MC Safety - A Different Perspective for Some

[ells]

I tend to agree with this guy. I'm guessing that Dan L. does too.

http://ridingsafely.com/ridingsafely1.html

[ringadingh]

Thats a good article with a lot of good facts stated. When I ride my bike I notice I am much more alert of my surroundings, whereas when Im in my fullsize 4x4 p/u truck I don't worry as much because I feel safer if anything should ever happen, unless you meet up with a train or a semi.

[ells]

I'm quite certain that I am a better cage driver as are result of my riding. Just sort of get used to anticipating everything that might happen. My earlier driving record was not so good but not so much as a really close call in 45K mi of bike riding.

[dui546]

I agree with the article. I give traffic safety lectures to military and civilian organizations in our area. One of the things I emphasize is that people tend to take driving as a routine task and they perform it without giving it much thought. This is obvious by the number of things drivers do in their vehicle BESIDES DRIVING. Some call it "multi-tasking." I call it "crash-tasking."

Here is a thought to ponder; If you were driving in a country where the vehicles were driven on the opposite sides of the roadway and the signs were similar but slightly different, you would need to be very attentive to the task of driving or you'd be in BIG TROUBLE. I think that most motorcyclists ride at that level of attention. (Of course some do ride without any regard to their safety or the safety of others but that is not the masses.)

Therefore, if you live in the USA and drive your car, truck, SUV, etc with the same level of attention as if you were "driving in England" or "on your motorcycle," you will significantly reduce your odds of being in a crash in your 4 or more wheeled vehicle.

Very good points Brian. It amazes me at what I see people doing while driving. The two things that scare me most are people waiting to make a left turn with their wheels turned left as I approach them, and tailgaters when the light in front of me turns yellow. Three times I have taken the shoulder because as I slowed to a stop I was checking my mirror and saw the vehicle behind me was intent on running the light which by now was red.
A friend of mine had his daughter killed some years ago when a stopped car was rearended with its wheels turned left and pushed into the oncoming lane that she was driving in.

[dantama]

I agree with the article. I give traffic safety lectures to military and civilian organizations in our area. One of the things I emphasize is that people tend to take driving as a routine task and they perform it without giving it much thought. This is obvious by the number of things drivers do in their vehicle BESIDES DRIVING. Some call it "multi-tasking." I call it "crash-tasking."

Here is a thought to ponder; If you were driving in a country where the vehicles were driven on the opposite sides of the roadway and the signs were similar but slightly different, you would need to be very attentive to the task of driving or you'd be in BIG TROUBLE. I think that most motorcyclists ride at that level of attention. (Of course some do ride without any regard to their safety or the safety of others but that is not the masses.)

Therefore, if you live in the USA and drive your car, truck, SUV, etc with the same level of attention as if you were "driving in England" or "on your motorcycle," you will significantly reduce your odds of being in a crash in your 4 or more wheeled vehicle.

Your points go well with a concept that I call "looking, but not seeing".

Too many people go through the motions out of habit, rather than really engaging their brains (your England example).

I sometimes catch myself doing it, and I think everyone does. How much they do it depends on how well they've trained themselves. There are times I catch myself making a lane change and I glance at the mirrors and turn my head and move over, without really seeing. I was going through the motions without my brain engaged in it.

I get a similar phenomena looking at grocery store ads. I get to the bottom of the page and realize that my eyes were going back and forth across each line of ads, without really seeing it or comprehending it it was something we needed or not. Then I have to go back and really look at the ad again.

People do the same thing driving. They will turn and look right at you, but not "see" you. They were going through the motions the same way I read the grocery store ad.

The most extreme form of it happened to me about 20 years ago. I drove across town late at night in deep thought. I got home and had an oh sh*t moment wondering if I really stopped at the lights? I was so out of touch with the driving, and so into the thinking, that I couldn't remember if I the lights were all green, or if I ran some.

Pay attention and you might catch yourself doing head checks to change lanes, your head moves and everything, but you weren't really seeing anything.