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Comment by Chris2048 | Hacker News Reader

Chris2048

According to the Gorilla study:

> failure to attend to it while engaged in the difficult task of counting passes of the ball

I'm not sure how this applies to commuting, except when the driver is attentively looking at other cars.

It applies because drivers tend to look for other cars, which are a threat to them, while filtering out pedestrians and bicycles. It is very noticeable as a pedestrian, e.g. when a driver enters a road through a right turn and only looks left to avoid incoming traffic, ignoring the possibility of a pedestrian coming from their right.

Why would a driver filter out pedestrians and bicycles?

I tend to think of the drivers, not as reacting to threats, but navigating an evolving mental model of their surroundings -- with a primary focus on opportunities rather than threats. The mechanism that updates that model doesn't have "training data" with cyclists in the picture.

again, why do cyclists not provide opportunity/threat data more or less than other cars?

Probably because of poor training and infrequent interactions with cyclists/pedestrians. If something isn't a part of your regular life, and you haven't been told you need to watch out for it, then why would you?

Are you suggesting car drivers aren't trained to watch out for cyclists/pedestrians?

In some ways cyclists are slow enough compared to how fast a car can accelerate. Even a moped or motorcycle can use speed assert its presence and maintain safe stopping distance between other cars.

Especially in a urban area where everyone is stuck trying to get to home/work/etc, most cars appear to be looking for opportunities. Opportunities to get ahead, to squeeze through a left turn lane before oncoming traffic, to find an empty bike lane to drop off an uber eats order. With that opportunity, get ahead” mindset, cyclists do not register. Until, of course, something happens.

On second thought, maybe it's not all that different. After all, cars run into cars with some regularity.

If it is about threats, then you should try to make the cyclists and pedestrians more threatening. Make yourself bigger, travel in large packs, bear your teeth, etc.

That or just have completely separated pathways for motorized vehicles and cyclists and pedestrians.

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