"the motorcyclist's No. 1 nemesis remains the inattentive driver. So
listen up: Your job as the driver is to drive. Period. Your attention
is focused on what's happening outside, not inside. Period."
I'm assuming that you want to save the buck, and that perhaps you care
about the environment, if not that you plain hate "cages," and, most
importantly, that you want to avoid a senseless accident like this.
Sure, you would say, "Why not ban the damned phones!?" But you know
deep down it won't happen. Too much money into it, you know. So in a
bicycle you could have let yourself go and hit the stupid woman (maybe
a MADD member?) square on the bumper. At least I've made the switch.
You can even get a chopper bicycle!
Isn't this cute?
http://www.phatcycles.com/soon.htm
(I meant the girl)
Hang Up and Drive
I was riding my motorcycle to work one morning a few months ago when
the car in front of me stopped. Cold. The woman behind the wheel had a
phone to her ear, but she also had the green light. There wasn't any
traffic to speak of and there was nobody in front of her. In other
words, she stopped for absolutely no reason at all (except, probably,
for whatever it was someone had just whispered into her shell-like
ear).
Although I was at the speed limit, her stopping was so completely
unexpected that I didn't have time to ride around her, which would have
been the usual evasion tactic. My choices: Dump the bike or visit her
back seat. I hit the brakes and down I went, ass over teakettle. I
never touched her. I landed on top of the bike, fortunately, emerging
with a badly bruised elbow (not to mention a rip in my leather jacket)
and a pretty nasty welt on my upper thigh. The motorcycle got beaten up
pretty good but everything was put right for about $400 -- more than
the bike itself is probably worth.
As I looked up, with murder in my heart, off she went, oblivious to
what had just happened behind her. I hope that phone call was her
boyfriend, dumping her.
Even before the accident, my motorcycle was no gleaming machine -- no
snarling, customized Harley with the chrome pipes polished to within an
inch of its owner's life. It's an '86 Honda Shadow. At 500cc, it's
nimble enough for city riding while packing enough power for the road,
as long as the road isn't too long. The seat's kinda ripped up, there's
some rust and it's got its share of dings and dents. But it runs OK,
costs about $4 at the gas pump and, best of all, you can park it pretty
much where you like.
It's also a freakin' death trap.
The most hard-core biker -- even the biggest fat guy straddling the
baddest hog -- knows that riding a motorcycle is inherently dangerous.
There's no such thing as a "minor" motorcycle accident, aside from
maybe dropping the bike on your foot. We know this, but we accept the
risk of riding.
Why? Well, some of us are probably just stupid. There's the thrill
factor, of course, and it is fun. It's also relatively cheap, you can
maneuver through heavy traffic and you always look cooler than even the
coolest dude in his Euro sports car. Because you are cool, and he's
just a loser who dropped 60 grand on a penis extender.
Why is it that only a handful of states have made it illegal to talk on
the phone while driving? Driving is not something you do as an
afterthought, OK? You're hurtling down the road behind the wheel of a
3,000-pound vehicle (more like 7,000 pounds in that idiotic destroyer
of worlds, the Hummer) and it doesn't take a physicist to figure out
that if you hit a human being -- astride a motorcycle, riding a bicycle
or on foot -- you're going to do some damage.
And it doesn't take a rocket scientist or an IT guy or a professional
poker player to understand that anything you do -- like talking on the
phone -- that distracts you from the business of driving increases the
chances of causing a serious accident.
So do everybody a favor and turn off your cell phone while you drive.
(It's OK. Your important life can wait while you zip over to the mall.)
If you have to make a call this very minute, pull over. This ain't
exactly brain surgery, but it might help prevent some of it, you know?
Then there are the vehicles themselves. Hummers aside, have you seen
the size of some these, these ... well, when Paw drove to town we used
to call them pickup trucks. Now? Pickup trucks on steroids, maybe. (A
truck that seats six adults: What genius dreamed that one up?)
They're huge. They ride high. Too high. There's a hood the size of
Rhode Island out in front of you, blotting out the sun. It makes it
even harder to see what's out there. If it was easy to miss a biker
when you were driving your Volvo station wagon, well, try checking your
field of vision in one of these mesomorphic babies. Of course, you're
probably so busy cranking up that Slayer CD that you'd miss Sonoma
Sammy at full throttle on his Fatboy. RIP, Sammy.
Car manufacturers are also tarting up their vehicles with all sorts of
things that, when used like most humans tend to use them, distract you
from watching the road. GPS (What? You can't pull over and read a
map?), high-end sound systems requiring your full attention to operate
and -- what in God's name were they thinking? -- in-dash video
monitors: These have no place in a motor vehicle. Cars exist to convey
you from one place to another. They are not concert halls or TV
babysitters for cranky children. (Teach the kid to read. Better yet,
teach him to love to read, then give him a book, fer crissake.)
What about the motorcycles themselves? They're bigger, faster and more
dangerous than ever. Why would anyone want to ride a motorcycle capable
of doing 150 mph? So they can scrape you off the road with a spatula
instead of dumping you in a body bag?
But the motorcyclist's No. 1 nemesis remains the inattentive driver. So
listen up: Your job as the driver is to drive. Period. Your attention
is focused on what's happening outside, not inside. Period.
(many replies at this link)
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,68769-0.html
WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote
BIKE FOR PEACE
http://webspawner.com/users/bikeforpeace