Motorcyclists

[steward 433]

Reading university has conducted tests on perception, awareness and road hazard avoidance and consistently motorcyclists perform as well or better than advanced police motorists.

Then only group that out-performed your bog-standard motorcyclists were police motorcyclists.

Why does that not surprise me

 

[Box of Frogs]

I work in insurance and never cease to be amazed at the stupidity of some bike riders.

I am currently dealing with one case of a biker who managed to kill himself driving at 120mph while trying to overtake a car that was turning right. The Inquest found the bike rider had enough amphetamine in him to kill him anyway, let alone th vast amount of alcohol, ecstasy and other drugs in his body as well at the time of the accident!!

Having said that, I have come across some idiotic car drivers too, but a bike is inherently more dangerous. I would never trust a vehicle that can't stand up on its own!!!

 

[Uncle C]

Why does that not surprise me

My philosophy is that every car driver is out to kill me. Expect any or all of them to do something stupid.

 

[readingstockport]

My philosophy is that every car driver is out to kill me. Expect any or all of them to do something stupid.

Yep, go out each morning with the view (which is fairly accurate) that all cage drivers are there with one intention alone and that is to kill or maim me. I tend to survive most times.

And I am a cage driver as well btw and as we all know motorcyclists do make better drivers.


Guiness, blinky Dave from wessex died the other week and had a hell of a send of, about 300 club there and another 200 or so of us who knew him. Brought Reading to a standstill.

 

[ali jenkins]

The reason why you can never bloody see someone on a bike is because they move all over the road!

One minuite there in your right wing mirror, then your left, and back to the right before undertaking you!

I understand that its not ALL bikers, but in my experance it is the VAST majority

 

[London Calling]

nice to see its bikes with engines that are the problem this week.

soon it will be cars with 999c engines or less

 

[London Calling]

im 48 now and ive been riding bikes since i was 14.
i think riding bikes makes you a better car driver as you have a better perception of road awareness. a large proportion of my time driving my van, i am thinking to myself 'look at that bloody idiot on that bike'
personally though.....i find pedal cyclist to be more of a danger, going through red lights and coming out of side roads without stopping

so everyone so be thinking where is the next idiot coming from, whilst cycling, I am always trying to predict for a fool in a car, motorbike, lorry etc

its part of the getting to a to b without damage

 

[Rowdey]

i think riding bikes makes you a better car driver as you have a better perception of road awareness. a large proportion of my time driving my van, i am thinking to myself 'look at that bloody idiot on that bike'
personally though.....i find pedal cyclist to be more of a danger, going through red lights and coming out of side roads without stopping

I'm not disimilar to you - Neary 40, riding since 17, drive a van most of time.

Up here in Londinium, with the Con Charge, loads of people started out on scooters without any real-life training - used to see a crash every other day.

As mentioned earlier, Police Motorcyclists are the best road users, and being a motorcyclist makes you a better road user - thats why all Traffic Cops have to be a bike rider too.

That said, we're all prone to gunning it a bit aren't we...

 

[wehatepalace]

That said, we're all prone to gunning it a bit aren't we...

Eye that we are

 

[NMH]

I rode bikes for 3 years (without owning a car), and enjoyed it immensely - albeit without wearing a helmet (twas before the law prevailed over us).
I rode past people before they even knew I was there, got to the front of traffic, and was generally an 'aggressive' rider simply because it was the way to stay alive!

I learned, from that period, how to read the mind of a driver from behind their car. I could see them thinking, read the 'body language' of someone who wasn't sure, was thinking of changing lanes, might make a turn but without signalling, and etc.

BUT - that's not to say that motorcycle riders aren't all their own worst enemy!
I've seen idiots overtaking on blind bends on the wrong side of the road, before hills in the road where they can't see oncoming cars or other bikes, and even overtaking on bends where there was traffic moving on both sides of the road.

Some bikers are stupid, just as some drivers are thick too. The difference is the likelyhood of injury is weighted against the biker, who-ever is at fault.
There's little protection, even though they wear a helmet, and fatalities are high.

 

[Lander]

I reckon about 100 yesterday en route to southend all coming out of brands hatch had to constantly look in my mirrors incase one got knocked off!

Piss take!

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Probably still none as most motorcyclists are good judges of space and distance and you really wouldn't need to move most of the time.

A very large proportion of bike accidents happen at junctions where the car driver "just didn't see him"

A very large proportion of motorcycle accidents happen when motorbikes are speeding. I personally don't think ,motorcyclists are any worse than any other group of road users and there are skills you pick up riding bikes that make you a safer car driver, but I do think they are the group most in denial about their poor road safety.

 

[Eggmundo]

I pranged my bike after only just passing my test. You get taught 'how to ride' but not 'how to really ride' if you know what I mean? Experience counts for a hell of a lot and hitting cars hurts.
This is my bad leg:

I was the Prat you speak of unfortunately.

 

[Jello]

I'm currently in China and they all have a death wish, you could easy kill 100 a day if you didn't swerve. They haven't quite mastered giving way and knowing which side of the road to ride on.
One is currently being treated just outside our factory.

 

[RexCathedra]

Reading university has conducted tests on perception, awareness and road hazard avoidance and consistently motorcyclists perform as well or better than advanced police motorists.

A "Charles Darwin" wasn't one of the authors of the paper, by any chance?

 

[readingstockport]

A "Charles Darwin" wasn't one of the authors of the paper, by any chance?

? ? ?

Is that meant to mean something?

 

[Easy 10]

The number of times I've been in the outside lane of the A23 having just overtaken another car, and am about to move back into the inside lane, only for some utter DICKWAD resplendant in his full Power Rangers costume (ooh look, it matches his BIKE ) to come BURNING up the middle of the road and skim up my inside, before swerving "dramatically" into the outside lane to continue his f***ing Matrix fantasy en-route to pick up his multipack of Pot Noodles for the week.

...I'm gonna end up inadvertantly wiping one of those dickheads out one of these days. And it'll cost me a bloody FORTUNE in T-cut to put it right as well.

 

[rbridd]

The reason why you can never bloody see someone on a bike is because they move all over the road!

One minuite there in your right wing mirror, then your left, and back to the right before undertaking you!

I understand that its not ALL bikers, but in my experance it is the VAST majority

This is called "using all the road", and is quite normal.
You wouldn't expect a motorcycle to ride along the white line in the center of the road just for your convenience would you?

'Tis up to you to maintain observation all around your vehicle. Not just the bits that are convenient for you.

OR, perhaps the rider was simply looking for a way past a car which appeared to have a somnolent driver stuck in the wrong lane...

 

[Easy 10]

'Tis up to you to maintain observation all around your vehicle. Not just the bits that are convenient for you.

Ummm...no.
'Tis up to the rider to refrain from illegal undertaking manoeuvres involving "nipping" up the inside, that carry far more risk for him than the "cage driver".

 

[vegster]

Given the tightness of the leathers worn by many motorcyclists in combination with the high mortality rate of the occupation, surely Motorcyclists are a genetic dead end because so many will fail to pass on their genes ?

I'm sure Dawkins would agree....thread closed