Optical illusions on the road

Luke
Yep.... sure have, but what about when your sitting at the lights and the car or truck in the next lane starts creeping forward, makes you feel like your rolling back and so press harder on the brake.

.

"Optical delusions" as an ol mate a mine used to say! ;o)

Cheers

Or in one of those drive-in car wash "sheds" where the huge rotating brushes creep from the front of the car to the rear - for the first few seconds it feels like the brushes, although rotating, are stationery and the car is creeping forward and down goes the foot on the brake etc.

Dick

I was dog tired after leaving Alice Springs at 5am and "rapidly" approaching Mt Isa from the the dingo fence.
I'd just struck the tar when I came over a rise...and hit the anchors. That woke the family up...I had "seen" animals over the road but there were none.
Time to get out and walk around for a while. It was a slow trip into the Isa that night.

Hi,

Not that this is an optical illusion as such, however it always cracks me up when driving along and a bird fly's close to a closed window and everyone ducks!!!!

Cheers
Caroline

LUKE!!!!! I've told you before about smokin' too much of that yippee weed you grow behind your shed!!!!! hahahahahahaha

Hi All

We regularly use the Tewantin Vehicle Ferry, when we go up
Teewah Beach, if we are first on up the front, I seem to apply the
Brakes when we get close to the other side of the river, yep I
know, getting to that stage where i'll need a Padded Caravan lol lol.

Cheers
Daza

In my younger days I spent a fair bit of time riding in the back of Army trucks and landrovers, where your looking at where you've been, not where your going. Every time the truck stopped we had a similar effect as the brain tried to compensate for the change in visual stimulus. Was weird to say the least.

So you're not alone. It's a common "illusion".

Hi All

We regularly use the Tewantin Vehicle Ferry, when we go up
Teewah Beach, if we are first on up the front, I seem to apply the
Brakes when we get close to the other side of the river, yep I
know, getting to that stage where i'll need a Padded Caravan lol lol.

Cheers
Daza

I grew up in London and if you want optical illusion try a thick as pea soup fog for worrying the crap out of you.

There is no way you can believe you are stationary when a light breeze blows one of those fogs around you, be it bike car bus or truck you are positive you are moving just standing still, in fact just standing with no reference point to focus on makes you dizzy. And an Ambulance goes past you in slow motion with a man out front carrying a flare for the driver to follow. Thank god those fogs are a relic of the past since the banning of coal fires etc in the 60's.

There uesd to be (might still be) a section of road near Midland, WA, which was known as gravity hill because when you parked in neutral the car seem to be rolling up hill. I think it was an "oppical dellusion" caused by the lay of land. Any other sandgropers remember it?

Regards

Waz

Luke

I have experienced that too.

I am guessing that when you drive along a straight road your eyes are fixed on the horizon straight in front of you. So if you can imagine what is occupying your visual field the lower half comprises a wedge of bitumen, triangular in shape, rushing towards you at 100 kph.

Your brain, being the adaptive organ that it is, decides that this predictable constant change in visual information doesn't need constant processing, so it automatically incorporates it into what you 'see'. This frees up your brain to focus on more important stuff like a roo approaching from the side. The problem is, when you stop it keeps doing it for a while, giving the illusion we have observed.

I think a similar illusion is the motion of a boat or train that you experience long after you have disembarked.

Bob

Another common one for me anyway after 5 or so hours of freeway driving, is when i get home & close my eyes, I can still see white posts moving towards me.....takes a while to get over that...the trick is don't go straight to bed.....play for a while on ExploreOz...

& yes the stationary car changing to a very slow moving car beside you whilst waiting for the lights which are still red whilst you are looking at the radio or dash board & you notice it out of the corner of your eye, gets me everytime! I jam on the bakes harder & prepare to be rear-ended!

:)