Please be nice to motorcyclists. One of them might be me.92f-fan wrote:Based on percentages I see a MUCH higher percentage of oddball behavior by bikers than "cage drivers"gemini wrote:More than likely "Ron" cut the biker off, drifted into his lane, changed lanes without checking
his rear view mirrors, or was texting/talking on phone and driving erratically. I see it all the time.
As others have stated, there's two sides to every story. From what's been presented, I believe "Ron"
was a distracted driver not aware of his environment and made a mistake. I believe the biker had a
legitimate gripe but took it too far.
In my younger days, I too would have been yelling and beating on the window. (ah, foolish youth).
These days I will pull up next to a car, motion for them to roll down the window, and fairly calmly
state, "If you hit me, I won't be able to go home to my wife and kids". Usually the response is "sorry".
When it's not, I let it go. Ride safe.
The numbers of bikers is much smaller, yet 1 of 3 seems to be acting just like previously described, zooming down the middle of 2 lanes or down the shoulder, or weaving between gridlocked traffic etc etc. Im not saying that more jerks in cages wouldnt do the same if they could, but based on my commutes and my experiences I see a very high percentage of 2 wheelers that flaunt the law. To the extent that I think that's the reason many choose 2 wheels.
We havent talked about the illegal modifications that are done to the bikes or the riding shirtless with shorts, flip flops and no helmet. If you expect me to pay extra close attention to 2 wheeled vehicles I expect them to act responsibly.
The reason I don't ride is because EVERYONE I know that ridden for any length of time has metal in their body. You can if you want, try to blame all those incidents on the cage drivers, but as mom used to say "it takes 2 to tango" and the driver of BOTH vehicles ALWAYS play a role in EVERY accident.
my $0.02
There are a lot of hooligan riders, certainly. They are easy to notice because they're doing hooligan things. But the good one's you don't really notice because there's nothing to notice. Just people on two wheels. Please don't paint us all with the bad brush.
As both a cage drive and motorcyclist for >30 years, I've seen my share of both sides. I've been run off the road several times by absent minded cage drivers. Thankfully there were emergency shoulders each time, so I had room to give.