Motorcycle Riders...Confrontations With Cars..Etc

[somepumpkin]

I ride “like there’s no one in those cars”. They’re just little automatons that can, and will, do anything. Most of them behave very predictably, but there’s enough randomness to affirm that they’ve all got a mind of their own. I don’t get upset at how they behave, and I don’t take it personally. They’re driving skills are not my concern; they’re avoidance is. There’s no need to blame the driver, b/c the time and attention is better-focused on staying alive.

Also, I’ll leave enough of a space/time cushion to where using all the performance of the bike and rider isn’t even part of the equation. Though expert skills are great to have, traffic-management skills are paramount.

@Whiskey_Dickens

David Booth (an editor for Cycle Canada) in a recent editorial addressed the road rage type interactions between cars and motorcycles on YouTube and elsewhere. Basically it boiled down to something like (paraphrasing) “car drivers have an incredible amount of power in any altercation; their car.” […]

And this ^

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

@Bullitt

It is still unclear — what are you asking?

Whether or not many of these bikers in these “road rage, cars v bikers” videos are generally more at fault than the car operators. I get that bikes are hard to see, and I do look out for them. But if you’re going 120mph on the freeway and I switch lanes and kill you because I didn’t see you in time, that’s on you.

I’m sure this is generally unanswerable, but I thought it’d be interesting to hear what our motorcycling Dopers thought about it. It just seems to me that at least some of these helmet cam guys are looking for trouble on purpose for the sake of filming it to get an online reputation.

[StrTrkr777]

Probably hard to say.

There are drivers that are stupid and cause problems to riders.

There are riders that are stupid and cause problems to drivers (and themselves).

I have been cut off, I have had people turn in front of me. I have had people not paying attention.

But the only wreck I have had was my fault.

I was cruising with my feet on the highway pegs enjoying a beautiful day without a care in the world. I was being too relaxed in heavy stop and go traffic.

Someone slammed on the brakes ahead, I heard the screech of the tires, I popped out of my dreamworld, grabbed the front brake too hard.

Acted like I could skirt the edge of the road like I would in a car to avoid hitting the back end of an SUV and lost it in the gravel.

I knew better. I was not riding with my safety in mind.

I could have blamed the traffic, but it was on me.

My point is, if you asked the rider in the videos, many would probably blame the driver, but in reality, as a rider, your safety is on you. No one cares more about you being safe than you do.

[somepumpkin]

@FoieGrasIsEvil

Whether or not many of these bikers in these “road rage, cars v bikers” videos are generally more at fault than the car operators. I get that bikes are hard to see, and I do look out for them. But if you’re** going 120mph on the freeway and I switch lanes and kill you because I didn’t see you in time, **that’s on you.

I’m sure this is generally unanswerable, but I thought it’d be interesting to hear what our motorcycling Dopers thought about it. It just seems to me that at least some of these helmet cam guys are looking for trouble on purpose for the sake of filming it to get an online reputation.

(bolding mine)
Yes. In that situation, the motorcyclist should bear the responsibility. But if the squid’s riding like that, I wouldn’t expect him to.

[Bullitt]

I never understood where the term squid came from, so I looked it up. It’s apparently derived from ‘squirrely kid’, and because squids don’t live very long. Depending on size, squids have a life span of 6 months to 5 years.

Urban dictionary, squid:

A young motorcyclist who overestimates his abilities, boasts of his riding skills when in reality he has none. Squid bikes are usually decorated with chrome and various anodized bits. Rear tyres are too wide for their own good, swingarm extended. Really slow in the corners, and sudden bursts of acceleration when a straight appears. Squids wear no protection, deeming themselves invincible. This fact compounds intself with the fact that they engage in ‘extreem riding’–performing wheelies and stoppies in public areas. Squids wreck alot. Derived from ‘squirly kid’

Squid facts, orma.com:

How long do squid live?
6 months for the smaller squid and up to 5 years for the larger ones.

Urban Dictionary: Squid

http://www.orma.com/sea-life/squid-facts-squid-faq/

[DrDeth]

Well, Motorcyclist arent always the good guys. There is a vid of a accident in Santa Clarita: Dude in car slightly swerves into biker doing lane splitting. Bikker pounds on the side of the car as he passes. Car swerves, misses biker, hits pickuptruck which flips over, Biker rides on, never even stopping. Police were looking for Biker for hit & run (in CA you only have to be “involved” in a accident, which the biker most certainly was).

Now, we have two assholes- the careless car asshole and the road rage biker asshole and the guy who pays is the truck driver who was innocent.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

I have a somewhat interesting, if morbid, story.

I used to be the manager of a pair of car washes, and one of our locations was along a heavily trafficked road, Glenway Ave, in Western Hills, Cincinnati. We had security cameras all over the place, and one of them pointed out at our entrance drive, and that camera also captured the road traffic.

Turns out one night a young motorcycle rider was blazing along Glenway and t-boned a car that was turning in front of him, driven by a little old lady, and he catapulted from the bike into a nearby telephone pole and was immediately killed. This happened catty corner across the street from my location, just out of the camera’s view.

A couple of my employees knew this kid and said he was an ass and rode like an idiot.

The next day, a couple Cincinnati police officers come in and ask me if we can review the videotape of my road facing camera. I agree, and as I start slowly scrolling through the DVR frame by frame at the specified time, there he was! He appeared in only two frames before he was gone. I realized I was watching this kid’s last seconds on Earth and was a little disturbed by it all. The cops asked for a copy of the recording, which I provided. The next day they closed off part of the street and were out there taking measurements.

As it turns out, I helped the police exonerate the old woman driving the car. They used my footage and their measurements based on that footage to ascertain this guy’s speed…90mph, in a 30mph zone… So there was no way that the old lady could have seen him…she was turning into a Dillard’s to do some shopping.

It was pretty crazy. I ended up rewatching that recording many times, wondering “Why, kid? Why?”.

Oh, I found the story. Here it is: Green Township rider dead after crash with car on Glenway

Look at that car. He hit that thing really hard.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Edit: This happened during the day, not at night.

[Bullitt]

Brutal accident. The poor lady, I hope she isn’t burdened with guilt from that.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

@Bullitt

Other states have laws expressly forbidding lane splitting, like neighboring Nevada.

And yet I see someone do it at least once every two days here in Las Vegas. I’d say every day, but I’m not on the road every single day.

[Bullitt]

@Snowboarder_Bo

And yet I see someone do it at least once every two days here in Las Vegas. I’d say every day, but I’m not on the road every single day.

I think it should be allowed in all states.

[Bullitt]

Lane splitting, when the flow of traffic is 30 MPH or less, allows motorcyclists to lessen traffic congestion. And many motorcycle engines are air cooled — sitting still on a hot day can lead to overheating the engine.

But isn’t less congestion a good thing for everyone?

[buddha_david]

@Bullitt

Lane splitting, when the flow of traffic is 30 MPH or less, allows motorcyclists to lessen traffic congestion. And many motorcycle engines are air cooled — sitting still on a hot day can lead to overheating the engine.

But isn’t less congestion a good thing for everyone?

Running red lights and stop signs also saves energy. Should we ignore red lights and stop signs as well?

[DrDeth]

@Bullitt

I think it should be allowed in all states.

I agree, if there are madatory helmet laws and/or every biker must sign his organ donor card.

[Bullitt]

@buddha_david

Running red lights and stop signs also saves energy. Should we ignore red lights and stop signs as well?

If you want to sit in more traffic congestion, be my guest. You’ll be in my side view mirror, and I’ll be moving along.

[running_coach]

@DrDeth

I agree, if there are madatory helmet laws and/or every biker must sign his organ donor card.

Agreed if any cager who is at fault has to donate his organs, survivor or not.

[Leaffan]

What is filtering?

I’m pretty sure I know what lane splitting is.

[minor7flat5]

@Leaffan

What is filtering?

I’m pretty sure I know what lane splitting is.

Filtering is what they call lane splitting across the pond.

[gigi]

@Bullitt

Lane splitting, when the flow of traffic is 30 MPH or less, allows motorcyclists to lessen traffic congestion. And many motorcycle engines are air cooled — sitting still on a hot day can lead to overheating the engine.

But isn’t less congestion a good thing for everyone?

I can put up with an extra few small vehicles sitting in traffic to not have to be worried about them coming out of nowhere.

[somepumpkin]

@minor7flat5

Filtering is what they call lane splitting across the pond.

With the specific intention of getting to the front of traffic that is stopped at a signal. Doing this, they’ll be accelerating ahead of the cars and trucks when the light changes to green.