In article <
[email protected]>, Marc wrote:
> P e t e F a g e r l i n <[email protected]> wrote:
>>On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 00:46:53 -0800, Marc <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>P e t e F a g e r l i n <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>>If you think you can avoid accidents because you think that you can
>>>>predict what other drivers are going to do then you are even more
>>>>hopelessly clueless than your other posts indicate.
>>>Then I guess everyone that teaches defensive driving should just give up,
>>>as all crashes are inevitable and we should just drive tanks and put on our
>>>blinders.
>>
>>Nope. Your suggestion is ridiculous (as you know) and doesn't change
>>the truthfulness of my statement.
>
> It doesn't change the truthfulness (or lack thereof) of your statement. It
> is a statement about the absurdity of your statement. If someone doesn't
> think that they can avoid crashes by being alert, then there is no reason
> to be alert.
>
> Like looking at a motorcycle and not really seeing them, then pulling out
> and hitting them without ever having seen them (a relatively common cause
> of motorcycle crashes), just looking in the right direction is completely
> useless. You must also process the information correctly. If you do that,
> you will be able to predict other drivers.
>
> If you think that you can not predict other drivers, then you are
> incompetent.
And incompetent would describe most drivers in this country (USA). In
fact drivers are trained to be incompetent. First, practically all
collisions are generally called 'accidents' as if they were all not
predictable. Then throw in tons of speed kills stuff like carl's
unexpected. No call to pay attention to the task of driving, to
understand driving, only to go slow so *when* someone crashes it
won't be as bad. On top of all of this, safety in the USA is generally
considered how well a vehicle survives a crash, not how many it avoids.
(outside a few BMW commericals)
Combine all these things and we get a bunch of people driving with
the views of the person you replied to. Accidents 'just happen', they
aren't in control, they aren't responsible, they cannot predict, they
can't do anything but get the biggest/strongest vehicle they can
afford for when they crash.
Practically everything I see other drivers do on the road is
predictable to me and when someone does something I didn't predict
I often believe I should have been able to. I recall some sign, some
tell, that I ignored.
I have (as do many others, it's nothing special) enough driving experience
to be able to read a road situation and the individual styles of drivers to
be able to predict what they are going to do before they do it.
It only takes knowledge and paying attention to detail.
While ideally, predictability should be what is seen on the autobahn,
even though the flow of US driving appears chaotic, the movement of
individual vehicles is rather predictable. I don't know how to prove
this other than to do a carl with a video camera and give a rolling
commentary. I would need two cameras and picture in picture because
both front and rear would need to be filmed.
