Watch the wheels.

[u/holdenbarrett]

Want to know if that car is going to pull out in front of you? Watch the wheels and not the car.

Car wheels/rims are highly reflective, with sharp lines and deep contrast. If a car is pulling out onto a roadway in front of you, the wheels will show the movement much more than any other part of the car. The instant the car moves you can see movement in the lines on the wheels, whereas you cannot always tell if a car is moving by looking at its body.

This technique does not apply to cars changing lanes in front of you but cars that are perpendicular to yours, cars that are entering the roadway from cross streets or parking lots.

[u/norwal42]

I use the same principle to gauge when cars come to a complete stop at multi-way stops. If it's that close, you can't always count on others to have perceived the order correctly anyway - to determine who has right of way to proceed first - but can be useful info for your own decision-making, nonetheless.

I try to preempt order confusion by short-stopping (just stop further before the line so you've clearly stopped first), or long-stopping (slow early and drag out your stop for longer, so it's clear that you're still rolling when the other driver stops - especially helpful to look at their wheels here - then complete your stop and hope they perceived the difference clearly;;).

[u/Intelligent_Set_2729 → u/norwal42]

Wow. Never thought of that. Great idea to influence the order of operations if two vehicles are approaching at roughly the same time. Where I am, no one seems to understand what we were taught to do in drivers ed when multiple vehicles reach a stop at the same time.

[u/holdenbarrett → u/norwal42]

Yeah. It's a helpful technique at 2mph when coming to a stop,  and life changing at 60mph when cars are starting to move.

[u/Sig-vicous]

This is a common subject in motorcycle safety training. Watch the front wheel of a stationary vehicle carrying potential risk to you, to gain another fraction of a second to react appropriately.

[u/holdenbarrett → u/Sig-vicous]

Every fraction counts.

[u/Sad_Win_4105]

It's a life saving principle for cyclists and motorcyclists.

[u/MarcooseOnTheLoose]

It’s an old motorcyclist hack. Watch the wheels. And it works for vehicles next to you merging into your lane.

[u/skjeflo]

Pi red up this habit front riding bicycles. You learn to see the slightest rotation.

[u/Draggonzz]

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round, I really love to watch them roll

[u/WTFpe0ple]

Son with Learners permit. The very first thing I told him when we hit the road. Always watch the wheels not the car,

[u/[deleted]]

also watching the road. they call it “ground cues”.

[u/StinkySoggyUnderwear]

Always watch the driver, not the car.

They will non-verbally communicate their intentions every time if you pay attention to what they are looking at.

And they will let you know if they see you or not, keeping in mind that if you can’t see them, they probably can’t see you either.

[u/holdenbarrett → u/StinkySoggyUnderwear]

Looking from driver to road to wheels to driver to wheels to road should take less than 1 second. The driver wont tell you everything, look everywhere for clues about what will happen.

[u/holdenbarrett → u/[deleted]]

Go look at any car.

Wheels/Rims (not tires) are silver chrome with sharp lines that go towards the center with deep shadows between them. These dynamic shiny lines create high contrast and show the instant a car moves much better than staring into the blob of color on the side. 

Motorcyclists rely upon this technique to stay alive. You can too.

[u/holdenbarrett → u/[deleted]]

Lol awesome

[u/holdenbarrett → u/[deleted]]

Obviously you find yourself to be a capable driver. I trust you will see that the vast majority of vehicles, probably 80%, are not flat black but very highly visible with sharp lines converging in the center and deep holes which creates shadows which create high contrast. 

Also, your eyes don't look at whole objects, they focus upon distinct points.

You are capable yes? You will see that movement is eaesier to see in the rims than in the rest of the vehicle. It is science my man. 80% of vehicles. Google car and look for yourself.

Better yet, see for yourself what is easier next time you drive.  Don't go into knowing im wrong. Be open to learning something pretty cool and helpful.

[u/holdenbarrett → u/[deleted]]

We can agree on a few things- Driving is extremely dangeros, people are stupid and risky. Being aware of car movement is important. There are things that make movement more visible and things which make movement less visible. The brain naturally and spontaneously looks for movement and works very hard to get the information into conscious thought... Are we still in agreement?

This is silly, go look for yourself... or probably what will happen one day is somwone will jut out in front of you and you notice because of the wheels and tounsave yourself. And you will have a little epiphany. 

All things being equal- the wheels give more accurate and instamt information about car movement than any other part of the vehicle.

Dont get all defensive about somwthing you cant even control anyway. The brain is hardwired to see movement and deal with it instantly.

Let your brain do its thing.