If you were poll the general public, you would find a consensus that motorcycles
are dangerous! People seem to think we are just asking for head injuries if we will
not wear a helmet. These same people that can be the careless and reckless drivers
of cars and trucks. They insist that we as motorcyclists are to blame when they run
us down by way of their own gross negligence Motorcycles are dangerous they insist!
Motorcycles are deadly! Motorcycles KILL PEOPLE!
Now we, as the people that ride motorcycles know that this is not the case. We know
that if given a road free of careless drivers of four wheeled vehicles, we can easily
and safely go from one point to another. Some of us have been riding our "dangerous"
motorcycles for many years without the slightest injury. But there is a catalyst
that is responsible for the fears every motorcyclist has come to accept as really
We have seen such things as danger, carelessness, arrogance, stupidity, recklessness,
apathy and the extreme prejudice against the safety of the general public. But we
were not looking back at ourselves in the reflection of our own chrome. We were witnessing
firsthand the actual deadly and dangerous monsters of the highways. The minivan filled
with many screaming children, blocked rear windows and the soccer mom at the wheel
trying to read a self help book at 75mph. The Jacked up chevy monster truck with
it's tires that are as tall as most cars and the ignorant angry moron behind the
wheel who does not have the patience to wait in traffic and would prefer to run right
over anyone in front of him. The luxury sedan with it's black tinted windows and
soundproof cabin that contain the self centered yuppie trash that prefer to talk
to their broker on their cell phone than watch where they are going, unconcerned
with who they endanger or who they enrage. Last but absolutely not the least, as
a matter of fact the most, is the obnoxious Sport Utility Vehicle. This trendy new
death-tank luxury liner people-plow sport-utility flesh mangling supercages are the
worst of them all. These four wheel drive station wagons on steroids are the most
dangerous things to ever roam the road. They have big chrome bullbars on the front
so they will not mess up their shiny front grille when that child crossing the street
goes bouncing off of it. They have huge tires and spacious wheel wells, which by
the way is where we as motorcyclists can easily end up.......they'll notice us when
their tire starts to stink. These wrecking machines can drive straight through your
average house or building. They can hit a hundred year old tree and knock it down,
they can drive completely over a person or motorcycle or car and keep going, unfazed
My god! Nobody told me that the apocalypse was already upon us and these foul tanks
of urban destruction were a necessity of modern day life. Please, if that is the
case allow me a moment to run home and get my hockey mask and crossbow and leather
codpiece!
I think we can agree the we, as motorcyclists, are not the danger on the roads today,
nor were we ever. We do not endanger the people of our fair cities by simply riding
without a helmet. We do not threaten the livelihood of others by simply riding our
motorcycles to work and back every day. Quite to the contrary, we have chosen a form
of transportation that is more fuel efficient and more economical. It exerts less
stress upon the roads and produces a great deal less pollution. It is smaller thus
lessening its contribution to the traffic clogged arteries of our roadways and taking
up much less room in parking areas. Our motorcycles require us riders to pay much
more attention to the road and traffic, as they are a much greater responsibility
keep upright and balanced properly. We do not talk on cell phones or eat our breakfast
or read the paper or put on makeup during the operation our motorcycles. It could
easily be said that motorcycle commuters are a great deal safer and more responsible
than those who need twice as many wheels and a roll cage with a heater and stereo
and these days a television or Internet access.
Yet in light of these facts to which we hold true there is still the aggressive nature
of the general public that motorcycles are dangerous. Motorcycles are not dangerous,
it may be more accurately stated that we, as motorcyclists, are in danger. Being
a European Jew in the late thirties was not dangerous. To the contrary, being a European
Jew in the thirties meant you were in danger. A black man in the southern united
states in the nineteen fifties was not dangerous, a black man in the southern united
states in the nineteen fifties was in danger. A nazi is dangerous! A white man wearing
a white sheet is dangerous! Let us reiterate our semantics to acknowledge the truth.
Let us be sure to remind everyone who does not ride that the reality is not that
motorcycles are dangerous, the truth is that motorcyclists are in danger of the careless,
arrogant, reckless morons that plague our highways and thoroughfares
If per chance, we could have a line chart that represents the last few years of sales
of minivans and soundproof luxury cars and big trucks and especially those deathtanks
known as SUVs. I would be willing to bet that if put beside a line chart that represents
the increase of motorcycle accidents since the helmet law repeals, we could note
a similarity or two. Better yet, let us commit ourselves to assembling the statistics
on the fatality and injury rate of the victims of carelessness and stupidity by way
of the drivers of these four wheeled death rovers we find so common. Let us take
a long cold look at the amount of people who have suffered at the expense of those
that need to hide inside of a two thousand pound vehicle Let us compare how many
were killed or injured not because of their choice to ride a motorcycle, or bicycle
or simply walk across a street, but because they had the bad luck to be the unwilling
accidental or intended victims of an idiot behind the wheel of a four wheeled death
machine.
Still, with all of this, we find ourselves with the initial conundrum we had before.
The people with the authority to create legislation and enforce laws to keep the
public safe still insist that we as motorcyclists must wear armor to protect us from
those real dangers that we know to be the catalyst of our demise. Well let us say
to these governing entities, you will not need to force us to wear a helmet. You
will not need to persuade our brothers and sisters of two wheels by way of law and
legislation to protect ourselves. We have no choice but to dress as if we are to
be at war. As we stopped fighting for our personal freedoms long ago, and we now
fight for our lives. |
