DaveDragon
Nov 14th, 2008, 11:48 am
Paying Attention Versus Situational Awareness (http://davedragon.rilysi.com/2008/11/paying-attention-versus-situational.html)
I know this may come as a surprise to some, but Paying Attention can get you killed!
Not that we shouldn't pay attention to what we are doing; but we should stop paying so much attention to the actions of others around us when we ride our Motorcycles.
Perhaps an example will demonstrate the principal.
I'm sitting in the right lane at a stop sign prepared to turn right on to the cross street.
I see a school bus approaching in the right lane of the cross street and it's right turn signal is on.
When I confirm that the school bus is indeed turning, I roll out turning right into the right most lane of the cross street and get creamed by a truck that was closely following the bus and passed the bus as it was turning.
I was paying attention to the School Bus instead of maintaining my situational awareness that could of kept me alive.
Had I waited for the bus the clear the intersection following the turn, I would of seen the truck and not rolled out into it's path.
Situational Awareness means I'm taking in and ranking all the threats and have identified my escape route(s), where Paying Attention too closely to a single threat caused me to miss the other immediate threat coming around the blind-side of the bus.
If your Situationally Aware you are scanning and identifying threats and mitigating the risks of the threats by staying clear of them where you can and altering your riding to reduce the risks your exposed to.
Another example for context:
Say your on a road with three lane in your direction. Cagers are stacked up behind a slow vehicles in the Left most and Right most lanes, while the center lane is relatively clear for several care lengths ahead, but there is a slower vehicle at the head of the center lane as well.
You may be tempted to enter the center lane and roll on up in the center lane in-between the cagers stacked up on either side of you.
Situational Awareness dictates that you do not enter the gauntlet between the cagers as you will have no escape routes should one of the cagers lane-rape you by doing a trash compactor routine on you.
If you were just paying attention you may decide to ride up between the two lanes of cagers only to expose yourself to the whims and Ubber-Driving Skills of the cagers.
Stay Situationally Aware and live to ride another day.
LATER
I know this may come as a surprise to some, but Paying Attention can get you killed!
Not that we shouldn't pay attention to what we are doing; but we should stop paying so much attention to the actions of others around us when we ride our Motorcycles.
Perhaps an example will demonstrate the principal.
I'm sitting in the right lane at a stop sign prepared to turn right on to the cross street.
I see a school bus approaching in the right lane of the cross street and it's right turn signal is on.
When I confirm that the school bus is indeed turning, I roll out turning right into the right most lane of the cross street and get creamed by a truck that was closely following the bus and passed the bus as it was turning.
I was paying attention to the School Bus instead of maintaining my situational awareness that could of kept me alive.
Had I waited for the bus the clear the intersection following the turn, I would of seen the truck and not rolled out into it's path.
Situational Awareness means I'm taking in and ranking all the threats and have identified my escape route(s), where Paying Attention too closely to a single threat caused me to miss the other immediate threat coming around the blind-side of the bus.
If your Situationally Aware you are scanning and identifying threats and mitigating the risks of the threats by staying clear of them where you can and altering your riding to reduce the risks your exposed to.
Another example for context:
Say your on a road with three lane in your direction. Cagers are stacked up behind a slow vehicles in the Left most and Right most lanes, while the center lane is relatively clear for several care lengths ahead, but there is a slower vehicle at the head of the center lane as well.
You may be tempted to enter the center lane and roll on up in the center lane in-between the cagers stacked up on either side of you.
Situational Awareness dictates that you do not enter the gauntlet between the cagers as you will have no escape routes should one of the cagers lane-rape you by doing a trash compactor routine on you.
If you were just paying attention you may decide to ride up between the two lanes of cagers only to expose yourself to the whims and Ubber-Driving Skills of the cagers.
Stay Situationally Aware and live to ride another day.
LATER