Up Front: This is a Photograph of Me
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BenWilson, absolutely right about the sensual pleasures of driving - and the increased vision bit. I did a Defensive Driving course when I was 19, and learned a whole new way of seeing the road and - especially - other drivers. Thoroughly recommend it to newbie drivers.
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Most of the people I know who are non-drinkers are also non-drivers which I think is a bloody waste. If you choose not to drink, you should learn to drive. It's so much more efficient that way!
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It was funny how the bouncers didn't really look past the word "firearms" before letting me in.
Because we want people who might have firearms drunk?
impregnating my wife threw the issue into sharp relief
You old romantic you!
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It feels consciousness-expanding to me, and I think that is quite literally true, apparently the vision of drivers improves dramatically, particularly peripheral vision. Road-sense is entering a much larger world, in which my thoughts rove up to 15 seconds ahead, seeing things that the non-drivers would not care to even look for, minor pressure changes in the traffic a long way ahead, the attitude of the drivers all around me, evidenced by the subtle nuances of their car body language.
Yes! Definitely. And much the same holds true for cycling as well (although with the latter in Auckland you tend to go from expanded-consciousness to hypervigilance after a while).
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Lara,
I don't drive - I bike, I bus, and I have friends with cars. Had my learners since I was 15, it expires in 3 years time. Because I don't drive I have arranged my life so I don't need access to a car very often.
@BenWilson: out of curiousity, since you enjoy driving, why do you resent driving other people around? Do I need to give my friends more petrol money :)?
And Joanna, I am a lovely non-drinking non-driver. I do it just to annoy you :)
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And Joanna, I am a lovely non-drinking non-driver. I do it just to annoy you :)
Just for that, I refuse to drive you anywhere ever.
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Xeno,
Emma, are you in town on Saturday? Because I'm having a birthday party, and there will doubtless be people you know from The Old Days there.
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apparently the vision of drivers improves dramatically, particularly peripheral vision.
This explains why every time I've been hit by a car (both on foot and on a bike), the first thing the driver's said to me was "Sorry, I didn't see you." Personally, I think that drivers are great at watching out for specific objects - viz car-sized objects travelling around the speed limit and near the centre line. Other objects, not so much.
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Emma, are you in town on Saturday? Because I'm having a birthday party, and there will doubtless be people you know from The Old Days there.
Saturday is the day we do the East German Border Crossing transfer of me from Megan to Susan. My location is at least partially weather-dependent (ie, will it piss down at the cricket?)
I can understand the whole "hassle the non-drivers" thing. Having spent probably YEARS driving these people around, it seems like very mild payback. They never really seem to appreciate that it's a real drag, actually, to cart people around just because they won't do it for themselves.
That's a fairly large generalisation, don't you think Ben?
I do very much appreciate the convenience of having a car. Tonight, for instance, my partner will be driving me to the airport, which will save me taking two buses with a bag, but he'd come to see me off anyway.
Actually having a licence wouldn't change my current travel patterns at all: most of the year the car goes into town with the other three members of the family, who work/school within a couple of blocks. It makes no sense at all to pay for and run two cars just so I can use one on my very occasional trips into town instead of walking ten minutes to catch a bus.
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Peripheral vision, in normally-sighted drivers, concentrates majorly out the righthand side: one of the reasons I am legally obliged to have 3 rearview mirrors (left, right, & the usual) is because my righthand peripheral vision is stink.)
Now, I almost guarentee JackElder, you werent overtaking aforesaid drivers?
Something to put in the 'be very afraid' basket: I have to have regular eyesight tests & check-ups- many many drivers out there have never had a proper eyesight test in their lives.
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As for expanded vision, I started my pilot's licence at 14 (weird, but I don't remember any complaints). 'Rich kid' you all scream? No, saved the money from after school jobs. 'So just a wanker then?' Yeah, that.
Didn't finish it as it happens, but while sitting on my cushion so I could see the horizon I was supposed to be aiming at, you did get a sense of the importance of peripheral vision. While driving multi-lane highways, it comes in handy some times.
Now I'm also on motorbikes, looking past the edge of a full faced helmet has it's moments.
Finally how does Ben get away with talking about cars and bikes being sensual and all that without a second look? Has he got a badge I don't have yet? -
Ur Jack - maybe quite a few of us wholeheartedly agree with him?
(Once you've driven for a while, you can actually feel where the outside limits of your vehicle are. Which is why it can come as a considerable physical shock when you are unexpectedly rammed by a cattlebeast blundering out of a ditch into your lefthand wheel, or by a campervan turning abruptly into your left middle door...)
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@BenWilson: out of curiousity, since you enjoy driving, why do you resent driving other people around? Do I need to give my friends more petrol money :)?
It's hard to put my finger on it precisely. Perhaps, but that's probably not it for me. It's more about the expectation that you will drive them because it is so easy for you to do it, and so hard for them to cope any other way by comparison. The truth is, driving themselves would be even easier for everyone. They don't have to do it all the time, but it would be nice if they could do it some of the time. It seems....selfish, perhaps. Like getting someone to wipe your arse.
I did also live with a non-driving girlfriend for about 8 years. Perhaps that's what gave me the shits the most, she failed the written test, couldn't handle the shame of it, and never tried again. So I got nagged for lifts a lot.
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Something to put in the 'be very afraid' basket: I have to have regular eyesight tests & check-ups- many many drivers out there have never had a proper eyesight test in their lives.
My mother got a driver's licence. By that stage, she had a neurological impairment that severely limited her field of vision on the right side, but she didn't know it - ie the brain "filled in" the right portion of each picture for her. Generally it did so without supplying any pedestrians who might be crossing from that side, however. Fortunately my father noticed this before she had a major accident.
Of course a simple eye test would have picked up on this.
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Now, I almost guarentee JackElder, you werent overtaking aforesaid drivers?
Nope. I'm normally hit by drivers pulling out of driveways, who've usually looked both ways but somehow failed to register the bloke in a fluorescent top. Like I say, I think people generally look for a particular pattern, which is generally "other cars" - motorcyclists I know often report the same "looked but didn't see" phenomenon.
Finally how does Ben get away with talking about cars and bikes being sensual and all that without a second look? Has he got a badge I don't have yet?
Because it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel.
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This explains why every time I've been hit by a car (both on foot and on a bike), the first thing the driver's said to me was "Sorry, I didn't see you." Personally, I think that drivers are great at watching out for specific objects - viz car-sized objects travelling around the speed limit and near the centre line. Other objects, not so much.
This is the kind of thing non-drivers would think. Without directly experiencing driving, the error in that is probably not apparent. You most likely did not put yourself in a position that the driver could see you easily. This is another reason to learn to drive, so that you can see the road the way drivers do, for your own safety. Drivers look at other drivers eyes ALL the time. They don't expect to be seen. It's total rubbish to say drivers don't look out for pedestrians, and dogs, and little objects on the road, etc.
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Just as an aside, being the only non-drinking driver with a car and licence at 15 in a small town has some advantages. Let's just say I was popular with the dads.
Drivers look at other drivers eyes ALL the time. They don't expect to be seen. It's total rubbish to say drivers don't look out for pedestrians, and dogs, and little objects on the road, etc.
This is how I try to survive on a motorbike. I am invisible, until I see the whites of their eyes. But, it could be said that plenty of people who aren't 'drivers' in Ben's sense, still drive.
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This is another reason to learn to drive, so that you can see the road the way drivers do, for your own safety.
AAAARRGGGHHH!
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I agree with Jack about drivers only looking for certain things, and I think this is plausible going by the research that shows that as the number of cyclists goes up, the rate of fatal accidents per cyclist goes down -- car drivers get used to cyclists being around and start to "see" them.
(It's possible of course that as conditions become safer, more people cycle, and that the causality actually goes the other way, but I understand this is not the standard explanation.)
I also think drivers AND pedestrians don't turn their heads far enough to the right when they look, so they miss cyclists vooming along the left-hand side of the lane.
Apropos Ben's paean to motorised transport: for the next five minutes I found myself checking out beginner motorcycle models. I already have a motorbike learner license from my scooter days...
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How about getting a criminal record?
Those police pics (front on and profile with the name underneath must be indisputable) if you were lucky ya might even get hung up in Post Offices!
(do they do that here?) -
This is the kind of thing non-drivers would think. Without directly experiencing driving, the error in that is probably not apparent.
Ben - you might have missed it earlier, but I've been driving for some years now. I just cycle as well. I don't think there's any error in what I've said.
I actually agree with you that it's helpful to get an idea of how other road users see the road, as different modes of transport mean you watch out for different things. For example, if it's slightly wet, cyclists and motorcyclists are going to be watching out for manhole covers, to avoid the danger of skids on wet metal.
This is another reason to learn to cycle, so that you can see the road the way cyclists do, for everyone's safety. ;)
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My dad's a bit of a car nut, so he was pushing me and my brothers into cars as soon as we were able. This meant that at University, I was often the only guy with a car, which meant I'd be the one ferrying people around. Only very occasionally would I feel taken for granted - usually it just made sense.
Of course, now that we're grownups (for a given value of "grownup"), just about everyone has a car anyway, so the problem is rare enough that it's no big deal.
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This is the kind of thing non-drivers would think. Without directly experiencing driving, the error in that is probably not apparent. You most likely did not put yourself in a position that the driver could see you easily.
As a cyclist, motorcyclist and driver (another impending-parenthood-induced driver, no less), I think this is getting dangerously close to blame-the-victim. While there are certainly things a [motor]cyclist can do to improve their visibility to car drivers, in the end no matter where you "position yourself" it's likely that one day a driver will fail to see you at an inconvenient time, and it will be no less their fault.
I'd say car drivers would learn more from cycling and motorcycling around a large city for a few months than vice-versa...
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anth,
You most likely did not put yourself in a position that the driver could see you easily.
I was told "didn't see you" after getting hit on my bike last year. At the time I was waiting for the red light to change, over the central part of the detector loop in the middle of the lane, with no other traffic around (it was a Sunday morning), and wearing fluorescent yellow. So what position should I have been in?
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I should mention that the few times I've been knocked off my bicycle (or seen others knocked off) it's been due to the fatal mistake of using the cycle lane. I'm never trying that again.
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