[rohanjf]

Thank you very much!
If I knew about this problem, I think I could have avoided an accident I had in September last year (described in accidents thread). I was on the highway, and ended up crashing into a car that joined the highway from a side road.
I can also guess why I did not see the other car.

Usually on long drives, I look around to relax my eyes. When I was doing to while cruising in the rightmost lane, I had suddenly spotted a biker coming in the opposite direction in my lane. Ever since, I was scared to look away from the road even for a moment.

Henceforth, I am going to slow down to the minimum speed that the top gear can handle, ask my passenger to look ahead, and look all around.

[sumathindra]

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[flyingkolors]

Thanks for sharing the article. That was really an eye opener. I could actually relate very much to this because of a recent incident that happened.

I was driving on one of the moderately crowded roads in Bangalore at around 40-50kmph and there was a U-turn in the middle of the road. In a fraction of second, I realized that I banged into a Ikon right in the middle who turned into my line from the U-turn.

I was shocked because I never saw a car as big as Ikon turning into my lane and I just couldn't believe that I didn't see it and ran into him.

Now, after reading this article and think back, I understand what was the issue that day. Lesson learnt!

[throttleking]

I have personally experienced this many times, though this does not happen to me so easily. Let me elaborate the situation when it can literally happen. Specially during the night drives. Whenever I go to Nagpur from Pune, I prefer to drive at night. I usually start at 8pm and drive continuously, with merely one break in between. At around 4am, when I am done with 500kms and it is still dark, I experience motion induced blindness(MIB) for few seconds. And this is all because I tend to focus on a straight road, passing trees are barely visible, there is no traffic, hardly any moving objects that can move my eyes towards them, and in all probability because I am tired too. After one or two occurrences of MIB, I begin the eye movement to avoid the further occurrence. Obviously I did not it is called MIB until I read the above article.

TIP : Beyond a point I cant control the MIB effect and I begin to feel sleepy. And thats when I use the ultimate solution. I always keep small pieces fresh lemon handy with me in my car during the night drives. The moment I feel that I am going to doze off, I take ONE HARD BITE of the lemon and try to chew it badly. Damn, that thing wakes me up for next 200kms easily

Did you guys tried the test with larger size of yellow dots with different background color? They still disappear from your vision.

[jealousdiamond]

Thanks Sagar for sharing the excellent concept . The demo was real good

Have experienced this many times and used to tell people around me not to focus for long on a single object on highway driving ( to avoid fatigue ) , your post revealed the real cause of eye fatigue and the blurr display as it gets with that .

This might just end up as an eyeopener for lot of folks , just like me .

[aargee]

Never knew the concept of Motion Blindness; but I'd the practice of switching my focus between both RVM's, meter console, road, oncoming traffic, sometimes the vehicles that I pass by & their numbers.

I learnt to do this to keep myself active while riding, while maintaining the focus & prevent from thinking some junk while riding. Looks like I was doing something without know about MIB. Tks for the education.

[amolpol]

Really eye-opening phenomena, had never heard about this before! The dots kept disappearing for me so I know it's for real.

I usually keep cycling my eyes between the RVMs, left-center-right in that order. That helps me in breaking the monotony of the drive but now I know it may help in preventing temporary motion blindness as well.

[searchingheaven]

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[Blow Horn Ok]

Thanks a lot. Its an Important lesson. Even when I Enlarged the fixed dots they disappeared. For me they disappeared in a fixed pattern, ie, 1st the top one and 2nd the bottom ones at the same time. I am sure this phenomenon would be major contributors in highway accidents (Especially good highways/Speedways in foreign where the road conditions are uniform and excellent).

[parsh]

Isn't this same as the Tunnel Vision caused while driving with driver primarily focusing at the center of driving and not moving focus anywhere? This can even be caused to a Co-Driver/passanger if the Co-Driver/passanger is also focusing as per the driver without deviating focus. This is not to confuse with the Ophthalmology "Tunnel Vision" phenomenon due to physical aberrations, if anybody gets any other ideas. Its good that this topics brings it to fore to notice to the common knowledge of all. Best thing is to keep shifting your focus, moving/twisting neck, shifting your position in driver's seat intermittently while still giving attention to driving.

Also, quite a few other reasons cause this, like talking on cellphone (bluetooth telephony included) while driving, there was a mention of it here quite sometime back: Driving with Distractions - Oprah.com

[NinadJoshi]

To be honest I am a bit surprised at the reaction on MIB by fellow readers here. It is a long known phenomenon and an essential FYI to all drivers. Good info nonetheless.

One of the first tips I received from my instructor when I took my driving lessons was to constantly shift my gaze and check my rear view mirrors every 10/15 seconds. In his words "snap a fresh picture 4 times a minute".

There is another interesting phenomenon that I once saw in a documentary wherein a driver tends to drive faster than normal in adverse conditions such as in rain or fog. I have actually experienced this with my own self, and it is scary to know that your brain WILL miscalculate the dynamics of driving as a result of distorted cognitive feedback in fog/haze/rain and other low visibility conditions. I can't recollect what the study in the documentary was called, but I began driving by the speedometer rather than by visual instincts in inclement weather since then.

MIB or visual disappearance is a 'natural' involuntary phenomenon that requires awareness and knowledge to mitigate. However, what does not need any second sense is to understand the dangers of 'voluntary' additional distractions (loud music, phones, eating, chatting) that can affect driving safety.

[dot]

For those who are not aware of Anant Bhatia, he is antz.bin in TBHP. He was the one who had originally unearthed this concept.

Thanks Antz.bin and Throttleking for sharing.

BTW, the yellow "dots" seem to disappear faster when the blue crosses are revolving slowly. Whats that supposed to mean?

[SDP]

Very informative and useful article. Kudos to the original author (antz.bin) as well as Throttleking for sharing.

For me after the 21 days of driving-school training in Mumbai, I learned the 'actual' driving in US while being at onsite for the first time. At that time, there have been a few recent cases where people could not clear either the written test or the actual road-test. That caused a lot of seriousness in the learning process for newcomers like me. I remember, going through the 'how to drive' booklet of the state DMV multiple times and really learning the rules by heart. I remember practising parallel-parking (not more than a feet from the curb) and 3-point-turns hundreds of times. I think this would be a story of most folks which have learnt driving in other countries with strict licencing authorities.

Checking the blindspot over the shoulder is something that I picked up that time and is still part of my regular driving. Continuously scanning the 3 mirrors is another habit that I picked up from those times. Now I know how the continuous scanning habit is useful to avoid the motion induced blindness.

Thanks again for sharing.

[niranjanrvce]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

The commonly known terminology for this is Target Fixation which is one of the major causes for a crash. Not just while driving, but while riding too, one should be aware of objects in the peripheral vision.

Adi, isn't Target Fixation sort of a super-set of motion induced blindness?
In a Target Fixation scenario, you have lost your peripheral vision for sure, but more alarmingly, you are so desperately trying to avoid a particular obstacle that you look only at it and involuntarily steer your car/bike towards it. Simply put, you go where you look.

I had experienced this when I was learning to ride on my Grandpa's bike way back in school. I used to crash into every pothole and couldn't understand why since I was trying to avoid it - that's when my Grandpa said "Boy, you look at the pothole, you go into the pothole; look 'around' the pothole".

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by niranjanrvce

Adi, isn't Target Fixation sort of a super-set of motion induced blindness?

You're right Niranjan. That's why its important to keep scanning for objects all around including in the RVM's and over the shoulders while overtaking (while on a bike at least) so that there are no blind spots.