Low Sun, One Cyclist, One Crest
It is 5:50 pm in late April and daylight saving has ended, so the light is going. You are heading west at 90 km/h on a two-lane rural road, limit 100 km/h. The sun is low and directly ahead. Your visor is scratched and coated in dried bugs from two and a half hours of riding. Ahead: a farm gate on the right with a ute idling at it, facing your direction, waiting to pull out; a cyclist on the left shoulder about 80 m ahead with no rear light and dark clothing; and a gentle crest about 150 m ahead. Your tank is low but not on reserve.
1. Rank the cyclist, the ute and the crest by how soon each could affect you, and justify the ranking with the numbers in the setup.
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1. The cyclist (about 80 m). At 90 km/h you cover 25 m every second. If the cyclist is doing even 20 km/h, the closing speed is about 19 m/s, so you are on top of them in roughly four seconds. An unlit, dark-clothed cyclist is also the hazard your scratched visor and the glare make hardest to see.
2. The crest (about 150 m). Around six seconds away, but it hides anything beyond it - an oncoming vehicle overtaking, a stopped tractor, stock on the road. You cannot react to what you cannot see, so this is the hazard that decides your speed now.
3. The ute at the gate. It is stationary, which normally makes it least urgent, but it is pointing across your path and its driver is looking into a low sun. Assume they have not seen you, and that glare on your visor may also be hiding their indicator.
The ranking shifts as you ride: once you have passed the cyclist, the crest becomes hazard one.
2. What do you actually do, and in what order?
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- Roll off the throttle - do not grab the brake. Shedding 20 km/h lengthens every gap ahead of you and cuts your stopping distance substantially.
- Cover the brakes with two fingers so reaction time is spent moving a lever, not finding it.
- Fix the vision problem. Slow enough that you can flip to a clear visor or clean the bugs at a stop; riding into a low sun through a scratched visor can make the cyclist genuinely invisible until you are inside your stopping distance.
- Choose a position for the cyclist - move toward the centre of your lane to give lateral room, but not over the centreline, because the crest could be hiding an oncoming overtaker.
- Be ready to stop at the crest, not to proceed over it at 90 km/h.
A useful rule for the low sun: if you cannot see them, assume they cannot see you, and that applies to the ute driver as much as to you.
3. Why is slowing down the answer to all three hazards rather than just to the cyclist?
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Because the three hazards all resolve to sight distance versus stopping distance.
- The cyclist is visible but unlit: speed decides whether a late detection is survivable.
- The crest hides hazards entirely: speed decides how much road you commit to before you can see it is clear. Over the crest at 90 km/h, you cannot stop within the distance you can see to be safe.
- The ute may pull out: speed decides whether you have time to react to a vehicle entering your path.
Slowing also buys you decision time, so you can deal with them one at a time instead of all at once. The correct response to an unlit hazard you have just detected is not a hard brake - a hard brake at 90 km/h with a cold front tyre and glare is its own hazard - it is a planned reduction in speed before you need it.