fastride976#!
At 20mph, we are moving at approximately 29 feet per second. Most people take about 0.75 seconds to perceive a problem, and another 0.75 seconds to react.
So...we travel approximately 45 feet before doing anything to avoid the car that has that has begun to cut us off.
Slower is safer.
How does knowing the specific distance (in feet) help a motorcyclist determine what course of action to take? I suggest that it could only be useful if the rider knew a) their perception and reaction time, knew their exact speed at the moment in fps, and can do the calculation instantly. Oh, and they would need to do this for each of the other vehicles on the road at the same time.
I think that it is unreasonable and unrealistic to do that math on the road.
I think that they take-away here is that lane splitting past large gaps should be done with great care. If possible move over to the part of the lane farthest from the threat to increase the space cushion.
Occam's razor applies.
What kind of math are you referring to, the one you stated first or something else?
The point was that judging distance is an essential part of riding. There is no math involved :wow judging distance is like juding speed, you don't get out a calulator nor get distracted trying to figure it out.
If a rider doesn't know how far away they are from something then just how do they know if they can stop before running into it? Now that is unreasonable.
Just how does it help to know the distance to the car in front of you? Maybe to avoid hitting them when they jam on their brakes to stop because the guy in front of them did the same?
Crashes happen because of errors in judgement sparing mechanical failures and acts of god or nature. Isn't that the purpose here, to analyze the error, determine how to avoid similar situations and get better results?
Every rider should know the distance it takes for ther bike to stop as well as how quickly and it can pass another vehicle at speed. There is no math involved, its called being able to judge and that happens at the speed of thought and not by figuring out reaction times and converting that to distance or feet traveled at a certain speed. Geesh.
How does knowing the distance help avoid crashes? Well, if you are flying through two lines if cars and see the car some distance ahead closing the gap you will try to pass through it sure makes a difference if that is before or or after you realize you can't stop before running into them.
Knowing your position is all about distance, it helps you slow down or speed up, change what lane you are in or stay to the right or left . When splitting lanes knowing distance helps you decide if its worth the risk to split or just flow because 30 yards ahead the traffic is breaking free.
Op stated "The white car then unexpectedly did a quick lane change into my lane. Turned on blinkers after he crossed the white line. I was in a slight state of shock. He was maybe 10-20 feet in front of me. Again, I'm not good at gauging distance. "
She went on to say rhat she just knew she couldn't stop in time if she braked hard. Also, the car that crossed into her lane came from the right. OP said she saw a gap ahead and thought the white car wouldn't go there. Distance was impiortant. Closing to a gap on your left while splitting invites cars ahead on your right to slide in, which appears to have happened. A gap far ahead doesn't present the same danger as one 20 yards ahead. Speeding up places you closer to the gap and closer to cars on your right that want to dive into that space.
I suggest that knowing the distance it takes to stop is as important as much as being able to judge the difference between 10 and 20 feet. One is twice the other and 10mph is twice as fast as 5 mph. Without accurately judging distance, speed is just a number.
I povided some methods of being able to judge distance better. It might help the OP.