Originally Posted by
eja_ bottecchia
I am sorry Jim, I can’t follow all the quotes going back and forth. It is not you, I am an old guy who likes to follow thing linearly.
i use the Garmin Varia radar unit. I like the warnings that I get and I like seeing the alerts on my Garmin head unit.
BUT, I still use an eyeglass mounted mirror.
When I get an alert, I quickly check my mirror to see what’s coming my way.
Cars now have a similar system, there is an audible alert when cars are nearby, then you check the mirrors to confirm the location of nearby vehicles.
I like the peace of mind.
Thanks for your reply @eja_ bottecchia. It appears you have an advanced system for monitoring traffic behind you. I wrote my series of posts, without reference to listening devices, to answer the earnest question of @MattTheHat, "Can someone...anyone...explain how knowing a car is behind you makes any difference whatsoever? Please?...
In other words, what do you do with the information? What do you do differently?"
I linked to this real-time video "Cyclist Rear Ended at 55mph"
And asked the counter-question,“At what point do you realize that the upcoming car ain't gonna swerve out of your line of travel?”
Is it at your limit of detection of 153 meters, my suggestion of about 27 meters...when or if?
I advocate for a mirror to decide, but @mcours2006 suggests:"For those of you who think that you could have avoided such as situation if you were monitoring the rearward traffic using a mirror, I highly doubt that.
I was wearing a mirror at the time that I was hit. I saw the car coming up from behind me, but like every other car that has passed me in all of my riding up to that point, I expected it to move over.
Sometimes they move over early. Sometimes they move over later. But they always move...until they don't.”
@
MattTheHat takes a more passive approach:
” I asked the question based on how i ride. It’s the only way i know how. Admittedly, i don’t ride in heavily congested areas.
i ride like there’s always a car behind me… I visually turn my head to see what’s coming behind me…
I have to trust that a car behind me is not going to hit me because i don’t have a choice. … You have to trust that they’re going to avoid hitting you. If not, your only choice would to literally get off the road until the car passes. For every car.
This doesn’t take into account distracted drivers…How close do they have to be before i realize they’re distracted?
Riding as described above, i honestly don’t know how hearing anything is going to help. I’d prefer to know for sure when a car is behind me. But it doesn’t make me do anything differently.”
Not to be contrarian, @eja_ bottecchia, but rearward monitoring does not bring me peace of mind, but rather sets up a tension of monitoring behind and looking forward down the road to consider, perhaps subconsciously, a strategy to handle the imminent situation.
For example as described by bargo68:"If you're humming down a slight hill at 28 mph on a rutted mountain road with about half a foot of "shoulder" and you know a car is coming up on you and you see giant pothole/gap/dirtpile/roadkill/injured cyclist/hallucinated leprehaun, instead of swerving into the lane and getting hit, you have to make a very fast decision about how to handle your bike.
.
As to the discussion at hand, maybe you are used to riding with earbuds in, bluetooth speaker blaring, whatever... And you can handle it. Great, you're rad!!"
For me, peace of mind briefly sets in when I note there is no one behind me, and I can concentrate solely on the upcoming road and intersections.