Inattention To The Surroundings
Risk can suddenly rise rapidly while riding, so it is important that the motorcyclist be on the lookout for danger at all times. Many individuals have fallen victim to the consequences of general inattention. While riding in an inattentive state, the motorcyclist effectively puts herself into a large personal Blindspot. Managing and focusing one’s attention where it needs to be is a skill in and of itself. There are many ways attention can be distracted or improperly applied to different aspects of self and surroundings. Whatever the case may be, the end result is always the same; missed hazards and rising risk levels. It is extremely important for the rider to be dialed into the important aspects of their environment. Failure to apply attention effectively restricts the ability to make decisive split second decisions. On the other hand, attention negligence can literally have a threat progress all the way up to the rider before a sense of danger is perceived. In these scenarios it can be impossible to react at all, let alone be proactive.
Attention – Friend and Foe
The ability to manage risk always starts with the identification of the hazard creating the risk. No hazard identification, no risk management. Attention is of utmost importance. If the rider is not attentive to a hazard, it will cease to exist in their mind, but not in reality. There are a multitude of useful options for the motorcyclist to fix their attention onto. And that’s not even considering all of the options that should not be focused on! The negatives associated with being distracted or negligent regarding attention is self explanatory. That being said, it is also possible to direct one’s attention onto something useful, but at the wrong time. For instance, if you are applying a lot of attention into significant braking pressure due to motorists slamming on their brakes ahead, you may miss a careening vehicle behind you. Your attention to the vehicle in front of you ignorant of a situation to get rear ended. In this manner, that while directing attention to one area of importance, another goes unchecked. The double edge sword that attention can create is quite the conundrum.
Matured Awareness – Tactical Attention
In the intro, the different stages of awareness development were laid out (personal, motorcycle, pavement, environment). Attention can be focused onto the various forms of awareness while one is actively riding like a spotlight. Similar to the above examples, attention when shone on one type of awareness can cause another form to be neglected to avoid an accident. However, a rider that has a matured awareness can monitor all forms of awareness simultaneously. Skilled awareness can be split into smaller parts to pay attention to the many aspects of riding, or, alternate large amounts of attention between the different forms when needed. This effectively allows the rider to monitor everything necessary, while also reserving the ability to focus and shift attention quickly to mobilize against changing variables in the vicinity. In order to reach this level of attention management, a new rider must make an effort to learn and practice applying the forms of awareness, eventually stacking them on top of one another. By following the learning structure of Moto Instincts, you will be actively developing your awareness in the most effective way. Eventually with experience, the rider will have a matured awareness that encompasses all aspects of their surroundings within their awareness. Matured awareness will monitor your habits, your motorcycle control, your motorcycle’s connection with the road surface, and the changing variables of your environment all at the same time. Once this stage has been achieved, the motorcyclist will be fully synchronized with whats going on with their surroundings, making risk management much more intuitive.
Awareness Negligence
Moving from one awareness development to the next with haste, or skipping one entirely, will result in awareness gaps. It doesn’t take a seasoned rider to figure out that gaps in one’s awareness is a liability. Unfortunately, gaps in awareness will not typically be known until a close call or accident has been experienced. Until an incident occurs, the motorcyclist will be oblivious to the weaknesses in their riding. With consequences for failure being so high, the new rider must exercise discipline and self-monitoring to ensure each form of awareness is properly developed. All forms of awareness are important, but the most influential are at the base of the Hazard Hierarchy. Awareness of self and motorcycle are the foundation for which all other awarenesses are built upon.
The other side of awareness negligence is poor direction of attention. We must strive to keep our attention where we need it because you’ll never know when you will need it. The difficult part is, that normally an individual will be completely oblivious to the fact that their attention has been or is misplaced. Again, the realization that attention is in the wrong place will happen after the fact. That being said, there is a finite amount of ways that attention can be misdirected. All of these forms of attention mismanagement will be covered in The APE Risk Management System. If the rider is knowledgeable about these varying attention deficits, when he falls victim to one, he will snap out of it quickly.
Half the problem is that new riders don’t know what to look for. The other half is that many riders have poor attention management skills. After completing this course, you will know what to look for, and even how to use your eyes to direct your attention efficiently. The more attention that can be diverted to the surroundings, the better the chance that risk can be managed assertively. Watching for hazards out in front is intuitive, but attention must also be trained to spot danger that can approach from the sides and the rear. Threats can increase risk within fractions of a second which must be met with immediate reactions. Split second reactions are not possible without high levels of environmental perception. Pay attention to react instinctively.
