Flew over car bonnet V11, driveway not looking.

[The Brahan Seer]

2 minutes ago, Planemo said:

Everyone with legal sight sees everything if they look hard enough.

You could call it lazy but then brains are notoriously lazy always trying to find the easiest way to do something. Its inherent in our nature. We are taught to always look twice for bikes to reduce inattentional blindness but if you look and don't see anyone how likely are you to look again?  I do as a defensive rider and I agree cars should.  I never assume anyone sees me ever.  I can't remember where I was taught that probably when I was learning to ride bikes. A bit like the over the shoulder lifesaver. This is part of the reason car drivers don't often get charged for hitting a bike they take into account inattentional blindness. Its a real thing unfortunately.

[Planemo]

52 minutes ago, The Brahan Seer said:

You could call it lazy but then brains are notoriously lazy always trying to find the easiest way to do something.

Which kinda confirms what I said.

I've never failed to miss anyone in 32 years driving cars, 33 years of riding motorbikes and 4 years of euc.

My eyeballs and brain isnt any better than anyone elses.

To say its not someones fault they didnt see you is nonsense.

52 minutes ago, The Brahan Seer said:

if you look and don't see anyone how likely are you to look again?

So you come to a T junction, you look left, then right, then if all clear, you pull out? You dont look left again?

52 minutes ago, The Brahan Seer said:

This is part of the reason car drivers don't often get charged for hitting a bike they take into account inattentional blindness.

I've never heard of 'inattentional blindness' preventing a charge. Ever. At least not in the UK.

If that was the case, everyone would play that (lame) card in court and no one would ever get busted.

I learnt long ago that there are no blameless collisions unless its caused by an act of god, an autonomous reaction (eg sneezing) or a totally unforeseeable/unhearable event (deer jumps onto the road). Anything else is caused by the stupidity of a human. No ifs or buts.

[Brendan "nog3" Halliday]

On 8/15/2021 at 9:30 PM, mike_bike_kite said:

Do you really think 40kmh is a safe speed to be doing on the footpath while going past the blind exits of people's driveways? Especially considering the appalling stopping distances of EUCs. Most people who live in properties with blind exits like this will poke the nose of their car out for a moment and then slowly emerge - this works OK for pedestrians and kids on bicycles but it won't work for vehicles travelling at motorbike speeds. I'd suggest you just ride your vehicle on the road or slow way down if you want to ride on the footpath. On the plus side, at least it wasn't a small child learning to ride their bicycle in their driveway and using the pavement to turn round in.

Just for context, there's very limited places we can use the roads here in Brisbane, Australia. It'd be great if we could use them the same as a bike would but that's down the track from a regulatory perspective.

Glad you're alright @Forwardnbak, thanks for the shout-out.

[mike_bike_kite]

1 hour ago, Planemo said:

I learnt long ago that there are no blameless collisions unless its caused by an act of god, an autonomous reaction (eg sneezing) or a totally unforeseeable/unhearable event (deer jumps onto the road). Anything else is caused by the stupidity of a human. No ifs or buts.

Totally agree with that and remember the OP said he was riding past blind entrances on a footpath at speed. The driver obviously had a very restricted view of what was on the footpath. I actually have a similar blind entrance to my driveway - I usually just poke the nose of the car out a few inches to warn pedestrians, I wait a short while and then slowly emerge. I feel that's a reasonably safe approach and it's worked for me so far but I'm guessing the OP would still end up over my bonnet. Is it fair for a driver to expect vehicles moving at motorbike speeds on the footpath when emerging from a blind driveway? Would you say 30 - 40kmh is a safe speed to ride in those circumstances?

1 minute ago, Brendan "nog3" Halliday said:

Just for context, there's very limited places we can use the roads here in Brisbane, Australia. It'd be great if we could use them the same as a bike would but that's down the track from a regulatory perspective.

It's a bit unclear to me where he's from, it could be Austria, Australia or Austin Texas. I'm not saying it's bad to ride on the footpath if it's safe for you and others but here he's obviously riding too fast. What speed would you say is safe to be riding on the footpath past driveways which have obscured vision? And isn't the speed limit for EUC's on the footpath in Oz supposed to be 10kmh?