a HUD would be more in your field of vision in terms of the X and Y dimensions, but in the Z dimension, depth, in the worst place of all.
Focusing your eyes an inch away from your face is, unfortunately, taking your eyes off the road. The closer something is to you, the greater and greater focal length change is required. Switching between road vision and 1-inch off your face is much much harder than switching between road vision and 24-inches away from your face (where conventional speed dials are, on the handlebars).
It’s not just about the time and effort it takes to do this. When your eyes are focused 1inch away, everything on the road will be super blurry. When your eyes are focused 24 inches away, the road will not be as blurry, and it’s easier for your eyes to jump back onto the road.
I dunno, if you're relying on a number to determine if you are proceeding at a safe speed, I am a bit skeptical you have sufficient mastery of whatever motor vehicle you are operating.
Just as if you're relying on a speed limit sign & law enforcement to control what speed drivers go rather than road design feedback, you have insufficient mastery of your engineering trade.
We can at least be honest enough to admit that we care about the speed because 9 vs 11 over is the difference between being invisible and getting harassed by cops, right? And that difference is too small for normal human perception to detect.
That's what speed limits are about. They're set by the 85th percentile rule and civil engineering voodoo, not an honest effort to maintain safe roads - because in the places that have safe roads, they rely on the feedback of actual road features to signal appropriate driving speeds, not a random sign you compare against an instrument on your vehicle.
No one is ever checking a speedometer to measure their "safety". It may as well be zero indexed on the speed limit.
Indeed. But in normal conditions the main thing you want to do is not break the speed limit. In sensible places the speed limits are usually lower than the maximum safe speed.
You know if you are going fast relative to other drivers without a speedometer.
You know about how fast you are going without a speedometer. 40 or 60 or 80 feel different to drive.
Don't just rely on a number to drive. Ask yourself, can I see well up ahead? Would I have time to stop if someone pulled out from a blind spot? Are there pedestrians or children I should be mindful of?
Like if you don't give a fuck and you'll rely on insurance and following the law to protect you, bully for you.
It's not about going a safe speed, it's about going a legal speed. I feel safe going 100+ in a 70mph zone when there aren't other vehicles around but it ain't exactly legal so I often check my speed, that momentary look down would be prevented with a HUD.
Yeah, that makes perfect sense to me. Speed limits themselves are only very loosely related to safety (85th percentile rule and civil engineering voodoo science) and the speedometer is more about staying on the right side of the police state when confronted with roads that overwhelmingly signal to drivers that they should be going WAY faster than is legal.
And even then those speed limits, at least outside of the comparative safety of highways, are almost always set well higher than what is actually safe for the neighborhood or useful to keep the traffic network freeflowing.