Bikesafe - The Secret is Out!

The rumour mill is leaking news that Thames Valley Police (covering Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) have been given approval to take part in the national Bikesafe initiative, typically one-day sessions as a 'taster' of advanced rider training.  Until now they've been a noticeable 'hole' in the UK coverage map of areas providing it.

The sessions are likely to start next year, and cost £75.  With the recent news that TVP are likely to be losing many officers over the next few years and with their 'traffic' division merging with Hampshire's - and further manpower cuts, this introduction of Bikesafe is somewhat surprising!

What, perhaps, makes this all the more amazing is that Thames Valley police were involved right at the start of Bikesafe back in 2000, including this video featuring the late Phil Curtis, a legendary character, police motorcycle instructor and experienced racer, and some bloke called Troy Bayliss (whatever happened to him?):








More about Bikesafe:
http://www.bikesafe.co.uk/Index.aspx

‘BikeSafe’ is a nationwide police-led motorcyclist casualty reduction initiative that is run by the majority of forces throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The scheme in various guises has been in existence for many years. There are presently 43 forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland participating. Large numbers of riders attend ‘BikeSafe’ sessions annually. ‘BikeSafe’ works toward Government casualty reduction targets in an effort to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured in road collisions.


‘BikeSafe’ strategy is to engage with post-test riders in a conflict free environment to consider and analyse why motorcycle crashes are happening, including the attitudinal and motivational issues. There are fewer causes than you might imagine with five strong themes emerging throughout the country. Filtering, junctions, cornering, overtaking and group riding are the problem areas. Really obvious things seem to be placing everyday riders in life threatening scenarios.

In the classroom, ‘BikeSafe’ can offer potential solutions to the most prevalent crash causes and thereafter, following an observed ride element, prepare an individual rider development report which can be taken to a post-test training provider. ‘BikeSafe’ is about ‘Bridging the Gap’ into accredited training.



Fast approaching . . .

The National Bikesafe Event
http://www.bikesafe.co.uk/News/Article/National-BikeSafe-Event.aspx

A great family day out on the 4th September 2011. 10am – 5pm at The Heritage Motor Centre, Junction 12, M40. Entry into the event is free. Museum admission prices apply. For more information http://www.heritage-motor-centre.co.uk/ or call 01926 641188
If you ride a motorbike or scooter this is the show for you!
• Manufacturers/dealer bikes
• Motorcycle clubs
• Motorcycle stunt riders and displays
• Try before you buy scooter arena
• Observed rides available - conditions apply
• Motorcycle clothing and accessories
• Refreshments

Information flyer (pdf):
https://www.bikesafe.co.uk/Uploads/ContentPages/CMS/Documents/National%20Event%20flyer%202011.pdf



And finally . . . (as they used to say on all the best TV news broadcasts), this isn't from Bikesafe:



I think they meant 'bike save'!


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Big Match Nerves

There seems to be a variety of sport about at the moment in the news: Henley Regatta, Wimbledon tennis, golf, and the Olympics are never far from the news either.
All of these require the participants to be a the peak of their potential - but able to perform without distraction from the inevitable pressures of crowds and media attention.
You might not think that sort of 'big match' pressure would ever apply to you while out riding, but it can.

I had a Born Again trainee who could do one thing at once, not two. She could perform good clutch control and ride well in a straight line. When parked, she could turn her head to look through a turn.
But not together.
So I asked whether she liked music, and what type?
“Well,” answered this mother of two teenage boys “Heavy rock, actually!”


So I got her to sing ‘Born to be wild’ as I pushed her around a loop (big enough that we’d just got to the chorus at the end of the first verse as I collapsed). Quite happily, she was looking through the turn.


The way I use this is that the left, logical, side of the brain is the side that nags: “Oooh, last time you were in front of a crowd you tensed up. Whatever you do, don’t think about TENSING UP!”. So the right side of the brain, that just wants to get on and do it, gets over-ruled.

Solution? Give the left side something to do, it’ll be happy when it’s busy and won’t make mischief.
Singing is good as it takes a lot of concentration. Another – particularly good for riders who’ve had cornering problems (that’s a euphemism for ‘crash’) can tell the L side to talk them through what they should be doing rather than picking fault: “Slow now, press now, look now, roll now”, etc.

People talk about ‘the power of positive thought’ without actually understanding what it can achieve or its limits – try using the ‘tell me’ method to juggle and you won’t be able to think fast enough! Also, if you’re going to talk yourself through an action you need to know what ‘perfect’ looks like.
Then use self-awareness to measure how you need to ‘close the gap’, set small targets for achievement that you can complete. This is where an instructor can help, both with target setting (deciding exercises etc.) and encouragement.

Visualisation is excellent, too.
Long version:
http://www.dropzone.com/safety/articles/Visualizing.shtml
Shorter:
http://www.skydive-info.com/skydiving/showthread.php?t=235
http://www.skydive-info.com/skydiving/showthread.php?p=1711

 
 
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Road Safety Dog?

No, not that dog, it just seemed like a good place to re-use the photo.

 

 

 

The BBC's Top Gear programme has its very own TGD - Top Gear Dog - so I thought there should be an equivalent: Road Safety Dog :)

 

I've used a 'dog' comparison previously when discussing better riding (or better driving, if you prefer), in particular comparing the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) use of the mental system 'Search Predict Act' (now superseded by Search Evaluate Execute) against the UK's 'Observe Plan Act'.

 

What's the difference? Well, I like words and, following on from the UK's history of police-derived rider training, the word 'observe' puts me in mind of a copper sat in a car 'on obbo', filling his face with coffee and doughnuts - observing a premises or person; very static, very reactive.

 

Compare that to the police ‘drugs’ dog, searching for a hidden stash - sticking his nose in everywhere, no stone unturned; an active, dynamic process.

 

Now put both into the riding context. Which do you think is best, a passive 'waiting for something to happen' attitude - or an active attitude, searching for hazards ahead. It's probably not a surprise that I prefer the 'active' attitude of the word 'search'.

 

So why am I bringing Road Safety Dog out for another walk along the highways?

 

Well, he provides a very simple way of explaining how 'visibility' differs from 'conspicuity', and the varying types of conspicuity which exist.

 

So, what is 'visibility'? Quite simply, it means something is visible, it's not hidden. Inside his kennel RSD is probably hidden from your view, so he's not visible. When he walks out to bask in the Sun he then becomes visible.

 

 

 

But is he 'conspicuous'?

 

 

 

Well, possibly. But there are three levels of conspicuity:

• Search conspicuity
• Attention conspicuity
• Cognitive conspicuity

 

RSD can do all of these! In doing so, he may help you understand how you may - or may not - be seen when out on the road.

 

If you walk into a room, and just glance around, you may miss Road Safety Dog because he’s asleep in the far corner. But if I ask you to look for a dog you’re more likely to see him. That, perhaps unsurprisingly, is called ‘search conspicuity’.

 

However, I didn’t ask you to look for him, so you’ve walked across the room but, unfortunately, happen to be near his favourite toy. He’s not happy - so growls. You look around, and see RSD. He growled, you looked. That’s ‘attention conspicuity’. In ‘road user’ terms that might be a headlamp, DRL or hi-viz – or tooting your horn to try and get a driver to look at you.

 

But you may not actually know what a dog is, or how sharp RSD’s teeth might be . . . If you know those things, then you might be more wary of picking up his bone without his permission. And that knowledge, those associations, are cognitive conspicuity – an understanding of the meaning ‘behind’ what you see. Again, in ‘road’ terms, a driver needs to know that ‘single light = motorcycle’, not ‘single light = car far away’, and also that ‘headlamp = person on a bike’. Better still, the driver would have an understanding of a bike’s braking and handling limitations.

 

 

 

At a guess, this was the 'ruff guide’ to road safety :)

 

 

  

Want to know more? Have a read here:

 

http://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/inattentionalblindness.html

Loads of interesting articles.

  

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