The road toll is our fault

Since we are making BS up, then the longer you ride a bike, the more

We should ban bikes, evidence shows they cause chicken pox.

 

Bullshit! Saw a mother come off her kid's minibike in a picnic area. Lost
control & hit a tree. Broke her neck & died in front of her two kids...was
doing all of around 20kph. A mate I used to race with who also witnessed
this incident put his bike up for sale the following day. Hasn't ridden a
bike again.
Yep, speed sure kills!
G.

 

I'm one of those older "dangerous/ incompetents in need of re-testing"
drivers/riders who somehow has avoided any "minor bingles" in over a
million klm of regular speeding unless you include being collected while
parked on 2 occasions by careful slow moving females.

You seem to be obsessed with foisting arbitrary speed limits as the
ultimate safety measure.

When I first started driving/riding 45 years ago the only limits were in
built up areas. All other roads displayed the welcome circle with diagonal
stripe.
Despite being " young hoons" at the time we didn't constantly drive flat out
as you seem to think would happen if limits were raised, but learned to
drive to the prevailing conditions & traffic density. We were also able to
learn self control & how to drive safely at speeds in excess of 100kph as
well as knowing when 60kph was too fast!
Although my present bike is capable of over 300kph that doesn't mean I'm
going to ride it down the pacific highway at that speed but there's no way
I'm not going to exceed 100kph when conditions suit.
Just observing light to medium density traffic flow on almost any multi lane
road you will find at least 75% of all drivers will exceed the posted limit
at some point on the trip...don't tell me you never do.
To me Safe Driving is all about knowing your limits in any given situation,
careful observation of other drivers & behaving accordingly. Years of off
road competition has taught me where my limits are. That's what keeps me out
of trouble on the roads...not a forest of speed signs & cameras...they just
distract from safe driving.
BTW have no demerit points either (touch wood).
G.

 

Oh a perfect driver.

You seem obsessed with raising them as a safety measure.

Some didn't live from the lesson either.

 

Unlikely perhaps but not impossible. That doesn't mean we should set the
speed limit at 40 kph on the highway.

I hope you're making the point ironically that it wasn't speed in this
case. You can fall off a horse and break your neck too, but limiting
nthe speed of horses would not solve the problem.

I'm not arguing against all speed limits. I know I can safely ride,
under the right conditions, at higher speeds than the limits set.

 

How utterly brilliant.
Your not from aus.cars then!

--
Take Care. ~~
Feral @..@
(\-- Ü--/)
((.>______<.))
^^^ ^^^

 

Thank you!

Oh shit didn't notice the cross post.

 

On 29 Jan 2006 03:31:07 +0100, Smee R11S <>, after
considering some belly-button fluf, wrote:

Hi Smee,

[...]

He does make a good point though (which is rare enough to warrent
comment all by itself) - as has been freely admitted by some in
aus.moto, doing twice the speed of the rest of the traffic while
lane-splitting is hardly the safest approach. At best it's risky, and
at worse reckless. If you want to do it, then go for it, but don't
bitch to me about people not paying enough attention - you *should* be
aware of the risks, and that the odds *will* catch up with you sooner
or later (even if the cars don't ;-))

It's probably also appropriate to point out that unless *you* see it
from the perspective of the person trained to pass the driving test,
your own view is certainly somewhat skewed as well. It seems you are
well aware that many drivers are deficient in this area (and I
certainly agree with that), so to behave in a way that endangers
yourself while complaining that you *should* be able to do it is
somewhat puzzling from my perspective. I certainly agree that you
*should* be able to and that drivers *should* make the effort to be
aware of riders, but, alas, many do not, and some do not even know
they should. But I guess you already know that, seeing as how I can
recall you posting from several years ago and (I presume) you
regularly ride. (ie, you're still alive after several years of riding,
so you're probably well versed in defensive riding - either that or
you're *extremely* lucky)

I certainly try to be aware of *all* other traffic - that includes not
just MC's but peds, push bikes etc. I'll happily admit that I don't
always get it right, but then again, I suspect *everyone* fails in
this at some time. I don't have a license for a MC - I *already* cop
SMIDSY in a car, FFS! Even bright red ones during clear daylight
conditions. There are, IMO, enough drivers whose eyes are painted on
to be a concern when I'm driving, let alone riding.

Never is pretty impressive and seems highly unlikely to me. "Almost
always see them" seems more likely. Of course, the other side is
selective memory - how many cars have you lane-split past and not had
a problem in the world with and how many have nearly killed you? Which
do you remember more easily? I'd suggest it's *at least* 1000:1 -
which is not to say that that you shouldn't ride like everyone's
actively out to kill you (mad if you don't, IMO).

Indeed - evidence, should you require it, of why I am reluctant to
obtain a MC license. I dunno if you saw it, but Spooky or Shane once
posted that they nearly got run over doing RBT - numerous fully marked
police cars, some with flashing lights, well lit main road, wearing
reflective safety vest and waving a Darth Vader wand (nighttime,
IIRC). The excuse was the ubiquitous SMIDSY. If 'twas me, I'd be
*extremely* tempted to book 'em for neg drive and anything else I
could possibly think of - enough points to cost them their license at
any rate.

Neil
---
Neil Fisher / Bob Young
Thundercords
personal opinion unless otherwise noted.
Looking for spark plug leads?
Check out http://www.magnecor.com.au

 

Removing them would make more sense.

Well, I also started driving/riding 45 years ago, and I'm still here too,
also with zero points on my licence. I must admit that I was booked for
speeding in rural Victoria in 2003. I was endangering the public by doing
104 in a 100 zone.

We had unrestricted speeds outside of built-up areas in WA until the early
seventies. When we got our 110 limit (70mph actually) the first thing that
happened was that everybody got upset and annoyed with people who didn't
want to drive that fast, and the people who used to regularly drive at 60mph
were now 'encouraged and bullied' into driving 10mph faster. I think the
average person was actually driving faster after "maximum" speed limits were
introduced.

Theo

 

Cyclists die at 20km/h, so that's obviously too fast as well. Why don't we
all just stay in bed?

Theo

 

Exactly.

 

Statistics show that more people die in bed, than on the roads. The
obvious conclusion is that staying in bed his more hazardous than riding
or driving...

prk.

 

Must be like chicken pox then.

Theo

 

Far from it! just a responsible & cautious one who can actually think for
himself instead of having to costantly watch for & rely on a sign to know
how fast to drive.
(But I do favour advisory speed signs as a guide for drivers in an
unfamiliar area).

Comprehension isn't your strong point either it would seem...there's no
mention in my post of raising limits....I preferred the old system where the
onus was on the driver to drive safely at all times when on unrestricted
roads.

So have the blanket limits changed that? The Hoons are still ignoring them &
wiping themselves & others out with regular monotony.
G.

 

The other day I pulled out sharply to avoid a child and I almost fell out
of bed.

 

Could be worse ...

-----sharks & co.

 

Why don't we remove traffic lights, giveway signs & dividing lines on roads
while we are at it?

 

You are a motorcycle rider and you trust other road uses to decide what is
safe, LOL.

Pick your new safe speed on a road and tell me people won't exceed it when
they are running late.

 

No I don't! I keep as much distance as possible between myself & other
vehicles both in my car or on my bike.
Poking along in a line of traffic at the posted limit is just asking to be
hit.

Are you trying to say that they don't already exceed posted limit or that it
would make any difference to them? LOL!!!
G.

 

There were few traffic lights in WA, most country roads (including Gt
Eastern Hwy) had no dividing lines, and most intersections were unsigned. We
drove on the left and gave way to the right at intersections. It wasn't that
hard.

I can understand why you didn't address this part of my post.

Theo