Study: Scooters are 3.5X Safer Than Motorcycles

[maydaverave]

There are young males on sport bikes that are popping wheelies, and riding very aggressively. Those type of guys typically would never be seen on a scooter. I think the major effect is just the riders.

I live in a tourist town with scooter rentals. I have seen some idiot riders, I saw a tourist on a scooter talking on his cellphone. Worked fine until he hit the brakes :lol:

I'm an idiot bike rider. I use a cell phone often while riding, just like all the idiot car drivers around me. Only when Justin invents the self-driving bike will I be saved from my idiocy. MC drivers will never accept salvation as driving into hell is their willful preoccupation.

The problem is if you ever have to use your brakes all your weight will push on one side of the bars causing you to wreck.

 

[MrDude_1]

well.. im up to something like 400,000 miles of luck on my death machines.
Maybe I should start playing the lottery instead?

 

[1JohnFoster]

The problem is if you ever have to use your brakes all your weight will push on one side of the bars causing you to wreck.

Lol, I normally don't ride "firmly grasping" either left nor the right handle bar. Through intersections when other vehicles are present I pop the phone in my mouth, then grab the bars.

Real safe driving is achieved by avoiding situations which involve braking. In a bicycle, like a motorcycle, you do this by "taking the lane", and riding just to the left of the grease strip. Riding fearfully on the "extreme right side of the road", with a nervous sweaty death grip on the bars, fearing the unseen cars passing from will get you hit. From car doors and left turning cars who don't see you hiding way over there. Regardless of who is using a cell phone.

Give your self some space (ahead & to the sides), project confidence, and be safe.

 

[MrDude_1]

The problem is if you ever have to use your brakes all your weight will push on one side of the bars causing you to wreck.

wrong.
the problem is... if you're holding on by the handlebars, you're doing it wrong. If your letting your weight press on the bars, even during braking, you're doing it wrong.

This is where the skill aspect of this comes in. Your lower body holds you to the bike. Not your arms.

 

[Punx0r]

How can you effectively make a phone call with the wind noise at >20mph?

 

[MrDude_1]

How can you effectively make a phone call with the wind noise at >20mph?

I dont know about them, but noise cancelling bluetooth inside my helmet works just fine.

 

[parabellum]

Yup, you can call at 200mph with cardo BT headset and good full face helmet.

 

[Punx0r]

Oh, yeah, headset inside helmet is no mystery, but it sounded like the chap was using the phone held to ear (presumably wearing no helmet), hence needing to hold it in his mouth at intersections. I imagine the conversation gets a bit muffled at those points

 

[MrDude_1]

Oh, yeah, headset inside helmet is no mystery, but it sounded like the chap was using the phone held to ear (presumably wearing no helmet), hence needing to hold it in his mouth at intersections. I imagine the conversation gets a bit muffled at those points

years ago, before texting and driving was the devil, I used to text on my motorcycle in traffic.
lol. stopped of course. There is this intersection of two interstates where traffic is stopped and creeps along dowhill. whenever I was trapped there, I would shut the bike off, and I could coast faster than traffic moved.. so I texted while sitting there. every once in awhile stopping to pull the clutch in and roll 5 ft forward.
sucks when lane splitting/filtering is not legal. There is no reason for it to be illegal.

 

[ecycler]

AGREED. It is safer and better fro EVERYONE involved. I really enjoy the practice in CA and Europe and on my Motherfn bike!

[youtube]JNGD9AAIfFU[/youtube]

 

[1JohnFoster]

AGREED. It is safer and better fro EVERYONE involved. I really enjoy the practice in CA and Europe and on my Motherfn bike!

Hey, if you enjoy it, it MUST be safe! The SCIENCE doesn't get any BETTER than this. :wink:

I enjoy riding bicycles and motorbikes past cars. Partly because I'm so old I grew up when we thought we could save the planet, and that's still going on in my head. And partly because a little danger is a thrill. And partly because it's fun to give chagrin to people who choose the dumbest possible way to flaunt their wealth.

Like the young action figures in your video, I've learned a few tricks to not getting hit. A study done a long time ago (TLTG) found that people who ride 1,000 of miles a year on bicycles were less likely to have an accident _per_year_ than people who ride around the block once a year. Kind of rings true for motorbikes too (TLTG). I advocate that everyone ride ebikes. But that would look like Bejing & Shanghai in the 90's; every dullwit who presently loafs along hogging our lanes on an SUV would be on a bike or scooter instead. fun for young men? :? Not. Safer? I'd guess(TLTG) yes, because everyone is slowed down to a crawl so the only accidents possible are fender benders - kinda like the clips of your LA MC superheros.

 

[ecycler]

Picking up on the sarcastic tone. What makes them 'superheros' in your eyes - the fact that they have top of the line safety gear which the Harley pirate crowd loves to refer to as power ranger suits?

 

[1JohnFoster]

Picking up on the sarcastic tone. What makes them 'superheros' in your eyes - the fact that they have top of the line safety gear which the Harley pirate crowd loves to refer to as power ranger suits?

No negativity intended, just a sort of admiring humour. They are "superheroes" in my eyes for a lot of reasons. #1 I'm really too chicken-shit to ride like that (pedal bike yes, but on MC not above 20kph). #2 they're big, good looking fit guys, #3, yes you're right; gorgeously designed form fitting sportbike gear does look Marvel-ous to junky old me, #4 they radiate the confidence that comes with testosterone levels which I left behind years ago, if ever had.

 

[AF7JA]

This one is worth watching through to the end, I promise.
[youtube]CjgT8Af1kGc[/youtube]

I had a couple of different e-scooters in my years living in China. I found them to be a great way to get around. As far as lane splitting, I, of course, did it in China and when I had a motorcycle here in the States. When I had the motorcycle in the States I lived in California, where it is legal.

Like the people in the interview video, I found it much safer than trying to squeeze into regular auto traffic with people who were not looking for motorcycles in regular lane positions.

 

[1JohnFoster]

Like the people in the interview video, I found it much safer than trying to squeeze into regular auto traffic with people who were not looking for motorcycles in regular lane positions.

I've heard that everybody tailgates in Cali. If you ride in line with car traffic you feel in constant danger of getting rear ended? And feel safer between car lanes where you can escape the front-rear sandwich?

Guess we're spoiled up here, people almost never tailgated me on my MC. If they ever did I simply rode erratically until the backed (way) off.

 

[LockH]

Guess we're spoiled up here, people almost never tailgated me on my MC. If they ever did I simply rode erratically until the backed (way) off.

Hehe... Not bike-related, buy re tailgaters? Towing a sailboat on trailer behind a car, used to hang a LOOONG "flag" behind as the drogue tail from a Peter Powell "Sky Stunter" kite:

Hung from the back end of the aluminum mast on the boat.

Used to keep wannabe tailgaters WAAAY back.

Today, riding a recumbent trike on Terraferma, tall whip antenna hangs two long yellow plastic "DANGER" barricade tapes that trail/flap behind.

And today, in these changing urban environments, "motorcycle" speeds are getting pretty rare? And re Bettery-electric vehicles, in terms of energy consumed, per inertia of motion any light weight/mass is "better" than any heavier weight.

So my vote? For the "scooter" class of EV, although for either style of bike the aerodynamics are pretty horrible. (See "recumbent" above.) Next step... maybe is to box the vehicle a la "velomobile" style.