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05-10-07, 02:28 PM
This account of a near-collision has some interesting elements in it
(driver's side is on right -- it's from the U.K.):
There’s an advert on local radio at the moment that goes something like this:
‘Do you ever look at your watch and not register the time?
Do you ever read a page in a book and not take anything in?
Do you ever stop at a junction and take a quick glance…?’
...sounds of tyres skidding on tarmac and crashing metal....
‘Do you look but don’t see?’ continues the voice. ‘A quick glance is not enough. Every year fifteen hundred motorcyclists are killed and injured by motorists pulling out of junctions into the path of a motorcyclist.’
The same thing could be said for cyclists. Just the other day I was cycling into town and approaching the junction to the local school. A smoked-glass Landcruiser pulled up at the junction. The woman driver glanced left and then right, towards me. Yet despite being broad daylight and wearing fluorescent yellow bands around my ankles and a bright reflective top, I could see she hadn’t seen me. She looked beyond me even though I was within spitting distance of her tank door. I knew what she was going to do next and she did it. She pulled out directly in front of me, intending to turn right. I was so close I could bang on her driver’s door. Which I did – in no uncertain terms. She saw me then. And she looked very surprised. Almost shocked. As if I had just fallen out of the sky. But no, funnily enough, I had been here on the road, ten feet from her door, all the time. It’s just that like motorcyclists and other cyclists, I apparently have this knack at turning invisible at just the wrong time.
In a voice loud enough to be heard behind her sealed window, I said ‘Could you please try looking next time before you pull out!’ ....
***
Local radio ads seem like excellent ways to remind and wake up drivers (some of them (and some of us) at least), and cyclists as well.
There’s an advert on local radio at the moment that goes something like this:
‘Do you ever look at your watch and not register the time?
Do you ever read a page in a book and not take anything in?
Do you ever stop at a junction and take a quick glance…?’
...sounds of tyres skidding on tarmac and crashing metal....
‘Do you look but don’t see?’ continues the voice. ‘A quick glance is not enough. Every year fifteen hundred motorcyclists are killed and injured by motorists pulling out of junctions into the path of a motorcyclist.’
The same thing could be said for cyclists.
***
These lines in particular seem like great reminders:
‘Do you ever look at your watch and not register the time?
Do you ever read a page in a book and not take anything in?
Do you ever stop at a junction and take a quick glance…?’
...sounds of tyres skidding on tarmac and crashing metal....
‘Do you look but don’t see?’ continues the voice. ‘A quick glance is not enough.
***
Please excuse the repetition, but I noticed that I did not really take these lines in at first, and that they are worth repeating. They are very good, and I think they would get through to some people.
Why not have more short ads like that? Why not use local radio stations? Why not make use of short public-service-announcement time?
Hearing this (on radio) may get through to some people better than just reading it.
Why not drive this same point home again and again from different angles, and in different ways, to remind and encourage people to be more attentive?
Inattention is a major cause of casualties.
***
Part of it -- and part of why the above announcement seems so well done -- is that it reminds people of their actual inattention.
It doesn't just say 'be more attentive' -- it clearly points out the actual fact (and the actual dangers) of inattention. And it does so in a very pointed way.
Bringing attention to inattention -- this seems quite good.
***
(Attention to attention may also have a place; but attention to inattentiveness has something more.)
(driver's side is on right -- it's from the U.K.):
There’s an advert on local radio at the moment that goes something like this:
‘Do you ever look at your watch and not register the time?
Do you ever read a page in a book and not take anything in?
Do you ever stop at a junction and take a quick glance…?’
...sounds of tyres skidding on tarmac and crashing metal....
‘Do you look but don’t see?’ continues the voice. ‘A quick glance is not enough. Every year fifteen hundred motorcyclists are killed and injured by motorists pulling out of junctions into the path of a motorcyclist.’
The same thing could be said for cyclists. Just the other day I was cycling into town and approaching the junction to the local school. A smoked-glass Landcruiser pulled up at the junction. The woman driver glanced left and then right, towards me. Yet despite being broad daylight and wearing fluorescent yellow bands around my ankles and a bright reflective top, I could see she hadn’t seen me. She looked beyond me even though I was within spitting distance of her tank door. I knew what she was going to do next and she did it. She pulled out directly in front of me, intending to turn right. I was so close I could bang on her driver’s door. Which I did – in no uncertain terms. She saw me then. And she looked very surprised. Almost shocked. As if I had just fallen out of the sky. But no, funnily enough, I had been here on the road, ten feet from her door, all the time. It’s just that like motorcyclists and other cyclists, I apparently have this knack at turning invisible at just the wrong time.
In a voice loud enough to be heard behind her sealed window, I said ‘Could you please try looking next time before you pull out!’ ....
***
Local radio ads seem like excellent ways to remind and wake up drivers (some of them (and some of us) at least), and cyclists as well.
There’s an advert on local radio at the moment that goes something like this:
‘Do you ever look at your watch and not register the time?
Do you ever read a page in a book and not take anything in?
Do you ever stop at a junction and take a quick glance…?’
...sounds of tyres skidding on tarmac and crashing metal....
‘Do you look but don’t see?’ continues the voice. ‘A quick glance is not enough. Every year fifteen hundred motorcyclists are killed and injured by motorists pulling out of junctions into the path of a motorcyclist.’
The same thing could be said for cyclists.
***
These lines in particular seem like great reminders:
‘Do you ever look at your watch and not register the time?
Do you ever read a page in a book and not take anything in?
Do you ever stop at a junction and take a quick glance…?’
...sounds of tyres skidding on tarmac and crashing metal....
‘Do you look but don’t see?’ continues the voice. ‘A quick glance is not enough.
***
Please excuse the repetition, but I noticed that I did not really take these lines in at first, and that they are worth repeating. They are very good, and I think they would get through to some people.
Why not have more short ads like that? Why not use local radio stations? Why not make use of short public-service-announcement time?
Hearing this (on radio) may get through to some people better than just reading it.
Why not drive this same point home again and again from different angles, and in different ways, to remind and encourage people to be more attentive?
Inattention is a major cause of casualties.
***
Part of it -- and part of why the above announcement seems so well done -- is that it reminds people of their actual inattention.
It doesn't just say 'be more attentive' -- it clearly points out the actual fact (and the actual dangers) of inattention. And it does so in a very pointed way.
Bringing attention to inattention -- this seems quite good.
***
(Attention to attention may also have a place; but attention to inattentiveness has something more.)