Search, evaluate, execute

1Watch

Four things in one frame

Nothing in that picture has gone wrong. Four separate things in it could change in the next five seconds, and the whole of this lesson is the habit of noticing that before they do.

2The idea

The strategy has a name and three parts

Rider training calls it SEE.
Search — look for what is there.
Evaluate — work out what it could do to you.
Execute — do something about it, early.
Each part gets its own unit in the adult course, which tells you they are three separate skills rather than one instinct.

It is not a check you run once when you set off. It is a loop that runs the whole time the wheels are turning, and it starts again the moment you have executed. Riders who do it well look calm, because they never have anything left to do in a hurry.

3The idea

Search: the places worth your eyes

Junctions, driveways and the vehicle that turns across you come first, because that is where the crashes with cars come from. The federal list adds the rest: riding against the traffic, sidewalks, riding next to parked cars, riding at night, and traffic controls at junctions.

Search covers 360 degrees, which means behind you as well. Your eyes go out to the far end of the street, come back to the near stuff, go out again, and go over your shoulder before anything moves sideways. It is a pattern, not a stare.

4Your turn

The next five seconds

Then run it again with the same street at dusk, and notice how many of them you can no longer see.

5The idea

Evaluate: assume they have not seen you, then rank

You already ride on the assumption that drivers have not seen you. That assumption is the evaluate step, and it costs you nothing on the many occasions it turns out to be wrong.

The second half of evaluate is ranking. Three things in the frame are not equally important. The one that can put a vehicle across your line comes first, every time, and everything else waits. A dog on a lead is a nuisance. A car at a side road is the category that fills hospital beds.

6Decide

Three things at once: a car at a side road ahead, a walker stepping off the kerb behind them, and a friend calling you from a driveway.

7The idea

Execute: early and small

Executing is three things and no more: adjust your speed, adjust your position, communicate. Ease off before the driveway. Move your line before the parked car. Put an arm out before the turn. Be courteous, cooperative and predictable while you do it.

Early and small beats late and big every time. A late execute is a hard stop or a swerve, and both of those spend grip you cannot get back. The whole point of running the loop continuously is that you are never the rider who has to do something dramatic.

8Find them

Which of these are execute moves?

Tap the ones that count.

9Say it

The question that runs the loop

Say it at every junction and every driveway on one ride. By the end of the ride you will be answering it before you have finished asking, which is what the habit looks like when it is working.

10Do it

Before you leave this page