Way too much to read the lot. But I do have a thought or two on the subject - apologies if others have said same...
1. Nobody, cops especially, has any right to state Hi-vis will save a rider, or lead to a different outcome.
2. Hi-vis does not make a rider more visible.
3. Riders who wear Hi-vis MAY be more safety conscious in the first instance - it is their roadcraft that keeps them safe(r) not the Hi-vis.
4. Blaming a rider for getting caught out by the poor roadcraft of other motorists insults all motorcyclists...
5. ...and excuses said motorists from EVER changing their 'behaviour'.
6. And lastly, until TPTB get serious about driving skills, we motorcyclists will bear the brunt of so-called initiatives they say will 'save' us.
From the other thread, and quoted here for clarity re above.
Last edited by MSTRS; 9th February 2011 at 07:44.
Do you realise how many holes there could be if people would just take the time to take the dirt out of them?
The way I see it we have three options for improving our safety.
a) We can bitch and moan about the incompetence of all the other road users and we can stamp our feet demanding they up their game (like we've been doing since time in-memorium) and achieve the same results - nothing, or....
b)....we can give up motorcycling, or.....
c)....we can start taking a good hard look at how we can ride with an awareness that takes into account the incompetence of those other road users.
If we leave it up to the government to make things safer for us we ain't going to like their methods.
"A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer" - Tad Ghostal
White Trash Pearls of Wisdom #2654 - Refering to yourself in the 3rd person: The only thing gayer, would be being caught handcuffed around a public toilet bowl, an apple stuffed in your mouth and George Michael administering an epic caneing to your exposed cheeks while Boy George documents the event on a handicam.
On a Motorcycle you're penetrating distance, right along with the machine!! In a car you're just a spectator, the windshields like a TV!!
'Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out! Shouting, ' Holy sh!t... What a Ride!! '
Note: If you don't have your headlight on today "notice how many people tell you about it"! (they all see you OK then!)
Having headlights on on motorcycles "was" our point of difference!
What value has that today?
The difference IMHO is because the "official" attitude is that we are just nuisance value to other road users, therefore psychologically "irrelevant"! (they don't see us because "officially" we have no relevance)
Are Hi-vis-vests, the new point of difference? I think not!
Solution: Change the "official" and public attitude toward motorcycles!
How do we do that? Well we can start with the one that "we" control!
"Our behaviour" and our own "attitude" towards other road users!
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you!
Amongst all the other rhetoric, I think "that" is Katmans message and frankly, I have to agree with him on that!
Today on the way to work 4 cars had their mirrors hit by a bike filtering(?) at 30 +-kph faster than the traffic going 70, in a 70kph zone!. They were just the ones I could see, at least two things happened with that event.
1- reinforced everything bad with motorcyclists
2- fucked it up for those who follow PROPERLY later.
Perhaps the new road code for bikers should have a list of recent crashes, the result and how it happened or even a booklet like the one pilots get every so often from the CAA(?)
Easy name for it- Don't do what Donny Don't does.
"Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it."
-Lou Holtz
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