Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
Sounds like typical inattentional blindness to me, and you did not pay heed to the but verify part of the trust, but verify meme, the purpose of which is to anticipate this. A traffic cop is particularly prone to inattentional blindness because he's standing in one position looking at thousands of cars coming from a fixed number of positions, over and over. He naturally gets attuned to looking for cars, because, well, that's what he's dealing with. A motorcyclist would probably be just as likely to be overlooked in that context.
The new memes are about improving conspicuousness, not guaranteeing it, and, so, they're also about being prepared for being overlooked in the rare(r) cases when you are still overlooked.
I did anticipate his "inattentional blindness" otherwise I'd have been involved in a collision. I made an evasive move to my left (his right) that I was prepared to do.
Despite the fact that he literally made eye contact with me and he
saw me he basically
ignored my existence. I have had this happen so many times that it is ingrained in me to expect to be ignored or "to assume that I am invisible". To "trust and verify" requires way too much guess work and leaves way too much room for interpretation and error. Not that it doesn't work in some situations- like a 4 way stop sign but for quick decision making I'll stick with "assume invisibility" and "expect the unexpected".
And by the way, "memes"
evolve they are not
imposed. A true meme cannot be replaced by conscious effort. Insisting that others accept these phrases turns them into dogma.