I didn't look at the video. I can imagine what is in it. I witnessed a motorcyclist get hit by a car at an intersection in downtown DC some years ago. He flew over the car and landed in the middle of the street. I stayed with him until the ambulance came and gave a statement to police. I was shocked to find out later that he only sustained a broken collarbone. He was one lucky dude.

My other bad memory comes from witnessing a poor old man get hit by a car at a highway intersection in VA. He got off a bus and was in the crosswalk but walking against the green. Just shuffling along across three lanes. He almost made it before a car hit him in the last lane, probably going about 40. He wasn't killed, but it was serious. I was sitting in my car watching him and praying he would make it. The man who hit him was Vietnamese and didn't speak much English. I stayed and spoke French to him. He was really shaken up.

 

Once upon a time, I taught a motor cycle safety course in conjunction with the Arlington County, VA Police. That is where a seasoned motorcycle cop gave the best advice about defensive driving (especially on a motorcycle) that I have ever heard. "Just pretend you are the Invisible Man riding on an invisible motorcycle. If you ride with this in mind, you can stay out of trouble and expect the unexpected". That advice has served me well over the years. On both two wheels and four.

 

I've remembered those words since I heard them from you back at Spring Fling in Berkeley Springs, Matt. Many of those collisions wouldn't have happened if the drivers that were hit followed this rule (not so for the drivers zipping through the red lights - they are a lost cause..)

JonasM

 

I always assumed that when I through a leg over a motorcycle, everyone was then out there trying to kill me.

on the flip side, i pretyy much always avoided driving a cycle in the city.
to many idiots to keep track off.

heck, when I was working in Lowell I hated driving my car becuase so many recent immigrants who never learned to drive were running around.

 

Your comment did not fall on deaf ears (AKA eyes here). That is a very real problem in "Western" countries. The last time that I was in Germany was in 2002. According to a local that is the reason that only about 15% of the Autobahn still has unrestricted speed on it. Because of the influx of immigrants that are new to driving.

The other case in point is in China. Where unlike the majority of the population of the U.S. that grew up in cars with their parents driving where one pretty much knew how to drive by the time that one was of age to get one's license. In China, they are adding 28,000 new vehicles to the roads every month with a population that grew up riding bicycles and are driving for the first times in there lives as adults at "vintage age" or above. The accident rate is so high that insurance companies have mobile adjusters that visit the accident scene and when the police assign blame for who was at fault of the accident they pay a claim on the spot.

If I were the "King of the World" driving would not be right, but something that is earned as it is in Finland where it takes up to three years to earn a drivers license.

I have been a long time fan of the concept of a graduated drivers license system in which one would have to demonstrate one's driving skills to obtain the right to drive a high performance car. Back in the early 70's Doug Toms was the head of DOT and had the concept of a "Master's Driver's License" that would allow the holders to drive faster than the posted speed limit after demonstrating their car control skills. I am all for that concept. Similar to that of the pilots licensing program. One starts out with single engine low performance aircraft and progresses to single engine high performance aircraft and then on to twins engine then on to jets, etc.

Just think about how much better traffic would move if the left lane was reserved for people with a "Masters Drivers License"? Not the person like I was behind yesterday that was on their mobile phone. He was doing 70 MPH then 55 MPH then 65 MPH the 50 MPH and then he had half of his vehicle in the left shoulder of the Interstate. He was totally oblivious to the line of traffic behind him that did NOT share his "love of a parade".

 

This morning, on my way to my volunteer job, the car next to me on the 6- lane wide street, was weaving into my lane. I looked over to see what kind of idiot was driving, and it was a woman looking in her visor mirror, putting on eyeliner.

 

I'm amazed at what I've seen on the highways.

the guy playing his flute in the car, steering with his knees or he other guy practicing with a drumstick in each hand rapping od the steering wheel also steering with his knees.

I can't count how many paper backs i've seen propped up on steering wheels.

tops though was the guy driving at night in a brutal fog on rt 495.
visibility was around 50-75 feet.
he's tooling along doing 25 mph with the interior light on reading a book

 

Some mornings, especially those morning when I'm in my S with the top down, I get stopped by the traffic light on Route 10. I look into the rear view mirror and see the grill of a Mercury Navigator or a GMC Yukon bearing down on me. I see the driver, oftentimes a woman, with a cup of coffee in one hand, a cigarette dangling from her lips and sometimes a cellphone pressed to her ear. I close my eyes, put my hands on the steering wheel, take my foot off the brake (so that the car can roll with the impact and not absorb all of the energy) and all I can think to say to myself is, "Please don't hit me too hard".

So far I've been lucky, but one of these days I'm sure it's going to happen. I see it happen to others at least once a week.

(I'm not trying to pick on women by any means, I know that just as many men are just as guilty of distracted driving as women, but so far the vast majority of the people I see driving the too big SUVs on Route 10 are women.)

 

I work for a Lexus dealership in the parts dept. On occasion I have to fill in for our regular parts driver. We have a bright white long bed new Tundra. It's a biiigggg truck (at least compared to the S2000 or most cars on the road). It's amazing how many people don't see it. You get people pulling out in front of you causing me to slam on brakes. Or like the lady in the camry yesterday that just started drifting into my lane. If I hadn't hit the brakes she would have hit me. Constantly get people just sorta drifting back and forth from lane to lane with no turn signal. BTW, I always drive the speed limit or maybe 5 over on the highway only. And always stay in the right lane unless I'm passing. I don't get it. It's worse in that truck than it is in the S2000. Of course I drive a little faster in the S.