Originally Posted by FBinNY

I doubt that anyone with decent cycling experience hasn't heard this at least once, or it's variant, "where the %^$#&* did you come from?" Of course, this is something people will say after a collision or near miss because they're certainly not going to say "I saw him, but decided to hit him anyway.".

I've seen countless posts here cursing out rude, uncaring, indifferent, negligent, %&$%#* drivers who've said similar, but have you ever considered that it might be true. Namely, they simply DID NOT SEE YOU.

There are countless reasons, many of which were discussed in this forum, but this might be new and useful to some here. It has to do with how humans see. Simply put, our eyes are not still or motion picture cameras, and don't send images to the brain. Instead, they send raw data to the brain for processing. We then refer to an internal database of image data and select the one that best fits and "see" that. This is the basis of things like optical illusions and "trompe l'oeil" images. We only see what we can recognize, and will not understand what we're seeing without context.

This is critical to cyclists because we have to be conscious of how "invisible" we actually are out on the road.

To see just how bad this is, try an experiment. Download a jigsaw puzzle app to your phone or tablet, and do a few. At some point you'll experience a magic moment when you have a piece you're having trouble placing suddenly seem to change once you fit it into place. That black dot in the corner of a blue and white piece is actually part of a bird's head and eye, or whatever. Once in a while the effect is so pronounced that the piece and it's neighbors change right before your eyes.

So, the point is that out on the road, you're just a bunch of pixels that make no sense until the observer has enough data and context to recognize you for what you are. I'm not here to excuse drivers, just to point out practical realities and remind riders that they have to assume that they're invisible, or at least well camouflaged, and they have to make an active effort to be seen, or prepared to react when they're not.

FWIW - I speak from first hand experience having not seen things countless times in my lifetime. The list runs from small to huge, up to include a tractor trailer coming from my right as I was pulling out in front of him. (I'm here because of the happy confluence of reflexes, motor power and brakes). I wonder what that driver would have said if I'd told him, "sorry, I didn't see you".

Originally Posted by Mtracer

I don’t know any specifics about how humans process what our eyes detect, but I know it is as you describe, not just our eyes detecting an image but how our brains process that image.

I do know that we do not consciously process everything our senses detect. And in fact, things we do repeatedly go from requiring conscious thought to essentially becoming automatic and unconscious. Balancing and riding a bike is one example.

In most US areas, cyclists are relatively rare. Our brains have adapted to what we experience regularly. We learn to tune out what our experience has shown us to not matter, until of course it does. When driving we encounter others cars every time we drive. I can go weeks at a time and never cross paths with a cyclist while driving.

In the end, for all practical purposes, no one drives into something they have actually seen. This doesn’t excuse them. We all have a responsibility to not hit things with our cars. But it does explain the “they came out of nowhere” often heard. And anyone with any experience driving has had that happen, though fortunately it most often is just a surprise and a scare and no harm is done. Anyone saying otherwise is either lying or so unaware they don’t even realize their errors.

This I think is one of the good reasons drivers should always stop at stop signs, no matter what. Give themselves a chance to actually see something. I see many who only stop when they “see” a reason to stop. I do roll most stops signs on my bike, but I’m going much slower than a car, have much better lines of sight, and a lot more skin in the game. And, if in any doubt, I stop.