A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads (2012) [pdf]

http://www.slobc.org/safety/documents/road-survival-guide.pdf

by tzs • 10 years ago

244 73 10 years ago

rdtsc• 10 years ago

Pretty neat.

Was just at a water park with my family and the guards there were doing this constant head nodding. Kind of disturbing to watch if you are not expecting it. But I looked it up and the explanation is they are "scanning" - making sure to move around their heads to observe their area better and not rely on just the peripheral vision.

Owls do that as well. Even I do it when getting to an intersection somewhat. I lean into the steering wheel and bob my head up and down a few times. I imagine it might look pretty ridiculous to someone from the side.

Driving is probably one of the most dangerous things we do here in US. Anything to make it safer is a good thing.

One of the tricks I learned from driver's ed in back in Eastern Europe is if you drive at night, and incoming traffic is blinding you, don't stare directly into the beam, but turn your head slightly to the right, such that you'd still see ahead but it would be out of the corner of your eye. Obviously not ideal as you're using your peripheral vision but if the alternative is to blinded and not see anything at all, it is still better. I've used that trick enough times since then and it seems to work pretty well.

jonah• 10 years ago

Regarding oncoming traffic at night; my dad taught me to focus on the white line. It does what you're describing but in addition keeps you positioned in your lane and gives you something to focus on so your eyes aren't drawn to the headlights.

cyberferret• 10 years ago

A good article. As a former pilot, I can attest that many things he speaks in that article are analysed and optimised when we are in the cockpit. Using direct vision (scanning instruments) vs peripheral vision (while landing) etc.

Another thing that I think he should extend upon with regards to saccadic eye movement is the phenomena of going around a roundabout etc. in the dark or where external references are not in high contrast - that can start your eyes involuntarily darting around as your inner ear detect an imbalance/change due to the sideways G forces, and thinks that you are turning your head.

I really believe that this article should be required reading for every student who learns to drive or ride on the roads.

devenson• 10 years ago

And avoid dangling ornaments from the rear view mirror! Otherwise you condition yourself to disregard motion in front of you.

kpil• 10 years ago

I think it's safe to say that people that have shit dangling from their rear mirror are bad and unimaginative drivers that don't get the importance of a working peripheral vision.

And there is research that shows that they have more accidents.

(Actually people that 'personalize' their cars, which includes funny signs and other gadgets)

kctess5• 10 years ago

Tldr: if a vehicle is on a collision course with you, it will always be in the same position of your field of view, so there may not be enough apparent motion to draw your attention. To combat this, slow down a bit as you approach intersections to generate relative motion between yourself and anyone on a collision course with you. Also scan left/right twice to double your chances of seeing hazards. The brain is very good at stitching together a coherent scene as your eyes dart around, but this might hide the fact that you have blind spots where your eyes have jumped over potentially important details.

To improve your chances of being seen, turn your lights on and wear bright colors to improve contrast. Be aware that if the sun is right behind you, people ahead of you will have a very difficult time seeing you.

beachstartup• 10 years ago

move your head and upper body around too, especially when turning or merging or reversing. this gives you more information about depth and relative motion, especially through the mirrors. good drivers do this naturally.

we are not immobile racecar drivers strapped into harnesses and hans. we are looking out for pedestrians and vehicles going the opposite direction, something that doesn't (usually) exist on racetracks.

your entire body should be involved in driving. if it's not, you're not really driving, you're sort of just pointing the car in a direction and going for a ride to see what happens.

dave4270• 10 years ago

Funny that you should mention racecars. I learned all of this in a drag racing class. I won the class from NHRA and was expecting it to be all about driving the 8 second, 160+ MPH dragster. That was some part of it, but more time was spent on how your eyes and brain work. I was the guinea pig to show the class that there is no such thing as peripheral vision. All you have is peripheral "awareness" at your disposal. "Vision" requires looking directly at something.

Those of us who ride motorcycles, learn to watch people's heads and eyes ( sometimes in their mirrors ) and know that if you do not make eye contact, you are invisible to the others on the road.

Your last sentence sums it all up. Unfortunately it describes the majority of drivers I encounter on the road. At least in New Orleans, it seems that driving is about the 4th thing people do at the wheel of a car. Texting, eating, and dancing all rank higher on an average day. And all those people assume they will "see" things off to the side in time...

Meanwhile, I'm looking for pupils.

tomjen32• 10 years ago

And don't drive a white car. Those are impossible to see if the sun is shining heavily.

ugexe• 10 years ago

White is statistically the safest car color in regards to collisions

elorant• 10 years ago

To improve your chances of being seen, turn your lights on and wear bright colors to improve contrast.

I guess that's why quite a lot supercars have vivid colors. Reds, yellows, greens, whatever stands out.

JustSomeNobody• 10 years ago

I always thought supercars did it for the attention, "Look at me! Vroom vroom!"

patcheudor• 10 years ago

I had a bright hazard yellow Subaru with daytime running lights and was shocked every-time someone failed to see it which was shockingly often. I'm not going to say it was an every day occurrence, but certainly once a week. Strangely, I've had far fewer incidents of people not seeing me in my silver Mercedes roadster without daytime running lights although I purposely drive it like a mad-man and hence developed my own rule for driving a sports car or motorcycle:

Accelerating at high speed, decelerating quickly, darting in and out of lanes of traffic, drifting corners, staying on the accelerator to produce lots of noise, swerving back and forth in the lane to "warm the tires" may make you look like an ass, but it also keeps you safe because people track the "idiot."

ollie874• 10 years ago

I can tell you that is doesn't work. I used to ride around on a very loud yellow motorcycle, my light on constantly.

I would still get stupid cunts pull out of junctions directly in front of me and often have people open car doors into my path while parked.

Sometimes it felt like I was being driven at, it gives you a bit of a complex and you start to ride extremely offensively at all times.

Shivetya• 10 years ago

about what every motorcyclist learns in a safety course and we practice daily. hell i do it in my car but one thing I would add is you can pretty much tell if another driver near you is driving to paying attention to something else.

the lights being on is what the driving lights on cars were for, which now are getting artful in that you can easily identify makes by them.

kazinator2• 10 years ago

In fact, linear collisions are the same as head-on collisions. From the coordinate system of either vehicle, the other one is just getting closer and bigger. Very slowly at first, until just before impact when it gets a lot bigger a lot faster.

In the extreme angle case, suppose two vehicle are traveling on a freeway side-by-side and move together very slowly just to give each other a light tap. The forward motion relative to the ground is irrelevant; the impact is the same as, say, slowly backing into a parked car, except that it's sideways. Looking out the side window, the other car is in the same spot the whole time and just gets closer.

It works the same way from every angle, from 180 degrees (head-on collision) to near zero.

wlesieutre• 10 years ago

In the extreme angle case, suppose two vehicle are traveling on a freeway side-by-side and move together very slowly just to give each other a light tap. The forward motion relative to the ground is irrelevant; the impact is the same as, say, slowly backing into a parked car, except that it's sideways. Looking out the side window, the other car is in the same spot the whole time and just gets closer.

In terms of their relative motion, sure. There are other factors though, like if you're going 70 MPH and the relatively soft hit from the side spins your car off axis.

If your car was stopped, no big deal, you're pointed in a different direction. But since your car is moving and its wheels are no longer parallel to the direction of travel, you're going to spin/slide down the highway at 65 mph.

Even if the car doesn't spin from the impact, most drivers are going to react to noticing that someone just changed lanes into their car by swerving, which is again not a great situation at highway speeds.

Natsu• 10 years ago

I wasn't sure what to expect, but the part about missing cars near the edge of the windshield is so true. There's a particular corner close to home with very low speed traffic. Somehow, I've missed more than one vehicle coming up the road, such that I had adapted to moving my head habitually before that intersection to compensate. This gives a much more complete explanation of what's going on.

rossjudson• 10 years ago

Rings true for me as well -- I remember one near miss from many years ago where I was in disbelief for a long, long time -- how the hell did I miss seeing that car? This article + probability starts to explain it.

mohsinr2• 10 years ago

Tips about high contrast clothing/jacket and flashing LEDs are great for bikers on the road...

Must read for drivers, explains lot of stuff in simpler understanding way.

Too• 10 years ago

As an every day biking commuter I can't agree with the flashing led part. First of all it makes it very hard for others to estimate your speed, second they might actually not see the light if the eyes happen to sweep by quickly during an off-period of the light, third they blind oncoming trafficants because it's hard to adjust the eyes to something that is constantly blinking.

Bonus:If blinking lights would be a good idea wouldnt cars also have them?

kmill• 10 years ago

I've thought the same thing. Some bikers have lights which flash extremely brightly and aimed at eye-level, probably with the idea that brighter things are harder to miss, but whether I'm a driver or a biker, I hate to be behind them since they are painfully blinding.

I wonder whether the best light is two: one which is always on and one which is flashing. Flashing lights are to get drivers' attention even when it is in peripheral vision, and the steady light is for speed/position estimation.

tomjen32• 10 years ago

As a driver no to the last part. Car lights have to light up the road so that we can see things, and at quite a distance too because cars moves fast.

Bicycle lights exists to be visible and draw attention so I don't kill you (last thing I want). That said, blinking lights means I can't guess your speed or whether there is more than one bike. Both matters.

pbhjpbhj• 10 years ago

"Bonus:If blinking lights would be a good idea wouldnt cars also have them?" //

Vehicles that need to be seen like police, fire, paramedic, road safety, all have flashing lights. Indeed cats have flashing lights to use when they're causing a hazard.

I suspect you're right WRT difficult to estimate distance/approach speed for vehicles with only a flashing light, but not sure about combinations of constant and intermittent lights.

Bonus: in UK cyclists may use flashing lights but only on clothing IIRC, at least they need separate constant lights on their bicycles.

rflrob• 10 years ago

First of all it makes it very hard for others to estimate your speed

In my experience, the more harrowing near misses with cars have been where they don't seem to be aware that I'm there, rather than that I'm not moving at the speed they expect. If they know that they can't accurately assess my speed, they'll most likely be more cautious.

benjiweber• 10 years ago

Flashing doesn't need to be on-off. Many bike lights now pulse - e.g. constant light of 700lm with pulse of 1500lm. twice a second.

Patterns are also common e.g. strip of 5 LEDs with 2 on at a time, sequence changes a few times a second.

Anecdotal, but in my experience pulsing lights signfificantly reduce SMIDSYs over solid lights along. (I ride around 2hrs a day, in the dark in winter months)

Even more effective than pulsing lights is helmet lights. When you scan the road you're creating moving light and much more likely to be seen. A quick glance at a motorist waiting at a T-junction to pull out and you've maximised your chances of having been seen.

christoph• 10 years ago

Slight tangent - some cars do actually have flashing (break/hazard) lights now that kick in when heavy breaking is detected. These definitely catch a drivers attention when they kick in.

mohsinr2• 10 years ago

Tips about high contrast clothing/jacket and flashing LEDs are great for bikers on the road...

Must read for drivers, explains lot of stuff in simpler understanding way.

proactivesvcs• 10 years ago

I'm always on the lookout for more roadcraft tips and techniques, as a vulnerable cyclist. An excellent read and I will be using the "lookout scan" methodology on future rides.

anonymousDan2• 10 years ago

Yup. I'm sure you're aware of it but as someone who has spent many years cycling around a big city (London), the number one thing for me is to be really careful going up the inside of long vehicles at intersections.

douche• 10 years ago

Please, for the sake of everybody else, don't install those blue-spectrum high intensity headlights. They glare more and wreck night vision more than the old yellow incandescents.

woliveirajr• 10 years ago

When overtaking another car or truck, I always:

1 - look to the other car mirrors: if I can't see his head/face, he provably can't see part of my car

2 - look at its tyres: I find that it's faster to see if he will change lanes by the position/direction of the tyres, specially trucks.

Note: yes, where I live, it's common that a truck decides to overtake another truck right in the moment you're doing it too.

davedx2• 10 years ago

Yes - looking at tyres is a great general tactic. I learned that doing motorcycle lessons.

OliverJones3• 10 years ago

Here's an interesting point. Very rapidly flashing lights, like dimmed LED car tail lights, show up on the human retina as dashed lines after a visual saccade.

I wonder if visibility could be helped by leaving some flashing in the tailights when they're full-bright : when the brake-light mode is activated.

(I mean LEDs that are dimmed by flashing them on and off at a rate faster than persistence of vision.)

Another visual thing. This is a pet peeve. Emergency vehicles use flashing BLUE lights. That's perceptually stupid. For one thing, human eyes, opened up (wide pupils, typical at night) do a better job of focusing longer wavelength light. This has two consequences: -- it's slightly harder to locate the source of the light because it isn't as neatly focused on the retina. -- the poorly focused blue light splatters all over the retina, desensitizing the rods of peripheral vision and spoiling dark adaption right when it's needed - entering into a zone where an emergency vehicle is active.

Secondly, red light-- deep red light -- selectively desensitizes the cones in the fovea, leaving the rods in peripheral vision sensitized.

Conclusion: orange light would be a much better choice than blue for cop car flashing lights. It would focus better, preserve dark adaptation better, and preserve nighttime peripheral vision better.

davedx2• 10 years ago

Flashing orange lights? You mean like indicators and traffic lights? I think the blue is there because nothing else on the road has that colour.

Waterluvian• 10 years ago

In Canada emergency vehicles use flashing red and white lights. Blue are snow plows.

josh-wrale• 10 years ago

I think this (edit: blue lights) is intentional, at least in some cases. A highway police officer on night patrol is probably well served by this potentially disorienting effect.

OliverJones3• 10 years ago

I disagree. I once almost didn't see an officer who was standing in the halo of her car's flashing blue lights on a rainy road. Intentionally disorienting drivers is dangerous.

J-dawg3• 10 years ago

I think if the whole system was redesigned from scratch a lot of things would be different.

Why on earth do we use red and green for signalling stop/go when a statistically significant number of men (plus a few women) have difficulty seeing those colours?

It seems that once you get past a certain level of adoption, it becomes impossible to change even an obviously sub-optimal design.

jac_no_k• 10 years ago

Cyclist and car driver here.

Blinking lights while noticeable, especially at a distance, it can be difficult to judge closing speed. As a driver, I find it difficult to judge closing speed when the cyclist is oncoming.

The rules for brevets (long distance cycling events) is that both front and rear lamps must be steady state. Additional blinking lights are acceptable. Essentially that is my setup for cyclecommuting, even during the daytime.

sunshiney• 10 years ago

OMG I am now sooo glad I live rural. The biggest issue I have is waving to other drivers and watching for cows or deer.

bo1024• 10 years ago

This is why you should actually stop at stop signs and red lights, which nobody does.

It happens all the time to runners, especially when people roll up and through stop signs. The speeds often line up well. I had always attributed it to being in the pillar blindspot (and when the speeds match as described in the article, you stay in that blindspot the whole time). After reading the article, it makes more sense.

I can't count the number of drivers who have rolled up to a stop sign with no intent of actually stopping, taken one final look out their window as they go through and had a huge jump of fright to see me staring back at them through the window angrily, having stopped just in time to avoid getting run over.

jdietrich• 10 years ago

It's also worth noting that the blind spots in cars are getting bigger. Stricter rollover crash tests require large pillars to support the roof; many modern cars feature curtain airbags, further widening the pillars.

This is a particular problem with the A-pillars at the front of the car, which are often large enough to completely obscure a motorcycle or bicycle at a junction.

Alongside saccades, A-pillar blind spots are a leading cause of the accidents that British bikers call SMIDSYs - "Sorry Mate, I Didn't See You".

lamontcg• 10 years ago

^ yeah this comment is what i was looking for in this thread.

the same argument about vehicles on a collision course with you being fixed on the windscreen applies equally to being fixed behind your pillar. particularly pedestrians crossing in a crosswalk. it makes sense to always look 'around' your pillar when you go past a crosswalk or when your pillar is lined up with the corner of an intersection.

upofadown• 10 years ago

... look at the head of the driver that is approaching or has stopped.

That isn't really that possible these days. Car windshields are steeply inclined for better fuel economy which better reflects light. Smoked windows are now popular so that the interior of the car is relatively dark. If you look at the windshield of an approaching car you usually just see the sky.

trankas• 10 years ago

Interesting article with good tips.

Most of the pictures come from intersections in Portugal and that just goes to show that road building here does not take into account lighting factors, especially regarding sunlight in the morning or the afternoon.

There are some particularly tricky patches of road that everyone would benefit reading this.

durzagott• 10 years ago

I was hoping this article was going to mention about remaining calm and not getting angry on the road. He kind of alluded to it in the beginning with 'What’s wrong with you - are you blind?!!'

My wife has terrible road rage and I'm often suggesting she should be more like a fighter pilot on the road; remain calm, focused and let the stupid shit go. I was hoping I could forward this on to her as an 'I told you so' ;-)

A Fighter Pilot’s Guide to Surviving on the Roads (2012) [pdf]

Related Stories