The have been a number of articles (here) recently about large trucks and how scary their blind spots are – a bike parked in front or to the side just can’t be seen. Large trucks have turned up at bike breakfasts & other events so cyclists can experience these blind spots themselves. However, most of the time blind spots are not an issue for the cyclists themselves – visibility is usually fantastic on any sort of pedal powered vehicle.
There was a load I put on my cargo bike the other day that caused quite a significant blind spot in the frontal direction. This occurred when I had to clear out the attic of five mattresses that we had accumulated over earthquake repair reshuffling and take them to the latest op-shop in town, Habitat for Humanity’s Restore which also happens to be open Saturday morning before the traffic gets too congested. Fortunately I could lean to the side of the bike and look around the mattresses to check that nothing was impeding my path, and the journey went very smoothly, despite multiple road-coned sections where the lanes were narrow, and I received many very appreciative comments from people I passed on the way. I did decide to go a little slower on the downhill side of the over bridge than usual.
