The Go Optics! track and
why use Path Defender
Attention completes indispensable automatism in such a complex activity
as driving. When attention goes down, the automatisms share increases.
Driving automatisms rely, among other things, on the "learned"
relationship between a vehicle visual size and its distance.
Drivers involved in a crash with a bike say they didn't "see" it, but
how many drivers get in the way of a truck or a bus?
Motorbike headlights, apart from masking the bike and its driver
because of their high luminosity, form on the retina an image about 10
times smaller than a car image. Closing in from 60 to 30 yards, the
angle formed by a 17 cm (6" 3/4) diameter motorbike headlamp grows from
.16° to .32°, whereas the angle formed by a small car
width (1.65 m, 5' 5") changes from 1.58° to 3.15°.
This difference has two consequences:
1) Evaluating distance and distance changes of a motobicycle is very
difficult because changes on small angles (motorcycle, bike headlamp)
are closer to human eye's resolution than larger angles (like those
formed by cars and trucks)
2) At a same angle, the apparent distance of a car is 10 times larger
than the distance of a motorcycle headlamp:
All three objects at
same scale
|
A conventional bike headlamp seen from |
corresponds
to the apparent size of a car
seen from |
| 30 meters |
290 meters |
| 50 meters |
485 meters |
| 100 meters |
971 meters |
| 200 meters |
1941 meters |
With Path Defender, the apparent difference is reduced from a ratio of
10 to a ratio of 2.5:
|
Bike with Path Defender, seen from: |
corresponds to the apparent
size of a car seen from: |
Equivalent distance of a standard bike |
| 30
meters |
76 meters |
290 meters |
| 50 meters |
127 meters |
485 meters |
| 100 meters |
254 meters |
971 meters |
| 200 meters |
508 meters |
1941 meters |
The difference remains substantial, but in by far less dangerous
proportions for the bikers, for at 30 and 50 meters:
1 – Path Defender visual angles are close to one degree
angle (respectively 1.24° and 0.75° versus 0.3° and
0.16° for the standard bike), improving the ocular evaluation
accuracy of distance and closing in
2 – The car "equivalent distances" are such, at least at 30
meters, that they catch the driver's attention (76
meters instead of 290 meters)
3 – The larger visual angle of a car versus the Path Defender
bike is corrected by Path Defender light, which catch the
attention, improving the other drivers' awareness of their driving
environment, allowing for more precise evaluation of the situation.
Path Defender reduces very notably hazard in potentially dangerous
situations on the road... helping car drivers to detect and analyze
those situations!
