I noticed the article blamed the riders from the last study in 1981. I can see a rise due to inexperienced riders, but not the total cause of the 150% rise. Drivers are more aggressive these days, tailgate more often, and don't respect bikes. I've seen cars tailgating bikes countless times, and have had it done to me. Especially on 2-lane roads. People just don't have patience, or courtesy anymore.

 

Isn't it amazing!!!!!
Why is it that we are the first to "blame" ourselves?
In my "little city"; 66% of motorcycle accidents are caused by CARS or TRUCKS hitting the motorcyclist. That's right, 'the old left turns' or getting "rear ended" by inattentive VEHICLE drivers.
When will we WE stop pointing the finger at ourselves and blame the careless vehicle driver for causing the majority of our accidents?

 

There are MULTIPLE causes to the increased deaths on the roadways. No single cause is going to be the silver bullet, that if we eliminate it, deaths will go down all of a sudden.

There are a large number of older returning riders/new riders that simple lack the skills to do the job (ride safely) and in some cases, these riders have slower reaction times and failing vision that compound the issue. There are plenty of idiots on sport bikes trying to be the next millionaire stunna star on the cover of a magazine, taking stupid risks on the highway, endangering themselves and others. (of course anyone who rides stupid endangers others, sportbike stunna or not) There are too many drunk cruiser riders coming home from the local bike night wasted. There are crazy drivers who don't care about anything on the road, they own it, get out of their way - their mentality. Too many texting and phone using drivers - even motorcyclist, BTW (I've seen 3 in the last month with phone to ear riding down the road believe it or not).

There are, I'm sure, more causes to the deaths. The sport riders say its the dubass Harley riders who can't ride and their bikes can't stop or turn. The Harley guys say it's the sportbike riders going too fast or the bikes are inately dangerous by being too fast, or too light, un-comfy, prone to being blown around, etc.. It's just the same crap, different day. We want to blame those who are not just like us. But we are all somewhat of the problem (stereotype group that is).

Then there are the other factors, like the increase in riders, miles ridden, untrained riders (though enrollment here in KY was at it's peak over the last 10 years). BTW, I personally think the person blaming the safety instructors for not telling the sportbikeers that their bikes are dangerous due to cross winds has no clue, as crosswinds are in the program(MSF), though not designed to say if you own a sport bike, its dangerous because its gonna get you blown off the road and secondly the basic rider course is designed to teach someone to operate a motorcycle and give them tools to learn safety for the road, not to guarantee safe riders. And I haven't even gotten to the significantly reduced use of helmets since the 70's. That is a factor.

It all has to be added up. We don't know the mix yet. The new study will give that. All we can do is ride aware and safe, and get all the riders that we can to do the same. Otherwise, once again, motorcyclist will come under attack by legislators who know better than we do. This leads into the comment about HP limits etc. This is a free country (mostly). We don't need to lose more freedoms. We need to take responsibility for what we do and do what we can to keep ourselves and friends safe, without the government telling us what to do and how to do it.

Gar
(Harley riding, former sportbike riding, former MSF instructor, former road racer, who is over 40 and going deaf - my vision is going too, but it's down to 20-20. I'm a former almost everything it appears)

 

Me and a couple of my riding buddies have asked ourselves many times are we the only ones out here that thinks the speed limit is more than just a suggestion? I know I'm getting off base here a little but i dont get it sometimes! Examples, speed limits 65 and three bikes pass us going 75-80 with their wife or girlfriend on the back. Coming to a intersection with caution lights and i see riders with their feet on the highway pegs not slowing down a bit. A guy riding a smaller bike, sporty,dyna,etc (no aux lights or anything) passing me and never looking back when a car pulls up to the stop sign to stop....or not? I see this everyday. Maybe we are just more cautious but we try to enjoy the ride and make it as stress free as possible. It aint about the speed is it? Its about the ride! Especially with precious cargo on the back! I just dont get it.

 

I have been riding on and off for more than 40 years. I can not tell you what other people are doing, but most all of my ******** tightening experiences have been due to crossing traffic or poor road conditions. In Michigan, we have potholes in our potholes. I see a few that would swallow my RG in one gulp. I can't count the number of times I have to change my line in the middle of a curve to avoid one.

 

What a coincidence that in the past 3 years I have seen more idiod squids on crotch rockets doing 100+ mph on the highways cutting in and out of traffic.
Within due time the stats will balance back out. Gods way of giving the gene pool a little assist.

 

Agreed...crotch rockets. I wont go into my normal rant on these things and I know people get killed on Harleys.

But I'd love to see the stats on deaths by brand of motorcycle. I think alot of it is texting and phone use by the cagers now a days BUT I BET if we saw the breakdown of registered bikes by "make" and the number of deaths by "Make".....that percentage wise (not raw number wise) that there would be a corolation between deaths by rocket to show that it has impacted the increase in overall deaths.

I don't hate the people who ride the ricers...I just hate the ricer. There is no reason on this earth to have a motor vehicle (especially a motorcycle) be able to do 200 MPH.

 

If the blame does lie with the skyrocketing popularity of crotch rockets (and I can't talk too loudly here as I had an '84 VFR 1000 a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...), then Charles Darwin was right...and evolution does work.

As far as the death rates go.....being an EMS professional for 20+ years, the vast majority of serious injuries and/or deaths that I have seen (both ground ambulance and airmedical) involving motorcycles were preventable at some point. Something in the chain of events leading up to the crashes could have been prevented i.e. speed, experience, speed and experience or riding beyond limits, attitudes, maturity levels, unsafe practices, distractions, lack of proper maintenance, etc.... And this by no means is limited to riders as other drivers are just as guilty (cell phones, text messaging, not paying attention, etc....).

My family rode/raced all forms of three-wheelers back in the 80's, and the same thing happened to three-wheelers. Except three-wheelers got outlawed thus penalizing those of us who chose to ride safe, within our limits while using proper protective equipment.

Case in point: Back in 1998, I took off of work for several hours one day to go pick up my new Kawasaki Vulcan 1500. There was a kid in there w/ his dad buying a 600cc Ninja. Got my bike home, went to work...and within 4 hours ran on the kid who had wrapped his sparkling new Ninja around a telephone pole. Luckily, he walked away with more damage to his pride and dad's wallet than to himself. No experience, too big a "toy", no helmet, and was showing off for his girlfriend. All preventable.

 

People bought scooters when gas prices jumped and a lot of them
had never been on two wheels before,seen some scary scooter drivers
that were just looking for a place to get snuffed.