Pretty good article

Hey guys, Im a noob here at this forum and have been whoring around looking at all the information. There is alot of useful information that I wouldve never thought about (me being new to bikes and all). But anyways, I was lurking around another forum and I found this article.



You Can't Get Hurt in a Crash That Never Happens
Written by: Dave Despain
Charlotte, NC – 5/20/2004
"My Take" is a regular feature of "Wind Tunnel. "Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain," airs live at 10pm eastern every Monday - Thursday night.

Today is my birthday, and though I am long past the point when getting older is reason for celebration, I AM pleased to commemorate 40 years of riding street motorcycles without ever crashing one. Don't misunderstand. I've crashed lots of bikes, but never on the street or highway...and I'm very proud of that.

Speaking as a minority member of America's traffic pattern, my ATTITUDE about crashing is the thing that ultimately separates me from all those car people. Lacking the protection of a steel cage, the motorcyclist's first line of defense includes riding skills, awareness of the dangers in traffic, and concentration on the task at hand. To avoid injury, we must avoid crashing.

Unfortunately, accident avoidance is the lost cause of American motoring. The fundamental logic of street motorcycling - you can't get hurt in a crash that never happens - seems totally lost on America's transportation bureaucracy as it annually presides over 43,000 highway fatalities.

How have the bureaucrats failed? Consider two related examples. Driver education in this country is a joke. Public transportation is an even bigger joke. The result? Most Americans need a car to get where they're going. We therefore feel compelled to give everyone a driver's license, even though we have no system to actually teach them how to drive. Should we be surprised that the result is multitudes of inept drivers crashing into each other willy-nilly?

Confronted by this monster of their own making, the safetycrats chose a worthwhile but still fundamentally misguided response. Rather than tackle the difficult issue of accident avoidance, they chose instead to simply force the auto industry to make cars more crash-proof. Thus our multitudes of untrained drivers are belted and bagged into giant vehicles that lull them into a complete sense of security. That leaves them free to focus their attention on their cell phones, visor DVD players, and so forth. The LAST thing these people are thinking about is avoiding a crash.

And that brings us back to where we started...to that fundamental truth which SHOULD be the basis for our entire traffic system but instead seems to apply uniquely to motorcycle people. Remember that truth whether you start your trip by grabbing a steering wheel or a set of handlebars: You can't get hurt in a crash that never happens.

It's true. Cars just plain don't care to see bikes let alone look out for them. Just remember that sometimes it still is unavoidable. I know 2 people (if not more) who were both creamed/broadsided on their bikes by drivers who were paying no attention and came out of alleys and side streets with no warning.

Yes that is a good point, but i do have to say that some of the crashes (not all) are due to people who do not take the msf course. They get out on the road thinking thta they know how to ride a bike better than anyone. They dont think they need to pay attention to their surroundings because thier dad's uncle's sister has never crashed on a bike so why should he. Im not saying all and certainly not the veterans to this site. If you do your part in the war against vehiculor stupidity and take the msf course you will be better off. But not invincible.