yes has been done before, but i dont care.
a discussion around this came up on another forum, and i thought Id share my personal view on this here - critiques, corrections, opinions and discussions welcomed because its a holiday tomorrow and I dont have to go to bed early!
I hear alot of people discuss this, the idea is tossed around often that being a bike rider makes you a better car driver.
The basis of this view is generally that, because of your increased vulnerability on a bike, you become more aware of potential hazards, and you diversify your focus to what others MIGHT do, and where they are, rather than just what YOU are doing - this idea is basically the concept of situational awareness.
Those who argue this point will suggest that these habbits transfer over into your car driving habbits.
I dont agree.
To a small degree, your driving may improve a bit, but its more likely to be a change to general driving habbits, such as looking further ahead and vanishing point on windy roads, rather than on overall improvement in your driving.
The reason I dont agree with a total improvement as a result of motorcycling is because situational awareness is just that - situational.
Your situation or circumstances change when you are in a car, and when you are on a bike - many of those things are things that affect you subconsciously - such as leaning over and switching radio stations, leaning back at the lights, and stretching your legs, having a seat belt across your chest, having protection from the elements and air conditioning.
Because your conscious senses are bombarded with a number of differences that you are aware of - your behaviour will change.
When you hop onto your bike, you have a helmet snugly fitted around your head, you are open to the elements, feel the road surface much more, feel the temperature and all of its changes and wind gusts, your hands are gloved and their movement is somewhat different, you probably wear protective gear (hopefully!) which is considerably more restrictive for motion that say shorts and a t shirt, and another fundamental difference is a bike activates the clutch with the hand, and the gears with the foot, a car activates the clutch with the foot, and the gears with the hand, a bike accelerates by hand, a car by foot, and so on and so forth.
a good example is the temperature, a conscious reminder that you are more susceptible not only to the elements, but to the road surface, and more prone to injury in the event of a mishap - a 40km/hr T-bone on a bike will easily kill you - the same in a car will probably piss you off, and require you to pop a couple panadol while you fill out insurance forms.
as a result of all of the conscious, and subconscious differences, your actions, attitudes and habits are created, and practiced in a vastly different manner between each vehicle.
I would summarize by saying that while bieng a bike rider might alter some very minor actions (such as how far ahead you look while travelling - which is a relatively inactive action) it is unlikely to affect your active actions - at an intersection in a car you check your mirrors then drive off, on a bike you turn your head and view each direction directly, there arent any blindspots or pillars to obscure vision.
additionally, on a motorcycle, a head check allows you to directly analyse a true position, whereas your car driving habits (where you only look in the mirror) gives you a reversed (reflected) position of everything.
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Originally Posted by Asher
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