Why don't they just accept that motorbikes are deathtraps and campaign against people riding them?

[GoshAnneGorilla]

Instead of spending so much time and money going on at car drivers, wouldn't it be better to discourage people from using motorbikes in the first place?

I was hit by a car whilst stationary at traffic lights, I was hit a car as it just came out of a side road without stopping, I was hit (and hospitalised) at a junction by a car when it was my right of way. Public transport wasn't running for the time I needed to get to work, I wouldn't have been able to park a car at my place of work. I couldn't have cycled the distance to work. Motorbike's aren't death traps, people who don't drive safely are death traps.

I vote we ban idiots from the road.

Sparkling You have to take a CBT (compulsory basic training) So a professional course before you can go on the road. Unlike a car who can get in a car with anyone who has a licence, even if that was 50 years ago when getting a licence was much easier!

If i see a motorbike behind me i automatically assume the rider is going to do something bloody stupid

Is this a real Fred?

Yabvvvvvu my dp was hit seriously at 17 by a woman talking on her phone not paying attention to where she was going. Dp's work mate currently has a lacerated liver and 3 broken veterbrae due to an idiot driver undercutting another driver on motorway and hitting him.

Don't get me wrong there are some twats on motorbikes but there are some absolute twat drivers

There are plenty of perfectly sensible bikers.

If a car driver is likely to hit a motorcyclist through careless driving then surely a pedal cyclist is also in danger- so it is worth educating car drivers unless you intend to ban pushbikes too.

Also dp would be out of a job as would every other motorbike mechanic in the country Honda in slough would probably relocate so basically loads of people should lose their jobs because you don't like motorbikes

If everyone actually followed their code and looked for bikes there wouldnt be so many accidents.

And if every biker followed their code and the laws of the road there wuld be fewer still.

There are dangerous idiots on every mode of transport. However, it seems that car drivers are the only ones with the finger of blame pointed at them.

How about the revolutionary idea instead of just enforcing the rules of the road for all road users? Crazy, I know.

Motorbikes are NOT dangerous in themselves. Stupid car drivers lost in their own little worlds are the ones that are usually the dangers.

The world would be a better place if we just banned stupid people.

Bikers are free to take part in a dangerous activity, otherwise you are going to end up banning all sorts of things that are risky choices. Many accidents are caused by poor driving, and the bikers are the ones that die. Likewise cyclists.

Do you want the entire organ donor scheme to grind to a halt?
I think they should wear OD stickers on their helmets.

I remember starting a thread asking "AIBU to think motor cyclists should follow the same rules of the road as everyone else" after I'd seen a number of them separately speeding along far faster than the cars. I was told that I was unreasonable as "bikers use the road differently" or some such guff.

I worked in neuro ITU for a while and it was horrific to see a steady stream of young men who had come off bikes. In my view all drivers should have to watch a short film (at the theory part of the driving test) of patients and their families talking about recovery from these life changing injuries, together with some simulated footage of these collisions.

When we went to antenatal class there was a shocking film of a simulated car crash showing what happens to an unrestrained child in a collision. I never ever let them go for the shortest journey in the wrong seat.

I lost my dearest friend to a motorbike accident :(

I don't think they can be outlawed as a means of transport though!

Babylon - yes it is real, thanks for the yummy biscuit.

People need to walk from place to place - hence we cannot ban pedestrians.

As for cyclists, I agree that cycling provision is woeful in this country, it's a shame we can't be more like the Netherlands:

Also, saying "Well 'x' is dangerous too doesn't make motorbikes any less dangerous".

Finally, yes, even if you are a good motorbiker, if you get in an accident, you run a far greater risk of injury or death then if you were in a car.

*Also, saying "Well 'x' is dangerous too", doesn't make motorbikes any less dangerous.

Your duty of care on the road is directly related to how much damage you can do with your vehicle imho. So whilst everyone should obey the law, of course, someone driving a HGV has a huge moral obligation not to talk on their phone as well as the legal one, simply due to the catastrophic effects of it.

Likewise car drivers as opposed to pedestrians. I do think everyone has a particular duty to be aware of those road users more vulnerable than themselves.

Despair. Utter despair.

Not wearing a seat belt isn't just a risk to you it can kill other people in the car even if they are wearing theirs.

When I see a motorbike loom up behind me I always think 'oh noooo what are they going to do?'. All that nipping in and out at high speed and racing to the front at the lights.

"Racing to the front at lights" is for their own safety - if you are out in front of a car it is a lot harder to get hit than sitting alongside one. Same for cyclists.

Idiot.

Why can't they wait in the traffic queue behind the car rather than next to it?

'I think there is something sinister about people in motorbike helmets. they are unrecognisable and faceless (for want of a better word)'

I feel that way about sunglasses... bikers only wear the helmet when on the bike (or lazy, or cold, or it's raining and they're just nipping somewhere and can't be bothered to take it off) - think about whether you'd be comfortable saying that about other people who cover their faces?

As to bikes going faster than the traffic - do you mean filtering? Like when the cars are all stopped and bikes can still move, so they do? You know I do know people who've had accidents doing that, and without fail, it's been a car driver changing lanes without looking or signalling.

Did you know that bikers take a different theory test? I don't understand why. If it's important for a biker to know, then it's important for a car driver to know