Dedicated Motorcycle Lanes

Well, our brethren in Asia got this one right. Dedicated motorcycle lanes along busy highways.

Suret was responding to Works Minister Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu's announcement two days ago that a proposal would be submitted to the Cabinet for more motorcycle lanes along federal and state roads.

Last year, there were 3,600 deaths in 200,000 accidents involving motorcyclists. This represented 60 per cent of the total number of deaths and accidents.

Suret said there were about six million motorcycles in Malaysia, with deaths being higher among those riding smaller two-wheelers.

Granted, you shouldn't let this misuse of statistics fool you. Anyone in Malaysia who can see knows that the "small motorcycles" makes up 99.9% of motorized two-wheelers, but let's not quibble when the politicos actually have a good idea for once.

Distractions

Edit: Ugh. I found out earlier this evening that some years ago he was one of the brothers from our group too. This sucks.

Here's a good lesson. Driving too fast for conditions in visually-busy areas is dumb. Mind you, that "too fast for conditions" might be well under the speed limit is traffic is on really nasty busy urban streets.

A Snohomish County man apparently collided with a large concrete pot alongside a Snohomish county road recently.

MILL CREEK, Wash. The State Patrol says a motorcycle rider wasn't impaired or speeding when he lost control on the Bothell-Everett Highway and crashed into a planter.

Now, I won't get into the stupidity of the "beautification" dollars being spent on Washington highways. I firmly believed that busy urban roadways should be a bland as possible to eliminate distractions from the task at hand.

Keep your eyes peeled folks.

A Visit with Officer Unfriendly

Apparently, I must have done something to irritate Officer Unfriendly of the King County Sheriff's Department. They must be doing some sort of "Safety Emphasis" routine, as they obviously rolled a rather grumpy Mr. Bomb Squad Sergeant out of his nice cushy office and put him in an SUV.

Hey, I can understand getting pulled over if I'm flying down the roadway. But getting pulled for riding 66 in a 60 in moderately easy traffic in good weather is a little ridiculous.

Pretty major attitude the cop had too. I got a 3 minute tirade about "setting a good example for other drivers" and "what kind of justification I had for going so fast". As if everybody else on that road wouldn't have been doing 75-80mph if he hadn't been sitting there in the carpool lane holding up traffic.

Of course, when he built up to a crescendo and then asked me how long I'd been riding, it was really nice to be able to tell him that I'd been riding 5 years and I'm averaging 28,000/year right now. Pretty much stopped the whole inexperienced/irresponsible rider lecture cold. He obviously doesn't get out of his desk job much, because I'm recognized by most of the local deputies who do traffic duty. And they usually wave back when I wave to them.

Of course, what really irritated me (and I told him so) was the way he not only cut me off, but tailgated me and performed an unsafe lane-change while pulling me over. All of this is something an experienced motorcyclist can deal with, but pulling me over right next to a tractor-trailer and in the middle of an on-ramp merge zone is a bit much. Indeed, he nearly hit a small sedan next to me, and came into my lane less then 3 feet behind my rear tire. If that semi had merged or I'd had to hit the brakes, I'd be getting my interview with St. Peter at the Pearly Gates right about now because that 3000lb patrol SUV had absolutely zero stopping distance to work with.

Tales of the Odd

Some days, if you keeps your eyes peeled, you can see some really neat vehicles.

I frequently get to see Honda NSXs, boatloads of Beemers & Mercedes, and several times per week I roll past various kids of foreign exotica. Then there's the wierd shit.

I'm coming home from church. It's wet, it's chilly. It's October in Seattle.

And then it drives by. It's red. It's shiny. It has some drywall or plumbing contractor ads painted on the side. It's jacked-up. It's Big. I mean really BIG. And then it hits me.

It's a late 80s Dodge-fucking-Caravan with a 30" lift kit running off-road tires.

You know what I'm talking about. Those huge trucks that you can drive behind and see the next vehicle in line below their axles. The running boards somewhere beween waist and chest-high. You can usually comb your hair in your reflection of the rear differential. Yes, one of those: on a Dodge Caravan.

Road Hazard of the Day -- October 16, 2006

Riding a motorcycle in urban commuter is an exercise in expecting the unexpected. You expect to certain things to occur at any given moment, it's a fact of a rider's life. SOME things are just way out there though.

I'm heading home. Traffic is super-light because the non-commuter lanes were all stuck because of a stalled car, so the only vehicles on the road were the carpools. And I come across a back-up. Nothing unusual, really.

Until I get there and see for my own eyes. First I see wood. Then some floral fabric. Then more wood. And then scattered across the road are big sections of foam rubber 2-3 feet wide! Somebody dropped a couch off the back of their truck!

Did they stop to clean up their mess? Ha, of course not.

Equal Time

I'm sure most anyone who has ever read my site has seen my frequent ranting about the Seattle drivers.With the latest influx of motorcycle riders onto the area roads, many of those same ijits are now on a bike instead of behind the wheel.

This morning on the way in, I was scooting along setting up for the lane change into the exit that I needed. I was maintaining plenty of following distance as I wasn't at all interested in staying in the lane I was in. Glad I did, really, as a guy on a full dresser Harley was in the middle lane track and was tailgating a small pickup truck. Needless to say, the pick'em'up stood on his brakes as his lane came to an abrupt halt, forcing the Harley to make an otherwise un-necessary panic stop.

I have a rather vivid recollection of watching the rear of that big cruiser fish-tail on the cool morning pavement. I though for sure that he was going to lose either the front or rear end of that thing and get wedged up under the back end of the truck.

Thankfully he didn't. He didn't manage to learn anything from his near-miss however, as he pulled another half-dozen similar stunts in the next 10 miles. Such as throwing his 750lb (330kg) rolling barco-lounger across a debris-strewn median and 3 lanes of traffic to merge into the carpool lane.

I truly hope he is okay. But honestly, if he's going to ride like that in morning traffic, he needs to go buy a motorcycle that he can actually stop worth a damn.