There is an 'Invisible Car' effect.

When driving, people do not notice cars that are out of the norm, unless they are cognitively looking for them. I have heard that hundreds of car-bus accidents occur when the driver believed that the bus was *NOT* there before they changed lanes or slammed into the rear end of the bus. Upon closer inspection, I found out that this is common with not only buses, but anything that is not the norm, for instance, motorcycles, large vehicles where small vehicles are standard, small vehicles where large vehicles are standard, bicycles, and pedestrians. This effect occurs for all drivers the same in their familiar geographic region, regardless of their vehicle size (For instance, a large vehicle driver in an area where small vehicles are the norm will not notice a large vehicle, just like a small vehicle driver would not notice a large vehicle).

I normally refer to this as 'Lemming Syndrome' since conformity appears to be safer than non-conformity on the road.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.