Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
As I said at the start, it’s not fool proof. However, humans communicate with their eyes. Yo can tell fro someone’s eyes whether they see and acknowledge you. If you can establish that much contact it definitely improves your chances.
Operating a car, in an ambiguous situation as to who’s got the right of way, do you not look at the other driver for clues as to their likely actions? I don’t see a difference, other than the stakes are higher when they’re in a car and you’re on a bike
Making "eye contact" across an intersection is a lot more than just looking at the driver trying to see if and where they're looking. I don't think I communicate directly this way routinely, and I'm quite sure trying to do so would draw my attention from a lot of other things I need to scan before proceeding into an intersection. And I think there's a whole lot of external indicators of what a driver is going to do that are lot more reliable than my guess as to whether the driver is looking into my eyes.