The case for commuting by motorcycle

Ravant

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,360
Hold it right there. "I had to lay it down" is pure fiction. Rubber has a much higher coefficient of friction than steel or aluminum does. A bike that's on two wheels can stop FAR more quickly than one that's sliding on it's side.

"I had to lay it down" inevitably means "I panicked and screwed up (usually locking the back brake and/or not using the front enough) and don't want it admit it - even to myself".

If you've "laid it down" you have already crashed. And things are probably only going to get worse.
Uh, what? Laying it down means you are going to be separating yourself from your bike, allowing it to take the brunt of the wreck and you're sliding on your gear to safety. You're right about laying-it-down being "already crashed" though. It's a last resort. Times I've seen it done was in reaction to someone blowing a red light though, and not much two tires and a couple of small disc brakes can do for you there. Just let the bike take the hit. It's replaceable, you aren't.
 
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daveIT

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,971
Yeah, I'd love to be able to arrive to meetings a sweaty mess when it's 90 degrees and 89 percent humidity like today and try to carry all my IT bullshit around to different sites when it's raining on a motorcycle.

Also, too many deer here in PA...after my friends from Maine hit one on their Harley a few years back and his wife almost died, I kind of lost interest. I've smacked 3 deer with cars and one with a Jeep and still made it to work or home.
 
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Happy Medium

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The other article the author links to really hammers home why its so important to wear proper gear when on a motorcycle ride. He walked away with some pretty nasty bruises and a hematoma that took like a year to clear up, but that crash could have easily killed him if he wasn't wearing good safety gear.
I would like to point out that while the gear did help prevent more severe injury, regardless of gear he got extremely lucky that the way the accident happened he didn't just get flat out killed or sustain a life threatening injury. You get thrown off your bike and hit some trees, or even worse a stationary object like another vehicle or barrier dead on, and it doesn't matter what you're wearing, impalement or severe internal injuries are happening.
 
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I live in the city and motorcycle-commuted for years; it's a complete no-brainer. In my city, ramp parking for cars is ~$200/mo and daily car rates are $10/day if you want to walk 15min, or $15 to be relatively close. Transit is an option, but rush hour rates are $3.25 each way, and it's the slowest available option (comparable to cycling). The motorcycle is the sweet spot. It's legal to filter at stoplights, so it's by far the fastest, and the downtown ramps that allow motorcycle parking are either $5/day or $60/month.

In summary, motorcycle commuting is the fastest, cheapest, and most fun option available.
 
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gordon942

Ars Centurion
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No thanks! I think people have already covered the danger to the rider, but what about pedestrians? Every single city I’ve ever been to that has a strong commuter motorbike culture, they’re an absolute menace to anyone on foot or on a bicycle. They obey no rules, they run red lights, they drive on sidewalks, bike lanes, pedestrian paths, through pedestrian-only plazas. I was almost run down by one in Athens last year that decided to drive directly through the middle of the outdoor patio of the restaurant I was eating at at 40 MPH.

There are a whole lot of things that are real crappy about cities in the United States. The relative lack of motorbikes is not one of them.
 
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EBone

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Back in the 80s parking was non-existent at San Diego State University. I bought a Yamaha FJ 1100 as a commuter bike for college. I still had a old Mustang beater for rainy days and all my other transportation.

I loved that bike, and the feeling of openness I had when riding it. Riding it in the back country of San Diego County, moving along at 50+ MPH with nothing around you is a truly magical feeling.

But even though I was an extremely safe and cautious rider, there was nothing I could do about the drivers around me. Too many emergency stops because someone turned left in front of me, too many times I had to make an evasive maneuver because a car in an adjacent lane decided they could occupy the same physical space at the same time as me. After the last close call, I pulled over to the shoulder and physically shook for about five minutes because of the near-death experience. I decided right then it was time to sell the bike. Riding wasn't fun for me anymore - it had become a scary experience to be avoided.

And that was in the era before smartphones. I cannot imagine riding a motorcycle now with the amount of distracted driving that takes place.

PS: please don't split lanes if traffic is moving at full speed. That's just a dick move. Splitting lanes should be reserved for stop-and-go traffic.
 
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I used to commute on a motorcycle -- back in the 90s and 2000s. That was in the Midwest and the Northeast, in heavy urban/interstate traffic and on smaller two-lane highways depending on where I lived at the time. Gear wasn't nearly as good as what's available today, but I wore what worked for me at least and got looked upon as being fairly hardcore about riding vs driving a car. You had to be 100% alert all the time on the bike, because drivers were inattentive and did dangerous things, but it was manageable if you rode defensively and it was still fun.

I stopped sometime after 2010 or so -- I'd started looking for a more comfortable bike as I was getting well into middle age -- but then texting and driving accidents and just general inattentive and distracted driving became noticeably more apparent. I just never went back to riding because the risk/reward calculation was coming out on the wrong side.

If I ever go back to riding, it will probably be on a comfortable touring trike or a sidecar motorcycle. Something that has more visual mass and is more likely to trigger the "obstacle, bad" response in the average motorist's monkey brain if they're at least looking at traffic. But I'm probably done with daily riding on a fast bike unless the ADAS in vehicles becomes better at keeping drivers' attention on the road and particularly aware of two-wheeled transportation -- motorcycles/motor scooters and bicycles alike.

Maybe it's better in Europe, but the US is sadly unfriendly to two-wheel transportation.
 
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Fatesrider

Ars Legatus Legionis
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not going to lie, I prefer both a) living and b) living without a critical motorcycle-accident car inflicted disability
Anecdotally, I agree.

Motorcyclists fall into two categories: Those who have gone down, and those who are going to go down.

It's not necessarily the traffic that will do it, either. They're more unstable in inclement weather, and for any collision of any kind, it's relatively easy to be knocked over and create a life-long disability from a minor incident.

My sister always said she was going to ride motorcycles until she died. Well, fortunately, she didn't die in her eighth motorcycle accident in about 15 years. But the doberman she t-boned when it ran out in front of her caused her to dump the bike on her knee and that got shattered and she can't use it for much anymore.

I considered a motorcycle back in the day, but decided the risks were too high. I treated dozens of cases of road rash when I worked the ER (if you've gone down without leathers, you know where of I speak), and knew the risks up close and personally. In various cars, I've been in half a dozen minor fender benders, none of them my fault, because people don't pay attention. Any one of them on a motorcycle could well have been fatal (most of them were due to ice on the road and drivers without any sense of how to actually stop on it). One of them in SoCal was a motorcycle whose rider seemed compelled to inspect my exhaust system in slow moving traffic. With that kind of Carma, I figured it was safer to have metal all around me than the open road.

So, while I get the thrust of the article, it's something people need to very carefully consider, and train for, before they go all in on that.
 
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spopepro

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
166
Many of the folks here are conflating a couple things and talking past each other. Yes, there are specific things you can do to reduce the risk of riding a motorcycle, specifically reducing the probability of getting in a collision. But there are few things that can adequately reduce the consequences of a collision. Armor and airbags can only go so far…
 
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sporkinum

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,213
I've been toying with the idea of grabbing an electric scooter or bike that can safely get me and a couple bags of groceries or whatever 20ish miles at a decent clip. The biggest problem for us is that there are very few roads where I could do this safely. There are a few places I can get to through back roads but otherwise I'm out of luck, which really impacts the utility of this mode of transportation for me. Our main connecting road is a 3-4 lane state highway and there's no way I'm getting on that. They've been planning a shared use path but I'd be surprised if it was ever built out substantially (current estimates have it completed in 2029).
It has to be able to work for you. I am fortunate that I live in a small town (20k) and live a mile from work. At my previous job, a motorcycle would have worked great as I was around 18 Miles from work then. Paved bike trails are the best if you have access to them.
 
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AceRimmer

Ars Scholae Palatinae
967
Cars are just terrible. I want to ride my bike more but I know that it would just be a matter of time until car driven by a person not paying attention took me out. And of course America can't build cities so riding a bike is safer. My town has "bike lanes" that are just the right vehicle lane with a bicycle painted on the ground periodically.
 
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Jimmy_James

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
186
The reason I quit riding:
People texting and driving. Speed, DUI, all of it pales in comparison to the sheer number of phone-addicts who can't put it down long enough to pilot their multi-ton road-bound missile. What made me hang up my gear for good and sell the bike was when I nearly had to lay it over on I40 in Raleigh because someone texting and driving nearly rear-ended me. I quickly got on the gas and lane-split a bit to avoid becoming a decapitated sandwich between the F150 and the lifted RAM. How I didn't get hit with shrapnel/debris from the ~45mph differential impact between the trucks, I'll never know. But it was the closest call I've ever had.

In short, if you text and drive, you're worse than someone who drinks and drives, IMO.

Completely agree. I've been rear-ended twice in cars while waiting to make a turn by people who never tapped their brakes. Both times my car was totaled, and I wasn't even moving. I probably would have been dead on a motorcycle in both instances. Motorcycles are very cool, and maybe one day, when the cars and trucks drive themselves, I'll own one. But for now, I just don't trust the other drivers.
 
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Varste

Ars Praetorian
534
Subscriptor
I love the Ars community but man, motorcycles really bring out the Safety Brigade. I think they rival AI articles for the number of people espousing how they would never do it. Yes, we are all aware there is danger. Please refer to the article where the author mentions it, and that people are not overinflating the risk. I've been riding for 20 years, and I've seen a lot of shit so I understand. Riding is NOT for everyone, that's for sure. But I agree we'd be better off with more bikes on the road.
Also, those are two wild and random choices for a motorcycle. I would never recommend a new bike for a new rider, mostly due to cost. And while Ducati has come a long, long way, it's still a higher-maintenance item than an MT-07 or similar Japanese bike.
 
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wildsman

Ars Tribunus Militum
1,518
I'm really sorry but this article is super irresponsible - the only case for commuting by motorcycle comes in the shape of a coffin.

There are far better ways to address the issue of your commute than riding a motorcycle. If you're riding a motorcyle, you're doing it because you enjoy living on the edge not because it is a practical, smart decision - newsflash: it isn't.
 
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whoamiagain

Smack-Fu Master, in training
7
Pretty sure everyone around you couldn't care less about you one way or the other. - you can make them aware, and you can ride accordingly. a combination of proactive, lane placement, passive, good lighting and hi-viz etc.. A lot about those skills out there. Becomes second nature.
That's not really the point. You ride "as if" everyone is trying to kill you. That means having a mental plan for what you are going to do when that truck swerves left into your lane, that car slams on it's brakes, that car brakes and the van behind you doesn't notice and keeps going at speed, etc.
You can't count on anyone seeing you or doing anything other than the thing that is most likely to kill you, and you are ready for it to happen... all the time. if you rely on others to notice you, obey the law, or be even okay drivers, you will get hurt.
 
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Hold it right there. "I had to lay it down" is pure fiction. Rubber has a much higher coefficient of friction than steel or aluminum does. A bike that's on two wheels can stop FAR more quickly than one that's sliding on it's side.

"I had to lay it down" inevitably means "I panicked and screwed up (usually locking the back brake and/or not using the front enough) and don't want it admit it - even to myself".

If you've "laid it down" you have already crashed. And things are probably only going to get worse.
By that statement I take it you don't ride?
 
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littlestviking

Smack-Fu Master, in training
74
Subscriptor++
I see some cars do these things, but i see every biker doing them every time i see them.
I'd wager that's mostly because the bikers who are following traffic laws don't register as something worth making mental note of.
At least, I'm hoping that's what it is. As a motorcyclist myself, it'd scare me quite a bit if you're actually blind to the majority of motorcycles on the road with you.
 
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NewCrow

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,007
Disclaimer: I teach people how to ride motorcycles and am a certified third party tester for motorcycle endorsements. I happen to like riding... a LOT. Although I live in a northern state, I still manage to typically get more than 10k miles/year on the bike.

I suggest that if you're bike curious, you take a motorcycle class. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation has a fairly well regarded curriculum used by several states as part of safety training. These beginner classes are designed specifically to take someone who's never been on a motorcycle before through learning to ride and ultimately passing the DMV test to get a motorcycle endorsement. Even if you don't end up riding, there's things that are taught in these classes (at least in the ones in my state) that also apply to driving cars. Things like looking where you're trying to go translate to just about every motor vehicle.

Additionally, a key to riding safely is to train to ride safely. Riding, like driving, is a perishable skill. If you don't do it a lot, it's easy for those skills to atrophy. Even if you do it a lot, it's easy to pick up bad habits. Although I am a trainer, I still take training as a student so other instructors can spot my bad habits before they take root.

As others mention above, it's not an activity without risk. You have to be present on the bike, not letting your mind wander, fuming about that crappy day at work, or whatever. For me it's helmet therapy and probably the only time I am completely "in the present" because there simply isn't bandwidth for anything else. That's kinda enjoyable.

I'm surprised this comment section is so extremely negative towards motorbikes. Yes, there are higher risks connected with being relatively unprotected near other traffic - But getting on a motorbike is not a guaranteed gruesome injury either.

I agree with the article that full protective gear shall be worn every time, but it left out back protectors.

I don't ride my bike nearly as much as I used to, and I have commuted quite a bit. Just assume everyone around you is an inattentive idiot and it is usually fine (but to be fair, I assume the same when I drive my car too).
 
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smuckle0

Smack-Fu Master, in training
2
For motorcyclists, it's also famous because you get the ability to legally split lanes (i.e., ride between cars on the lane-dividing lines) and filter (i.e., ride between vehicles at a stoplight to get to the front)
As someone who used to commute in traffic on a bicycle in the pre-WFH days, both these practices sound absolutely terrifying! You'd want to have an awful lot of faith in your fellow road users; I do not.
As someone living in San Diego and having lane-splitting motorcycles whizz past me both while stopped and moving at full freeway speeds, I do find them terrifying. And then some of them look back at you angrily for not moving over, as if I had any chance to even recognize they were coming up behind me.

It astounds me that the practice is legal in California, regardless of how bad traffic is.
 
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GKH

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,138
As someone who used to commute in traffic on a bicycle in the pre-WFH days, both these practices sound absolutely terrifying! You'd want to have an awful lot of faith in your fellow road users; I do not.

And another anecdote, my dad ended up under a car after someone rear-ended him while stopped in traffic on his motorcycle on the way to work one morning. The leather gear and rider awareness courses did not have any effect on the driver who ran into him. Doctor said he was lucky to live, and he never replaced the bike.
Far and away the biggest mistake even veteran riders make is in riding a motorcycle like they drive a car. If you need any faith at all in your fellow road users you're riding wrong.

Never believe a turn signal until you see the wheels turn. If a car is slowing down, assume it didn't see you and is planning to turn in front of you. Never pace a car in another lane. As you're passing a car, assume it's about to move into your lane and position yourself accordingly - and when it does move into you, just glide over to the side and move on with life. Position yourself at stoplights and stop signs at the edge of the lane - or even better, filter between the cars if your local laws allow it. Etc, Etc.

Above all, discard your ego and don't be surprised, angry, or otherwise shaken when a car doesn't see you or does something dumb. Just always have a plan and deal with it. You're not a co-equal member of traffic when you're on a bike, you're a fragile nearly invisible minnow in a sea of distracted half-blind whales. If you try to act like you're a whale too, you're going to have a bad time.

If you can't handle any of that, don't ride. Not saying that in a gate-keepery way, just a reality way. Plenty of times I've self-assessed, realized I was too tired/stressed/distracted to ride safely, and took the car instead - even though I knew that'd mean dealing with all of the traffic and parking frustrations that go with a cage.
 
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I have been riding since I was 5, starting on a Honda Z50. I have gone down many times in the dirt but not yet on the street after 50 years, but riding hard in the dirt has taught me a lot about bike control. That said, my 15ish mile commute is all 2 lane highway with little traffic. I might see a couple dozen cars during the ride and I actually fear deer more than other drivers. Once I get to town I have 2 blocks of 25mph city roads to navigate. The bike averages around 57mpg so it doesn't cost much to ride, other than insurance costs. I also ride for pleasure so I have the bikes anyway.

I think many are misreading the author. He says it is dangerous, but not as dangerous as many think it is. Of all my friends and family that ride (and there are lots), only one has had a fatal accident and they were drunk and decided to not wear a helmet. The helmet would have saved their life. None of the rest have had an accident on the road. Dirt, yes. We all grew up on dirt bikes. Separated shoulders, knee injuries, broken bones. Like any other type of racing, eventually you crash. Equipment helps. A LOT. Stupidity hurts. A LOT!
 
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islane

Ars Scholae Palatinae
901
Subscriptor
I've always liked the idea of a motorcycle to frugally commute but been equally put off and scared to get onto one in practice. I could even see myself getting up the nerve to try out an electric bike... maybe in some idealized, suburban, low-stress-driving -setting and without highway speeds.

The two big mental blockers to considering a bike are the terror of a crash at highway speeds and, weirdly, the thought of that manual clutch/transmission setup (I'll explain in a moment...). As for the fear of a crash, all it takes is knowing (or having known...) one person who was in a bad crash to sour the whole concept of motorcycles. I thought going at top speed on a quick e-bike was scary near cars... literally makes me shudder to think of doing the same thing while traveling 3 times faster!?

Going back to my irrational-ish fear of the bike's clutch. I suspect I am in the smallest of minorities: a huge gearhead who completely despises modern manual transmissions. It's not that I hate shifting, but that I have absolutely zero coordination between hand and foot... no exaggeration. I can slop my way around on forgiving 3 and 4 speed relics - old trucks and muscle cars where clutch position is a vague suggestion - I can even have fun while doing so. That said, I simply cannot pilot a modern 5 or 6 that requires finesse and coordination to keep the vehicle from stalling. I say this having given modern MTs multiple attempts, even owning and daily-driving a 6-speed for months. The clutch coordination simply never manifests for me. With that context: the notion of being on a traditional motorcycle, at speed, is so much more terrifying. Stalling a car out is frustrating but rarely life-or-death. Screwing up a shift and stalling a bike in traffic seems like it could quickly turn to disaster.
 
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trailerpark1976

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
118
Subscriptor++
I starting learning to ride during covid. Got me a good beginner to intermediate motorcycle (Yamaha XSR700). I loved commuting to work. One problem I found was with gear sizing, it all seemed to run small (looking at you Alpine stars) unless it was Harley type leather chaps and jackets. The cost was an issue too. Safety isn't cheap. Despite all this and some close calls on the road I love the feel of riding. The acceleration and when you finally figure out leaning and downshifting in a corner, it's amazing.
 
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Granadico

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,163
As someone smart/dumb enough to commute by bike/ebike in LA (well Long Beach, which is significantly safer and has better infrastructure), I wouldn't want to commute by motorcycle. I think there's a large case for advocating for biking/ebike commuting, and by extension moped/scooter that go maybe 30ish max speed, but motorcycles have always seemed more dangerous than necessary. Top speed doesn't really matter so much in a city when traffic signals affect your travel time more than anything, and for long distances it'd be a lot more comfortable to ride in a train or car. I'm sure motorcycles are always a niche that will exist, but I think there's much better and cheaper alternatives for people who just want to get to their destination fast/cheap/safe.
 
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pavon

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,314
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Vast indeed:

View attachment 115753
While lethality of wiping out from a bike is lower vs a pedestrian being hit by a vehicle, the same power law applies, meaning the graph of serious injury and death will look very similar.

Edit: Source https://www.paho.org/sites/default/files/2018-SpeedRoadCrashes_ENGLISH_FINAL.pdf

There’s even better research out there but unsurprisingly all the graphs are in km/h and I didn’t want to open that can of 🪱
That is true, but only applicable in a minority of accidents. In the vast majority of cases, what matters is the momentum of the car hitting you, which will be the same regardless of whether you are a 5mph pedestrian, 15mph bike, or 40mph motorcycle.
 
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alecTwhite

Smack-Fu Master, in training
60
I also wanna throw in I have extensive experience riding in both the US and the EU. The EU is exponentially safer I think for 3 reasons. Roundabouts, no right turns on red, and decades of scooter culture training car drivers to be more aware. So if you're in the EU go for it.
 
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markgo

Ars Praefectus
3,779
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That is true, but only applicable in a minority of accidents. In the vast majority of cases, what matters is the momentum of the car hitting you, which will be the same regardless of whether you are a 5mph pedestrian, 15mph bike, or 40mph motorcycle.
I was using it to illustrate the impact of hitting the pavement at various speeds, not talking about being hit by car.
 
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NOT_RICK

Ars Centurion
318
Subscriptor
Literally got back up: got the plate number of the semi, got back on the bike, cursed the truckdriver (who never stopped) and resumed his ride.

You have me thinking of one of my favorite helmet cam videos I ever saw on the public freakout subreddit. Some idiot driver overtook a motorcyclist in incredibly reckless and selfish fashion. Motorcycle gets out of the way, ends up catching to the car at a red light. The rider was justifiably furious, asked him what the fuck he was doing driving that recklessly and got an answer that was more or less "you were in my way". Motorcyclist proceeds to pop the driver in the mouth and rides off. Some people haven't been punched in the mouth before and it really shows.
 
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America has a motorcycle problem
It does indeed, and it's called "SUV".

I absolutely love riding, I think motorcycles are the next best thing after Nutella (less deadly than Nutella too), I have been a delivery motorcyclist in Europe in my college years, and I will adamantly persist that riding a motorcycle in any major US metropolis is pure suicide, unless you're in a pack of several, preferably loud ones, and stay in said pack.

The average US driver does not acknowledge a motorcyclist as someone they share the road with. And the average US driver that lets their (recent) car in dynamic cruise control in dense congested traffic doesn't know that their nice little radar will acknowledge the car in front and come to a stop while crawling in traffic, but might completely miss a motorcyclist riding in front of them.

As far as I would - very reluctantly - take my chances flying over a Golf or Clio in a head-on collision (or if they slam into me from the rear at a red light while I'm stopped) - I wont take any with an Escalade or some other 6000lb block on wheels with a texting kid in the driver's seat, or even a Rav4 taxi cab in Manhattan with someone at the end of their 20 hour shift

Maybe, just maybe, I'd take the risk to commute from Suburbia to OfficeLandia via highway, but that's about it. LA, New York City or the five boroughs - thanks but no thanks.

There is an issue with personal transportation in urban US, it is true, but untangling it by killing all the idealistic motorcyclists first is not the way.
 
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As someone living in San Diego and having lane-splitting motorcycles whizz past me both while stopped and moving at full freeway speeds, I do find them terrifying. And then some of them look back at you angrily for not moving over, as if I had any chance to even recognize they were coming up behind me.

It astounds me that the practice is legal in California, regardless of how bad traffic is.
Legal, but there are rules to uphold:

2022 Revisions Focus on Safe Speed Differentials​

In revised 2022 guidelines, the California Highway Patrol updated speed limits again with a continued focus on prudent speed differentials versus surrounding traffic. The maximum speed threshold remains 50 mph for lane splitting. However, the differential dropped to 10 mph when traffic flows above 30 mph, and 5 mph when traffic is moving at 30 mph or less.
 
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I've always liked the idea of a motorcycle to frugally commute but been equally put off and scared to get onto one in practice. I could even see myself getting up the nerve to try out an electric bike... maybe in some idealized, suburban, low-stress-driving -setting and without highway speeds.

The two big mental blockers to considering a bike are the terror of a crash at highway speeds and, weirdly, the thought of that manual clutch/transmission setup (I'll explain in a moment...). As for the fear of a crash, all it takes is knowing (or having known...) one person who was in a bad crash to sour the whole concept of motorcycles. I thought going at top speed on a quick e-bike was scary near cars... literally makes me shudder to think of doing the same thing while traveling 3 times faster!?

Going back to my irrational-ish fear of the bike's clutch. I suspect I am in the smallest of minorities: a huge gearhead who completely despises modern manual transmissions. It's not that I hate shifting, but that I have absolutely zero coordination between hand and foot... no exaggeration. I can slop my way around on forgiving 3 and 4 speed relics - old trucks and muscle cars where clutch position is a vague suggestion - I can even have fun while doing so. That said, I simply cannot pilot a modern 5 or 6 that requires finesse and coordination to keep the vehicle from stalling. I say this having given modern MTs multiple attempts, even owning and daily-driving a 6-speed for months. The clutch coordination simply never manifests for me. With that context: the notion of being on a traditional motorcycle, at speed, is so much more terrifying. Stalling a car out is frustrating but rarely life-or-death. Screwing up a shift and stalling a bike in traffic seems like it could quickly turn to disaster.
You have lots of choices for an automatic or DCT these days.
 
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To be honest, seeing this article felt... distasteful. The author acknowledges the risks, but only does so four title headings down, and brackets it with how cool motorcycles are. This feels like the equivalent of an article talking about how cool smoking is.

Perhaps I am biased. A close friend of mine lost his brother due to a motorcycle accident. His brother left behind a six year old daughter, and a newly pregnant wife. Every time I see a motorcycle, I think about them.
 
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qibhom

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
138
Subscriptor
For 10 years, I only had my Harley. Rode in Baltimore, in DC, soloed across the continent and back. Rode in the winter, in the rain, when it was hotter than Lucy Lawless. I assume that 50% of car drivers don't see me, and that 50% of the drivers that do want to run me off the road.

Every accident I've had was my own fault. No injuries besides a trivial amount of road rash once.

I still ride (I'm 60). But, in NoVA, all of the tech bros in Teslas using self-driving mode (which doesn't see pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcycles) are making it harder and harder.

The problem isn't motorcycles, it is huge cars, poorly designed roads and high speed limits. If there were public transit here that didn't take longer than walking somewhere (not that there are sidewalks), I'd cheerfully depend on that.

US road design and laws are aimed only at big cars. Anyone else can just die.
 
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