It is noticeable that the nightly news on tv is not complete without a report on motorcycle accidents. Considering the road is crowded and those 2-wheels are weaving on the road, inserting in between vehicles, accidents are waiting to happen. And that 2-wheels include bicycles as well. There was this news last week when a bike rider had sideswiped a car. The car driver was so angry, he went down his car and quarreled with the biker who is a bigger guy. The quarrel resulted in a fist fight with the car driver getting a black eye. He went inside the car, feeling defeated. And then the biker shouted at him thru the open window, insulting the car driver that he is no good in fist fight. The car driver got mad, went out his car with a gun and shot the biker who died instantly. Those incidents will not happen if there are bike lanes in the city. The bike lanes are for the exclusive us of 2-wheels only. That way, those pesky 2-wheels can be separated physically from other vehicles. That is our advocacy now - a motorbike lane for that purpose.
Heck, I've seen motorcycle riders, the "crotch-rocket" type riders (fast motorcycles) dodging in and out of traffic.........basically doing the same unsafe stuff that some people driving cars do. I don't see this happening with Harley, Honda, Kawasaki and other types of "full dressed" bikes, but then again, these are big motorcycles that older folks ride. The younger generation seems to really like the "crotch-rocket" bikes. When I rode a motorcycle in So California, riders were allowed to split traffic on a street or backed-up freeway. Don't know if that is still legal there, but during the times I owned three different motorcycles, it was totally legal. Last motorcycle I had was a 1978 650 Kawasaki. It was fast, but I was just too old to drive it really fast on the freeway. With so many people using their cell phones while driving, I really surprised there aren't more accidents/deaths dealing with bicycle riders. Anyway, I was very careful when I rode either my motorcycle or a bicycle. Unfortunately, the way people drive today and the amount of traffic out there, I seriously doubt if I'd ever have another motorcycle. Wife and I talked about buying a couple of bicycles, but how "fast-paced" a lot of places are today, it could be extremely dangerous. And, both of us are just too old to take that chance.
This issue just happened to be on my FB page today. Talks about lane splitting in California. http://www.latimes.com/politics/ess...lish-lane-splitting-1470328822-htmlstory.html
That's interesting. Way back in the early 1980s, a California cop told me that it was okay to do that.
A winner of a Darwin Award died yesterday near here. He was fleeing from police (I don't know why) at speeds reported over 100mph in the rain on a motorcycle when a moose stepped onto the road....
We see quite a few "crotch-rocket" riders here that love to fly down streets and thru traffic. I never/ever done that, but mine was a fairly old Kawaski 650cc and I wasn't in my 20's or early 30's. I was 39 for one and 48 or the other.
I loved having a motorcycle but I was always aware that all that it would take was a momentary distraction, a wrong move, or a rock in the road, and it would all be over. Anecdotal, I know, but in more than twenty years as a paramedic, I have never responded to a motorcycle accident in which the motorcyclist lived. They're kind of like plane crashes - sometimes people live but the odds are against you.
I don't know as it wasn't covered in the news story I saw. I suspect it was injured enough that it had to be put down, but I do not know for sure.
My motorcycles were the only transportation I could afford. I bought a cover for it, for when it might rain and had raingear for myself. I'd even go grocery shopping with it, by attaching a copier box to it (bungee cords) to the back of the bike. When I was in EMS, I responded to one accident. Two people, boyfriend/girlfriend. The boyfriend had loaned his helmet to the girlfriend. She lived, he died.
I, too, had one when I was younger. I commuted one summer to my summer classes/ research job. It was only 28 miles, but on the twisty turny roads of the day, it was quite an adventure.
All 3 of my brothers had motorcycles at one time or another in their lives. I never have. -The older one had a motorcycle in the 1960s (Triumph Bonneville 650) when Tysons Corner Mall was under construction. He & a friend used to go riding on the construction site. One day they took their bikes out, his friend went flying over a hill, and there was nothing but 100 feet of air underneath of him. It seems that the basement for Hecht's had been dug since they were last riding. He actually lived, believe it or not. -The youngest one was riding his Honda in the country in the rain when he came upon a sharp right-hand curve and hit it going too fast, blasting across the oncoming lane of traffic, through a fence, and into a field. He only got cuts & scrapes. -The one next youngest to me had a Harley Davidson 1100 XLCH. He lived way out in a rural area and was taking the small winding entrance ramp up to the main road to get to work one morning, and as he was going around the bend he hit a patch of gravel. He got thrown into the guardrail, his foot got hung up, and it broke his leg in 3 places between the ankle and the knee. (As a bonus, his shyster employer was taking health insurance premiums out of everyone's paychecks and pocketing the money, so my brother was in the hospital uninsured.) I used to commute on my bicycle outside of DC...about 8 or 10 miles each way. I used to ride all over the place on the streets in that area on the weekends. 1978 Motobecane Super Mirage I never had an issue. I never rode between the lanes of cars or ran red lights. I never went up on the sidewalk and then back into the street...I was like every other vehicle on the road, subject to the same laws and responsibilities. Most of all, I paid attention for cars coming out or for doors opening. I saw the same thing back then as I still see today in Charlottesville...the small number of bike riders who wet their pants the most about inconsiderate drivers (and there are some out there) are the ones who violate the laws and act as little kids on tricycles when it suits them. It makes me angry.
I gotta throw this out here: I live in the ideal area for a motorcycle. There's not much traffic at all, it's pretty & rural, and there are tons of winding roads. I've mentioned that when I drive the 16 miles to my bank, there is a stop sign as I exit my neighborhood, another stop sign up the road from the bank, and flat-out unbroken back-roads driving in between where I may not encounter another vehicle. But I can flake out. That is why I liked my Austin Healey with little more than a lawn mower engine in it (948cc) moreso that getting a muscle car. When my older brother left the area for a while and let me drive his 1967 Camaro he purchased brand new, I hit 2 other cars less than 4 days later and had to make "the phone call." It is a certainty that there would be a time where I would get overconfident on a motorcycle and not pay attention to the road or hit a curve too fast or something along those lines, and it would kill me (or make me wish I were dead.) This is a truism that has held for my entire life. All it takes is a split second.