From: gpsman on
.... in a shopping center parking lot. Almost ran down a dad with a
couple toddlers.

I was WB, negotiating a narrow main travel lane. There was a big SUV
parked in the lane, a foot E of 39.147061, -84.427770. What appears
to be a "stripe" at those coordinates is a set of 2 closely spaced big
honkin' (and relatively ineffective) speed bumps.

LLS, a box truck was approaching from the W and pedestrians were
crossing and attempting to cross to the parking so I was waiting. As
that traffic cleared I released the brake and SWMBO immediately says,
"wait".

The trio, attempting to cross NB from the lot to the stores, had
approached and waited where they were completely obscured by my A
pillar while I allowed myself to be distracted by other traffic.

It wasn't close, I could not have rolled 3 feet at <1 mph, but it
still reinforced for me the idea that my situational awareness is
subject to error and those errors can occur at the most opportune
times, and while stopped.

Thank you for reading. We now return you to your regularly scheduled
OT pleas for attention.
-----

- gpsman
From: Nate Nagel on
On 06/27/2010 01:23 PM, gpsman wrote:
> ... in a shopping center parking lot. Almost ran down a dad with a
> couple toddlers.
>
> I was WB, negotiating a narrow main travel lane. There was a big SUV
> parked in the lane, a foot E of 39.147061, -84.427770. What appears
> to be a "stripe" at those coordinates is a set of 2 closely spaced big
> honkin' (and relatively ineffective) speed bumps.
>
> LLS, a box truck was approaching from the W and pedestrians were
> crossing and attempting to cross to the parking so I was waiting. As
> that traffic cleared I released the brake and SWMBO immediately says,
> "wait".
>
> The trio, attempting to cross NB from the lot to the stores, had
> approached and waited where they were completely obscured by my A
> pillar while I allowed myself to be distracted by other traffic.
>
> It wasn't close, I could not have rolled 3 feet at<1 mph, but it
> still reinforced for me the idea that my situational awareness is
> subject to error and those errors can occur at the most opportune
> times, and while stopped.
>
> Thank you for reading. We now return you to your regularly scheduled
> OT pleas for attention.
> -----
>
> - gpsman

Hmm, a relatively on-topic and non-offensive post, so I'll bite.

yeah, that kind of thing can happen all too easily, unfortunately, with
the proliferation of side-curtain airbags and apparently full tubular
roll cages or close to it hidden in the enormous a-pillars of modern
cars. Not much you can do other than stay alert, and keep a mental
"picture" of what's going on so your brain can (hopefully) fill in the
blanks in your field of view. The difference between older and newer
cars is really significant if like me you switch back and forth between
them regularly.

On the upside, the newer cars tend to have better mirrors, but then
again, when they're mounted in the corner of the door window, as seems
to be almost universal practice, you lose even more of the forward/side
field of view that would be useful in city or parking lot driving... At
least I could see "around" the old chrome mirror on a stalk things.

nate


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