Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Apparently it's my fault!!

[webbyc]

Ok I do accept that it all my fault and I intend to own up to Tony Blair about it - that's the sort of guy I am!!!

The real worrying issue here is that we have effective anti-biking proposals coming out in the autumn that are suppposedly aimed at reducing deaths on the road. How the hell do they know what to do? When was the last time that you saw any MP or Government representative at your local bike meet? Do they talk to us?

[saj288]

go for it and invite them......

[webbyc]

Great idea. Roy you should invite your local MP to the Popham megameet!!!

[paulmort]

I thought the first in this series of posts said that almost a fifth of all road death were caused by bike(r)s
Well in my unmathmatical way, that means that four fiths were caused by non bike related incidents
so calculator in hand, 2720 who unfortunately were killed on our roads were not bikers, out of the 3,400 who were.
That says to my simple mind (no comments needed KB) that we as bikers are better off that the 4 wheel muppets. 1 in 5 chance for us, 4 in 5 chance for them.?????

And I cant be in Mr Jamieson's statistics as a born again rider as Im 55 yrs young, so fall outside of his 30 - 40 yrs old category

be safe out there folks and watch out fer senile 4 wheel muppets doin left or right turns wiffout indicators, or like the pilchard I followed down a motorway slip road today at 40 to join the motorway at that speed with likkle trucks trying to change lanes to miss the fergin pilchard doin 45 in the inside lane wiffout indicating expecting all and sundry (with apologies to Mrs Sundry) to get out of their way!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rant over, and I'll get me coat
best rgds
a wondrous "how they ever got a license" Mort

[kwikbitch]

The thing that makes me laugh about all of this is that the gov' make it so difficult to pass your blinkin bike test...It's the only licence that hubby doesn't have...
He has an LGV, PCV, CBT + an ordinary car licence...all, he reckons fairly easy to pass.
In the near future (allegedly...not sure how true it is!) they contemplate making bikers do their test in controlled conditions in a purpose built test centre for bikes...Making bikers do their emergency stops at the correct speed with a light gun! How much harder do they want to make it?...I haven't done a soddin U turn since the day I took my test!!!!
Surely those that past these stringent conditions MUST be better riders/drivers...More aware on the road etc. It's the numpty car drivers that need educating...A biker is much more aware of what is going on around them BECAUSE they know that they can pay the ultimate price.
But...who's the easiest target?
The crack dealer that sells drugs outside the local secondary...Or the biker that occasionally goes a bit over the speed limit?

AND Mort...didn't you see VMans thread about me having a 30% lower I.Q...I wont say a word about yours then...LOL

[rockhopper]

But Lisa, the statistics I've seen tend to imply that bike accidents are increasing and that most bike accidents are single vehicle accidents which means that no other vehicle was involved so anything that helps reduce that is going to be better than things going on the way they are.

Yes some car drivers can be dangerous as Mort's example shows but we have to take responsibily for some of it oursleves.

How many people on this board have had an accident that didnt involve another vehicle?

[AK]

Interseting one at the end of last summer - on the way back from Bury Hill in Sussex, came across 2 bikers in the road.
Biker 1 had been minding his own business on his Mille, when rider 2 came round the tight corner - on the wrong side of the road on his 2 week old R1 (on HP) in the other direction.
Later: Turns out Mr Mille rider was doing less than the 40 mph limit (36), and Mr R1 was doing over 60 - and had only passed his test 3 weeks prior.
Mr Mille suffered a broken collarbone & a completely stuffed front end of his bike (so was lucky to get away with the injury he had) - Mr R1 lots of broken bones. Lost his licence in Jan, so we heard.

Certainly made us think on the way back that day, so kept in touch with Mr Mille (as helped drag his bike out of the road & called police etc) to find out what the court result was.

C

[SazzaJ]

OK, so they say that bike accidents are on the increase. But so is the number of bikes! I'd like to see the statistics in the form of number of accidents per 100 bikes, or suchlike. Who knows, it may actually turn out that the accident rates have gone down!

Saz

PS. Long time reader, first time poster. Hi to CK and anyone else from the UKMOC

[Edited on 8-4-2004 by SazzaJ]

[webbyc]

Statistics can be made to say whatever you want them to and any Government will exploit that to the full in order to back up any policy that they may have.

To refer back to the point about passing your test being difficult nowadays, well when lot of the born agains took their tests all you had to do was ride round the block - well that's all I had to do!!!! Anyway during their break away from biking bikes have changed immesureably in terms of performance etc. Perhaps one of the answers would be that if you've been away from biking for more than a year, then you have to undertake some sort of refresher training.

[topper]

Nah, they are just trying to encourage us to take to something "safer" like this:


Apparently, they are available in both red and yellow.

[Edited on 9-4-2004 by topper]