad basically nagged me into remembering it always. I tell people who have never done it, go find a parking lot with just a few cars in it and convince themselves that it works and that it is safer than twisting their head around to see backwards.

A warning, do NOT use this mirror arrangement if you drive in a crowded city and share the road with scooters, motorcycles, bikes, and pedestrians. BGE is great if you drive on big roads and mainly share it with other cars. However if you drive in a city with tons of scooters, you know the ones that will swarm your car, then they will all be in your blind spot if you use this mirror arrangement.

I completely agree. Although, alternatively, you can keep BGE and just move your head a lot more when in the crowded city environment, if that isn't your primary driving environment. It isn't nearly as big of a problem to look sideways in the low urban speed environments, IMO.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#149

Post by rconti »

crunchlibrarian wrote: post #100
btrettel wrote: post #81

Transportation cyclist here. This is a great article, but it only indirectly touches upon one of the most effective tools a cyclist could have: an air horn. I have an Air Zound air horn and I feel much less safe riding without it. I'll often give a few toots before approaching an intersection to increase the chance that I am seen. And it has probably saved me from some major crashes when I lay down the horn on someon…

If you use an air horn in any context on me there is going to be trouble, I hope you're prepared for that. If you assault someone you should expect a proportional response.

You should consult a professional about your issues.

Re: A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads

#150

Post by lifeisstillgood »

cesarb wrote: post #91
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #52

To mods: A complete aside, but I posted this yesterday (say 30 hours ago) not today. is this some reset for labour day or other deeply cunning ranking algorithm? Or maybe i fat fingered it ...

This has happened before to a submission of mine, IIRC it was explained that it's a manual reset by the mods to give an interesting submission a second chance.

thank you, could easily be that.
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