* Rishab Aiyer Ghosh [Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 03:14:19PM +0200]:
> not the engines perhaps, but the speed, certainly. the average speed on a
> european highway is well over 100 kmph, sustainable for 100s of km at a
> time. traffic speed in india is a fraction of that, and the risk of serious
> injury thus much lower.
I think more injuries happen because of the motorcyclist him/her-self,
rather than due to external conditions. Most ones that I know of
personally were because the rider took a curve too fast, or failed to
observe basic safety rules as is expected of a rider rather than
because of an external factor. Of course, my sample space is limited,
so my results could be heavily skewed ;/
> drivers are certainly "aware" of motorcycles in europe or the US; it's just
> much harder to avoid running over a fallen bik(er) at 100 kmph than it is
> at 50kmph. and falling when you're at 100kmph is also much worse!
As someone who has ridden motorcycles in US/Canada, I beg to
disagree. I find idiot (car) drivers merging into other motorcylists
all the time. I'd say both people are to blame -- the motorcyclist and
the car driver, because I find that when I'm riding, almost nobody
merges into me. And I'm not even going out of my way to wear
reflective gear or appear more prominent or anything ... I'm just
careful to stay out of the blind spots of other people, and I try and
remain predictable on the highways (i.e. no wheelies, sudden bursts of
acceleration, etc.) ... but yeah, I guess my point is that in general,
I find that "driver awareness" is lesser states-side than elsewhere.
And I am yet to have an accident *touchwood* on any motorcycle in
india, *or* usa save for me dropping a super-heavy motorcycle twice in
california simply out of lack of skills back when I was a
beginner. For those of you who have ridden/driven with me (thaths?
jace? cheeni?) you should know exactly how safe I am on the roads ;)
--ravi.
