Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/10/69-degrees.html
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Fascinating observation, we’re chatting over coffee about that here in the lab.
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Very interesting!
Shouldn’t a stop sign help prevent this?
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I’ve had this happen with a car, where they were blocked by my car frame as I whipped out into a residential street. We managed to avoid each other. Oops. Take a sec to double check some times.
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Isn’t there a stop sign? I see stop lines on the pavement. Because decreasing automobile speed should make the bearing change to a bicyclist moving at a constant speed.
Just put there a roundabout already!
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I see Marge has the sunroof open.
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My first thought as well, but I suppose that drivers may still not see (or heed) the stop sign. The proposed modification of the intersection to include an offset road pretty much forces one of the involved parties to slow down or come to a complete stop before proceeding.
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Roundabout has one lane. Rotary is for Moose and Squirrel.
Depends where you are from and where the thing is. Sometimes even when it was built.
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Have had this happen a couple times while driving. Both times I was going to make a right at a intersection on a red while a pedestrian was crossing, didn’t see them until they popped out a couple feet in front of the car. The speed of my approach lined up perfectly with their walking speed.
This is one of the main reasons I always make sure I can make eye contact with drivers while being a pedestrian myself.
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Apparently a stop sign has been put in recently- it’s visible on google street view from the south:
But the original ‘give way’ is visible from the west:
I’ve experienced CBDR when driving towards a zebra crossing- someone walked almost halfway across while remaining in my offside A-pillar blind spot. I now always make sure to move my head when checking if anyone’s crossing…
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Then we are talking about multiplying the odds of CBDR * driver error * cyclist error. Seems like a simple solution with a high impact.
I would say the Stop sign is already there, given the satellite image. I can’t tell by skimming though the article.
edit: replied before seeing @Beanolini’s reply.
I have this happen to me regularly. Because of my height and the shape and position of the driver’s side pillar on my Jeep Renegades, I regularly am unable to see people walking across crosswalks. After a few near misses at slow speed I’ve become extra cautious, but it’s unnerving.
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This is why I bounce and flail around wildly in the drivers seat the whole time I’m driving, see. It’s for safety. It has nothing to do with the music.
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Would a roundabout work for this intersection i presume?
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I have a mid 60’s GM convertible and when I first got it – within the first mile of driving it – I learned, almost tragically, that the combination of my height and the size and distance of the rear view mirror from where me head ends up means that at any normal four-way, two-lane intersection, a car at the right-next stop sign is 100% obscured. If I move my head a touch, it’s fine, but you see nothing.
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I wouldn’t say I flail, but I do move my back and forth, and side to side in order to clear my blind spots. It’s just the obvious thing to do right?
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My mother told me to sit normally in the driver’s seat, then lean your head over until it touches the window, then adjust the mirror until you can just barely see the side of the car, and you’ll have no blind spot. This has worked in all the cars I’ve tried it in so far.
But I still move around a lot, and I do look over my shoulder before changing lanes, and I back into parking spaces, all as a matter of habit at this point. I learned to drive a very, very long time ago, when I was just 11 years old.
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More than once for me also the rear view mirror is great at blocking stuff from sight when I am sitting at the right angle.
