When you learn to drive from a good teacher they will always advise you to scan an intersection as you approach it. Slow down, look left, look right, proceed with caution. It is a bit of advice we might follow on a driving exam, but is lost through driving experience. Sure, you might observe the intersection as you approach it but if you have the right of way you’re going to assume you’ll get it, not the other way around.
On a motorcycle, scanning the intersection could be one of the best things you can do for your own safety. It is at the very least an equal to the many other defensive driving techniques that must be employed to keep safe. Intersections often present a scenario with more inputs compared to riding down a road, which is why I believe they deserve some special attention.
When I started riding I first though doing the full intersection scan was silly. I felt like a safety square doing all the right things, as ridiculous as they might seem. In a car I wouldn’t generally do the “look left, look right” in particular, and I felt some embarrassment in doing this on the bike where it is even more obvious. But this little head move has removed or relieved stress from more road crossings than I would have imagined.
Tonight while riding home from downtown I crossed the intersection at Gladstone and Bronson. I was travelling westbound on Gladstone. This particular intersection gives good visibility from the north side of Bronson, from which I watched a car blatantly burn through a red light at a pretty good click, only to turn it into a really late, wide right turn. This driver obviously didn’t pay any attention to the traffic coming through the intersection. Fortunately, I was armed with the knowledge of this vehicle’s exception (as well as having an idea of the space I had behind and around me), so I wasn’t quite surprised when I had to brake hard when this driver intercepted my path. That is not to say that my heart didn’t race a bit, but I came out otherwise unscathed.
Safety first.