The importance of a little eye contact

I've taken to riding my bike to work. With only a handful of rainy days in the last 12 months why not. Luckily I live in Southern California where the weather is forgiving enough nearly year round and my job is flexible enough dress code wise where this is possible. Unluckily people around me, and I mean on the road, seem to be paying less and less attention to the ROAD!!

I'm not certain what the issue is. Driving is fun. It is the transference of a little change in the angle of your foot/heel, to raw horsepower and speed, or drop in speed depending on what your needs are. Perhaps the problem is that cars are just too big, or that there's too much to look at and be entertained by inside the car. Regardless the power and convenience of this powered conveyance is being taken for granted.

As a rider, and now a riding commuter, I have come to one universal truth. It is this: No matter how well I train myself to ride, nor how RIGHT I am in the right of way, when struck by a quarter to a half ton of aluminum, steel, and plastic, that RIGHT of way doesn't mean anything. Nothing that is but an overall loss in the ability to walk, talk, and possibly breathe. I'm not ok with that. But making sure that that doesn't happen is on me.

I have been freed from my car and the shackles of big petroleum companies for my work week. I have been liberated, one might say. And eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It's now on me to watch and make sure that I am safe. To that end a little eye contact is important.

What good is eye contact you might ask? A little eye contact can tell you what a driver is going to do, or better yet what they're not seeing, most importantly you. Riding in traffic is made safer by knowing as much about your fellow commuters as you can. Are they even looking at you? Have they noticed that you too are making that left turn? Are they sleeping?

Looking in to a driver's eyes can make them aware of you. At the very least it causes 99% of people a second thought, which still might be two more thoughts than you would have gotten before. It's harder to hit something that has looked in to your soul BWAHHAHAHAHAHA. I jest, but I'm not kidding. Try it sometime. Walk across the street, at an intersection, look at the driver that was looking left at the cross traffic, notice that they don't see you, then find their eyes. What do you see? Is it shock that you were there, disgust that you're holding them up, disappointment that they can no longer run you over innocently (in the "shoot, he saw me, now I HAVE TO stop and wait" tone)?