Emerging
from a side road is going to need a bit of care, for one thing that cyclist
came along our inside just as i predicted (thanks) and is now positioned at our front
wing so we better not forget about him. Some junctions have cycle area’s at
the front of junctions for cyclists to move into (this is not one of them)
Cyclists are not the only vulnerable two wheel road users, motorcyclists are
also small and vulnerable, ahhhh, no but seriously, remember that car parked
within 10 metres of the junction and blocking our sightlines? We are
less likely to see motorcyclists than cars or larger vehicles because of
it. Some
junctions are known as blind junctions because of buildings blocking the lines
of sight of emerging vehicles or because of how they are positioned on bends
(which is the case here) if that wasn’t enough your windscreen
pillars are also restricting your view so better crane forward a bit so you can
see around them. (Note the give way sign by the way, it is the only warning sign to be inverted)
I don’t see any traffic at the moment so begin edging out and
check out that shop window on the opposite of the road, yes nice clothing display but
stay focused, I was referring to the reflection, its acting like a mirror and
showing you a view of the road beyond our sight lines. You see? It’s reflecting
a moving car right now, and there it is coming around the bend. It is indicating to turn into our
side road but don’t trust it, lets wait a moment and be sure of its sincerity before pulling out because it does not appear to be slowing down.
You see? the driver has not cancelled their indicators from a previous maneouvre and there the driver goes, (you will note here that I
was careful not to reveal the sex of this hmmmm, lets say, absent-minded driver,
didn’t want you to think I was being biased against your sex...)
There’s a
lorry coming now, it’s moving slowly and you probably have time to pull out
but... oh right you’re going, well be careful, LOOK! there’s a motorbike emerging, we didn't see it because it was overtaking the lorry
and now it’s moving back in, oops you've lost control here but it looks like the motorcyclist has seen us and
is taking evasive action. Remember that motorbikes are smaller and harder to
see and that a lorry can also conceal hazards, don’t dwell on it for now, we might have collided
but we didn’t. Tell you what, lets find a place to stop and calm down before we
continue, meantime why not check out ‘The Demon Road: A Theory Test Novel’ released June 1st,
next time more urban driving...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment