We are on the ROAD too!

So, in Michigan it is Motorcycle Awareness Month and this is to get people to realize that the bikes are out again. Much like road construction this too shall pass, inevitably. However, you really need to keep in mind that not everyone travels in a large frame with doors on it this time of year. Furthermore, not all of us have loud pipes on our bikes which annoys everyone in the surrounding half mile. This brings to light a really interesting argument: Loud pipes save lives or Loud pipes may die?

To me it goes both ways. I have a very quiet Honda cruiser. I have had people on the freeway simply change a lane without looking and nearly hit me. What did I do in the face of the impending accident? Brake and honk! As an automobile driver I am always aware of a horn in my near vicinity. I rarely ignore a horn if I hear one, car or otherwise. It has been ingrained in my driving as a car driver, to listen for horns and look for fingers often times, especially in our locality.  Save that for another blog…

But I listen for horns and look for their users much more instinctively than anything else on the road. I have Harley dudes up the street from my house. I know everytime they go to work, or out for that matter. I am not at all upset with the volume of their pipes, I like a great sounding well tuned bike. However, I am NOT convinced completely that the pipes alone will keep them alive. We (bikers) should be ultra aware of the traffic around us and anticipate other drivers moves. How I do that is by using space between vehicles to my advantage as best I can. But to also be aware of who looks like they are distracted while they’re driving around me. This is not always easy to do. There is a saying – “you never see a motorcycle in front of a shrink’s office.” This is because there is a freedom to being on a motorcycle. It’s not a feeling I can explain, I simply can’t adequately describe it, however; it is REALLY easy to just drift into your ride in your mind and be caught up in it, regardless of traffic! And don’t tell me as a driver you have never just drifted off in your thoughts or music while driving. I won’t believe you!

I really feel that there is a need for motorcycle education. I have met scores of bikers who have never taken a Motocycle Safety Course because they’ve been riding since they were two feet tall… Yadda, yadda, yadda. It is not a requirement in the state of Michigan to have a motorcycle endorsement on your driver’s license if you buy a bike. It isn’t a requirement that you take a class to get your endorsement! You have to in order to drive a car though. There is basically no protection on a bike, but there is in a car. But you don’t have to take a class to drive a bike – huh. Why IS that?

It makes no sense to me. The Safety courses are cheap, really cheap. They are offered in almost every county in the state. They only require you apply yourself. They supply the bikes even! Why doesn’t everyone take them? Like these 5 year olds in shorts and T-Shirts on crotch rockets especially? I don’t know. It makes no sense to me. Maybe they’re too cool to be properly educated? Maybe some of these bikers in general think they know everything there is to know about driving a bike? Maybe they think that an accident will happen to someone else and not them… I give up. I only know that the Motorcycle Safety Course has saved my ass many times! I can’t see why somebody wouldn’t take it. I just can’t.

So my pratteling on should stop now, I ask you as car drivers to attempt to keep your eyes on your mirrors and the road around you. If you have to tune your radio, answer your I-Phone, change a CD, yell at your kids or look at your navigation device PLEASE do it in the slow lane! Or AT LEAST look at all the traffic around you before you start fiddling, because if you don’t you may cause someone to die. That’s the cold hard truth of the matter, an awful lot of people tune out general road noise. They’re not looking and they’re only aware of their own atmosphere.

BIKERS: Use your horns, try to keep your eye on everyone around you, and don’t think your pipes are loud enough to make the cars around you notice. They’re in their own little worlds too. A waved fist or finger can’t be heard and after the fact may be too late. Use your horn, no matter how cool you are. It may save your life one day.

Be safe – Ride With Pride!  -HBom

~ by zoejones on May 9, 2008.