Pedestrian Avoidance Techniques
Being recently involved in a major collision with a pedestrian, I thought I would take the time to start a thread on how you deal with pedestrians...My technique, which has worked for many years, recently failed. Normally, when I see a potential pedestrian in my path I don't move. The pedestrians first reaction is one of two ways (to the left or right of where my path will be when I get to them)...after their initial reaction, if they see no movement from the bike they usually continue another step or two in the same direction of their initial reaction which carries them plenty of distance away from where me and my bike will be when i get to them. complications occur when the pedestrian makes their initial move and then sees the bicyclist make a move. The 50/50 chance of it being the same direction is really bad because all of a sudden both the bike and the pedestrian have commited their energy in the same direction. The other pure luck (50/50) possibility is that you both choose opposite directions. In that case your ride away smoothly and they continue with their day.
The additional movement creates a frenzy of brain activity in the pedestrians mind which in turn leads to poor decisions. That is why I choose to not change my path at all!
I'll stop at that and see if this goes anywhere....
disclaimers now...
*this is not an antiped thread!