Laid her down on King St near CalTrain

[Enchanter]

Another thing:
What gear were you in?
In the city I often ride in a lower gears for 2 reasons. First I have power at the ready to add if necessary. Secondly, I have fairly instant response to easing the throttle; however, this can backfire if you suddenly "chop" the throttle and grab brake at the same time.

HH, would you help us connect the dots here and explain how this would have either helped avoid this crash, or a similar one?

 

[timzilla]

Those are good questions. I think after all this discussion it has boiled down to the basic premise of .. braking or avoidance. Avoidance probably would have ended well, but I did not want to be "that jerk" who blew past a pedestrian in the street even though he was crossing when there was a green light for the incoming traffic. But now I might reconsider that...

The specifics of this situation was that I was in the right lane (of two lanes) on King Street. There were a lot of people around because the baseball game was getting underway. I was only out to enjoy the weather and was not riding aggressively at all, I was strictly in a "cruising down the street" mindset. I was probably in second gear, but with my triple, i still had more than adequate power on tap if i needed to use it.

As I was about to enter the intersection, i saw the guy on the phone step from the curb into the street. I also saw that he was on the phone and not had looked for incoming traffic at all and was quite likely unaware of me approaching.

in my head at that split second, it was not "an emergency" just yet - i knew i had to take action.. but there was still enough distance to sharply cut speed and assess the situation to decide whether to move left or come to a complete stop.

The precise time i hit the brake, was on the very last white stripe of the crosswalk. I went down immediately and slid completely across the intersection. Me and my bike came to a stop at the opposite crosswalk. There were many people there at that corner and two of them came out to help me get my bike to the side of the road.

So as people here mentioned. Me not knowing whether there was a car to my left factored in my decision not to try to swerve or track left past the pedestrian.

I would go to say that because I had been in that "just rolling down the street at 25mph" mentality, I was not excercising all the situation awareness I should have.. i was only paying attention to what was happening ahead of me.

so as someone mentioned earlier, my main takeaway besides working on emergency braking technique, is that.. 1) situations can develop even on the most pristine of days when you're moving at a rather leisurely pace, and thats no excuse for not being fully aware of whats happening around you.

i also will immediately consider all sorts of road paint as "suspect" and treat them as potential low-traction hazards.

and lastly - as mentioned by a few, whenever approaching an intersection, especially with many pedestrians around, i'll be mapping out a path through the intersection if they were to come into the street.

There is a whole lot of input in this thread focusing on the technique(s) related to emergency braking. This is a obviously a very important skill, but learning the judgement to avoid situations that require emergency braking is a hugely important skill.

Was the pedestrian already in the road before you saw him? What portion of the road were you riding in? Were you on the right side of your lane? Center? Left?

You also mentioned that you didn't know if there was a car to your immediate left. As mentioned here already, Situation Awareness is a huge part of motorcycling. This is not limited to the objects in front of you, but also those to the sides and rear as well.

What will you do in the future to avoid the need to use emergency braking to avoid a similar situation?

 

[ThumperX]

If you failed to downshift and you are riding through the City in 4th or 5th gear (timed lights...or just not knowing the proper gear yet) and suddenly someone/something jumps in front of you, where perhaps you could do with a quick burst of speed (ie: pedestrian whom you will at current speed or if you cannot stop) having the bike in the lower gear may give you ample power delivery. Having it in too high of a gear may lug it and prevent you from "squirting" to safety.

 

[Enchanter]

I appreciate your candor, and your continued participation in the thread.

What part of the road and lane were you riding in?

How far into the road was the pedestrian by the time you took emergency action?

I also want to take a second to clarify that when I use the word avoid, I mean what could you have done to avoid the need to have to take any action at all (swerving or braking)? What could you have done 5 seconds prior?

Examples:
Would honking your horn have caused the pedestrian to look or stop?
Would you have crashed had you immediately slowed as soon as you noticed them step into the street?
Would an initial lane placement further away from the curb have made this a non issue?
Would better judgement have kept you from needing better skills in this instance?

 

[Enchanter]

What advice could we share with the posters in Crash Analysis, that will help them to avoid needing to rely on superior riding skills?

Quoted (and edited) for emphasis.

We all agree that having good/great/superior skills related to the control of the motorcycle will help us when riding (and especially in extreme situations), but what I'm trying to get at is that it is safer to use mental skills to avoid the need to rely on physical skills to save us. Hence my signature: A superior rider uses superior judgment to avoid situations that require superior skill.

 

[timzilla]

As i mentioned above, I was in the right lane. I don't recall exactly where in the right lane.. but likely down the middle.

I saw the pedestrian take a single step into the sidewalk. He was walking briskly.. and would likely have been in the middle of the lane within 1-2 steps.

The examples you indicate are interesting...

1) Honking the horn (or blipping the throttle as someone else mentioned). I don't use the horn. The reason being my worldview.. I'm deaf myself. If that had been me walking into the intersection, the horn or blipping the throttle would have done nobody any good. Perhaps in the majority of the situation(s) the person will be able to hear and take action. But I can't rely on this or make the assumption. The person was on the phone. Would he still have heard my horn? Is my horn even working? I have no idea how loud it is. I would rather rely on actions where I am responsible for the outcome. For many reasons. I just dont use the horn.

2. 'would you have crashed had you immediately slowed down.." this is exactly what happened. i saw the guy go in the street. i hit the brake and one tenth of a second later, i was down on my ass. so this is the action that I TOOK.. and resulted in this discussion.

3. initial lane placement further away from the curb. this is the one i am finding myself in agreement with. as a previous poster mentioned.. staying in the middle removes you further from hazards coming from the side of the road. so when i find myself in situations simliar to this in the future, i will most likely remain near the middle of the road while mentally mapping avoidance strategies.

I appreciate your candor, and your continued participation in the thread.

What part of the road and lane were you riding in?

How far into the road was the pedestrian by the time you took emergency action?

I also want to take a second to clarify that when I use the word avoid, I mean what could you have done to avoid the need to have to take any action at all (swerving or braking)? What could you have done 5 seconds prior?

Examples:
Would honking your horn have caused the pedestrian to look or stop?
Would you have crashed had you immediately slowed as soon as you noticed them step into the street?
Would an initial lane placement further away from the curb have made this a non issue?
Would better judgement have kept you from needing better skills in this instance?

 

[tzrider]

Timzilla, do you think it may have been possible to discern the pedestrian's intent to keep walking before he actually stepped into the street? It's fairly clear from your account when you noticed the guy, but may it have been possible to notice him sooner? If you had, could it have made a difference?

 

[afm199]

hey everyone - thanks for the feedback.

i'll readily admit that i'm a new rider. ive got about 2 years of riding so far - and i will also definitely say that my emergency stopping skills could use more work.

ive been sitting here at home thinking this scenario out over and over. i know i grabbed a good amount of brake, but i did not grab a lot. i had been riding for the past two hours. i had a good idea of how much braking traction there was.

instead - what i'm wondering is that i grabbed the brake on the very split second that the front tire had traveled over the white crosswalk paint and i went down just immediately.

i did not feel any type of skid from the front tire for even a single instant. i remember hitting then brake then in an instant i was on my back sliding down the road.

and looking back on the street where i went down, the skid mark clearly started immediately after the crosswalk paint. there was even a missing section of paint right where it started.

so my analysis of this was..

1) i clearly hit the brake at the worst possible instant when the front tire was over the crosswak paint
2) i likely hit the front brake too sharply and loaded the front tire on the paint beyond what was available.
3) i could have swerved to miss the pedestrian, but what I did not know were three things.. a) was there a car immediately to my left? b) would the pedestrian have continued walking forcing me to veer even further left, or make a decision to cut inside him to the right ... and what if the pedestrian saw me and immediately jumped back? i could have collided with him then.

so - like everyone has mentioned.. work on emergency stopping where i progressively load the brakes instead of sharply cutting into it, and evasion/swerving techniques.

thanks everyone!

Try one more. cover the front brake and NEVER grab it. Begin the braking process with a gentle squeeze to set the pads on the rotors and slightly weight the front tire, then increase squeeze. You can increase rapidly, but the first part MUST be gentle.