Near Miss Analysis

[quanttrom]

Hello guys,

I am new to the forum and this seems like the most appropriate section for this post.

I had a near miss on I-880. I would like to get your expert opinion.

What was I doing wrong and what would be the best way of avoiding similar situations in the future?


youtu.be/taat9yn_KwI

 

[Pking]

Well for one, you're going faster than traffic...in the right hand lanes for slower traffic. That is unless you were getting off at the oncoming exit. Still, had there been a crash you would have definitely had the other cagers (witnesses) saying "he was going at a high rate of speed." Other than that, good swerve response :thumbup

 

[ScottRNelson]

I'll take a stab at it...

Start by passing on the left, not the right.

When passing someone in the neighboring lane, make sure you're less than 20 mph faster than them. I couldn't tell from your video, but it looked like you were okay on that issue.

Keep track of traffic in neighboring lanes in case you need to move over quickly, like you did.

Did you have time to signal your own lane change? :laughing


Stuff like this happens and it looked like you handled it reasonably well.

I'll usually slow down as I'm approaching a car in another lane like that, have a good look at them to see if they're about to do something stupid like suddenly come into my lane without signalling, then I'll accelerate past them.

If you're flying down the freeway faster than everybody else you have to expect the average driver to not see you coming up behind them. There are a lot of drivers out there who seem to have very weak driving skills. Nothing you can do will change that, so you have to deal with it.

 

[budman]

Good reaction. Room for an escape :cool

Just realizing where your choices took you and if you had just fell in line the likely incident would have never happened. There is the take away.

I think the * speed of traffic-right lane pass* comments are valid, yet could I see myself in the same position? Of course. Most of us will work around a bit of traffic here and there.

When you do the *above* you need to be extra vigilant. IMO you are putting yourself into a more dangerous situation/position in traffic by making that choice. You're flowing where traffic may merge or exit at a higher speed than the flow around you.

So want to stay safest??? don't do...*it*.

The seasoned riders probably made that move in their head before ever seeing it. I will bet that 50% of those did not even know they thought about it.

Traffic demands a higher level of concentration and the more "what if's" your brain can process automatically the better you are ready for one. Even then.....

Glad your good.

 

[EastBayDave]

Good reaction. Room for an escape :cool

Just realizing where your choices took you and if you had just fell in line the likely incident would have never happened. There is the take away.

I think the * speed of traffic-right lane pass* comments are valid, yet could I see myself in the same position? Of course. Most of us will work around a bit of traffic here and there.

When you do the *above* you need to be extra vigilant. IMO you are putting yourself into a more dangerous situation/position in traffic by making that choice. You're flowing where traffic may merge or exit at a higher speed than the flow around you.

So want to stay safest??? don't do...*it*.

The seasoned riders probably made that move in their head before ever seeing it. I will bet that 50% of those did not even know they thought about it.

Traffic demands a higher level of concentration and the more "what if's" your brain can process automatically the better you are ready for one. Even then.....

Glad your good.

Exactly; great reaction. Better than most; lots would'a been flying! :hail

You were -maybe- a tad fast, but I've done the same many times. In that case, I would be riding much farther over to the right, giving myself more room & I would even consider the emergency lane in my "avoidance" preparation response bank.

(yes, I've had to use the emergency lane couple times. Once I was POSITIVE the driver deliberately tried to take me out. Then what? =I sped off to my exit, nothing more to do.)

Keep up the good work; maybe a few feet more to the right?

 

[Enchanter]

Given that you were passing on their right, at a high rate of speed, they may not have seen you. This is a situation where highbeam may have helped.

 

[glooey]

+1 re: high delta in the right lane. In addition, a couple tip-offs:
1) from the start of the video it's evident the driver's biased towards the right side of the initial lane
2) you're both approaching a freeway exit

Based on those two facts, it's most conservative to assume the driver's going to make a move to the right in order to make the freeway exit.

Assuming that, you could have:
a) maintained your lane but eased off the throttle to give the car space to move into your lane to keep the threat visible/in front
b) maintained your speed and moved over another lane to the right to get the potential threat behind you
c) WFO and wheelie past for safety

At the very least, you know the driver's NOT going to change lanes to the left as it's occupied by multiple cars. Which means they're either going to maintain their lane or move into yours. Assuming coin flip probability of each would be enough to motivate a change in your speed and/or lane.

Also +1 on maintaining composure and control to survive the threat.

 

[quanttrom]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

A summary post of the things I could have done better. Feel free to add more if I missed something. Also, correct them if you feel like I didn't capture your advice correctly.

1) High Delta in Right-lane
Yeah, I agree. I was going faster than traffic in the right lane! As it was mentioned, it's not a good idea to pass on the right. From what I understand it's legal but it is not desirable.
Always pass on left.
Maintain minimal speed delta.

2) Driver Biased toward right-side + near exit
Very much so, I notice this more after looking at the video footage.
In this case, expect the expected! I can foresee how the lane she was driving in and the fact there is an exit coming up means she is more likely to exit.
Predict and prepare for likely scenarios based on current car positions and road exits.

3) More Space
I could have been another lane over. This would have put me away from all the cars around me.
Maintain large space cushion (if possible)

4) Highbeam/Visibility
Good advice too!
I have a high-vis jacket. Proudly repping team Highlighter here!
Also, I ride with my Highbeams on during daylight and on top of that, it's a R1200RT-P. Considering it's a decommissioned cop bike, I look EXACTLY like CHP in a rear-view mirror. If she missed me I am sure she would have missed any bike..
Maybe the only thing would be to get a headlight modulator. From what I get they are legal in CA. Considering it's a police bike, a headlight modulator would probably make me seem like a fullblown cop...

5) Lane Choice
Sticking to the left lanes would have been safer since like it was mentioned, the right lanes are where people enter and exit the highway.
Stick to lanes where cars are not merging/exiting

6) Speed of traffic
I was going faster than traffic. Had I been going roughly the same speed, and not directly beside her, this would have been avoided
Match the speed of traffic

Did you have time to signal your own lane change? :laughing

lol, TOTALLY ! Heck I even had time to check my blind spot, TWICE ! :ride

 

[Honey Badger]

To add to #2, my first time watching the video, I had no idea how long your clip was or what vehicle(s) would be involved (didn't check). Saw that movements of that black prius, and my thought was "that car is going to change lanes."

Yup, they did.

Not only were they hanging out towards the right side of the lane, they made a rather jerky move that way very early in the video which I immediately picked up on.

So my main advice would be keep your eyes up ahead more and have a "softer" field of vision to notice jerky movements that aren't close to you - often can warn you of someone who's planning a move, distracted, or just had their GPS tell them to "TURN NOW!!!"

Smooth evasion on your part, you had plenty of room, so nothing in that regard to comment on.

 

[Enchanter]

In retrospect, with such a high closing speed, the far right lane would have been safer.

 

[glooey]

I think this is a super-important topic/scenario for street riders. Thanks OP for putting yourself out there on video/forum for the sake of helping others (and yourself, of course). Just a few more comments:

1) High Delta in Right-lane
Yeah, I agree. I was going faster than traffic in the right lane! As it was mentioned, it's not a good idea to pass on the right. From what I understand it's legal but it is not desirable.
Always pass on left.
Maintain minimal speed delta.

I wouldn't say ALWAYS pass on the left. I would generally say, always pass on the lower risk side given the situation (oftentimes it WILL be to the left, especially approaching an onramp or offramp).

More importantly, NEVER get lulled into thinking that you're in good shape just because you're passing on the left. My observation is that Bay Area drivers do not maintain consistent lane discipline, either to the right or to the left.

6) Speed of traffic
I was going faster than traffic. Had I been going roughly the same speed, and not directly beside her, this would have been avoided
Match the speed of traffic

At the risk of sounding like I'm contradicting myself in my earlier post: I disagree with this. On a moto, my general practice is to go slightly (between 5-10mph) faster than the flow of traffic WHEN I'M NEAR OTHER CARS for two reasons: 1) give drivers something to "see" (apex predators like humans do better at identifying objects in relative motion than in static scenes), 2) get myself away from the cars.

I only match the speed of traffic once I get into a nice (~3-5 seconds) gap between cars.

In your particular scenario, I like to think that I would have maintained speed and moved over to the far right lane until the threat was passed, then moved back into the thru (2nd from right) lane or even farther left. If the merge/exit lane had been occupied, I think I would have maintained lane and slowed to give the threat the room to make that right lane change. My almost last choice would have been to pull in behind them until they cleared the lane and then resumed some positive delta to clear the bunch. My LAST choice would have been to match the flow of that particular group of cars -- just too many latent threats. Maybe I would have maintained a lower delta on approach, but that's just me.

 

[ScottRNelson]

A summary post of the things I could have done better. Feel free to add more if I missed something. Also, correct them if you feel like I didn't capture your advice correctly.

Good summary.

One thing that you did right, was to be at the right edge of the lane when the car started moving over, so it didn't take much to get out of the way. I'll always pick the side of the lane furthest away from cars in the next lane for that very reason.

This has been a good discussion. Thanks for starting it.

 

[KazMan]

my only comment would be because of the start of the video, it's not clear if you were static in lane or you were coming from a lane further left.

So you may have caught them completely out by moving right, and then moving right again, and they completely missed you in their scan (if there even was one). So hi-vis, ex-CHP, or hi-beams, are probably non-factors in your safety, unfortunately.

When needing to pass on the right, be deligent on the far right lane. If it's marked as merge (on or off), you can expect issues from both sides, those exiting, or those attempting to get on and move to HOV lanes. Both can be expected as sudden lane changes to get to lane of choice and thereforth a potential threat.

 

[afm199]

Hello guys,

I am new to the forum and this seems like the most appropriate section for this post.

I had a near miss on I-880. I would like to get your expert opinion.

What was I doing wrong and what would be the best way of avoiding similar situations in the future?


youtu.be/taat9yn_KwI

Saw that coming a mile away.

Slow down. Or if you want to ride that fast, then remember that every single person on the road is trying to kill you the moment you lose attention.

 

[quanttrom]

Saw that coming a mile away.

Slow down. Or if you want to ride that fast, then remember that every single person on the road is trying to kill you the moment you lose attention.

You guys are better riders than I am! That's for sure!

Speed has definitely been brought up and yeah. I agree with glooey. A few miles over traffic is probably the safest option!

Thanks for your input !

 

[budman]

Saw that coming a mile away.

Really??? Is this Lou??

Enchanter can bin this post as irrelevant, but there was not Car in the lane ahead of this guy so what did you see that I did not??

Or are you saying it was a situation where you could expect it.??

 

[Enchanter]

Really??? Is this Lou??

Enchanter can bin this post as irrelevant

...finger floating above the delete button

but there was not Car in the lane ahead of this guy so what did you see that I did not??

Or are you saying it was a situation where you could expect it.??

Argh… you saved yourself

 

[budman]

:teeth

This one can be so you feel the world is balanced. Ha!

 

[tzrider]

To add to #2, my first time watching the video, I had no idea how long your clip was or what vehicle(s) would be involved (didn't check). Saw that movements of that black prius, and my thought was "that car is going to change lanes."

This.

There has been a lot of other good input in the thread. From the standpoint of "seeing it coming," the Prius was wandering onto the dotted line. There are no reasons a car would do this that are good for an overtaking motorcycle. Be wary when you see it.