There just aren't enough of us | GTAMotorcycle.com

There just aren't enough of us

Morrissey

Morrissey

Well-known member
Didnt read as im heading out now, but yeah, not enough riders, so not enough awareness
 
the average miles ridden last year was 2,809. That's less than 250 miles per month.
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Wow that's low. And in much of the US you can ride year round so in Canada it's probably even lower.
 
I don't know if this is completely true. Even ambulances, buses and trains get hit. We are a small vehicle and less of a threat to a car. The driver's brain simply filters us out as not a threat. The inattentional blindness mentioned is more of a factor all riding season.
 
Wonder if allowing lane splitting would actually remedy this. Car and truck drivers would start to develop the muscle memory that bikes are all around them. You don't see as much SMIDSY in states that allow lane splitting.

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danp said:
Wow that's low. And in much of the US you can ride year round so in Canada it's probably even lower.
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One only needs to look at the bikes for sale online here in Ontario to see that most average 1000 or less K per year. Some much less. I'm constantly amazed to see 10 year old bikes for sale with 5000K on the odometer.

There's not only not enough of us to reach critical mass with cagers, many riders are just casuals who go out a few times a month for an hour or two tops and then park the bike and don't end up doing anything to help reach this critical mass in the end.

The price of insurance and the fact disposable income is a challenge (or only goes so far) in Ontario right now isn't helping the situation.
 
MLadin said:
Wonder if allowing lane splitting would actually remedy this. Car and truck drivers would start to develop the muscle memory that bikes are all around them. You don't see as much SMIDSY in states that allow lane splitting.

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That's a good point. Seems like no one sees us unless we are splitting traffic. Then we are all they can see....and ***** about.
 
Barcelona allows lane splitting AND has a bjillion two wheelers so awareness is always there.

traffic-in-barcelona-spain-gw2fbx.jpg
 
MacDoc said:
Barcelona allows lane splitting AND has a bjillion two wheelers so awareness is always there.

traffic-in-barcelona-spain-gw2fbx.jpg
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Of course they have more awareness! How can they not?

The have:
1. Better Weather
2. More people
3. Motorcycles / Scooters are seen as viable/normal/acceptable mode of daily transport
4. Insurance is probably (?) cheaper

Canada will never reach critical mass or the type of awareness that we are looking for, simply because the opposite of the 4 reasons above. Plus we are seen as entitled, owning the road, rule breakers, and more money than brains for a (dangerous) hobby that is frowned upon by the majority. The little stunts like last year's group ride don't help either in any way towards our cause.

I'd love to see it, see more people be aware, and positive about riding, but I don't see it happening. Hell I'm tempted every stop and go traffic to rip in b/w the cars but don't feel like fighting a ******** charge (HTA172 is it?) simply to move forward so I can breathe under my gear.

Next topic, India and China have awareness of motorcycles/scooters greater than Barcelona!
 
Different environment in Asia....Barcelona is what Toronto could be transport wise. And the way winters are going its going to be year round riding soon enough. Having bicycle lanes etc all moves toward a filtering culture and puts cars in second spot.

Queensland in Australia adopted filtering recently and it is really good in a 37 degree in the shade day as I found out recently ....after 4 guys filtered past me.....I joined the club and found out after it was legal.

Aus is very strict with it's rider training and speed limits ( 5 over gets a warning ...more than that gets a ticket and there are photo radar vans about ).
So if they decide filtering is safe then no reason Ontario cannot.
 
Yes, we all know that Australia is your Bible brother. Me, I don't care for it much - especially the kangaroo police and upside down walking.

The main problem is that our training and graduated licensing systems suck for cars and blow for bikes.
Fix those and you'll have more awareness.

Enforcement of the rules needs to focus on violations other than speeding as well. That alone would prevent quite a few accidents.
 
This video destroyed my hope for any sort of awareness of bikes. A pedestrian walks into the side of a fire truck. This is the kind of person we share our roads with. No spatial or situational awareness; the world ends at their nose and nothing else matters aside from themselves.


[video=youtube;sHsdxVlzM1E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHsdxVlzM1E[/video]
 
matthew said:
This video destroyed my hope for any sort of awareness of bikes. A pedestrian walks into the side of a fire truck. This is the kind of person we share our roads with. No spatial or situational awareness; the world ends at their nose and nothing else matters aside from themselves.


[video=youtube;sHsdxVlzM1E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHsdxVlzM1E[/video]
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Wow that's ridiculous....especially that it doesn't look like he's even on his phone but carrying something.

As as for awareness.....I stick with my previous statement. Never happen until the numbers swell considerably in the province of people commuting. And with the price of insurance, and generally horrible driving habits, and poor licensing requirements....not holding my breath.

Australia, Spain, Europe, Asia, all have larger populations, expensive gas, better weather for the most part, (apparently) cheaper insurance and that allows people to be more aware because simply bikes are around more often.
 
mimico_polak said:
Plus we are seen as entitled, owning the road, rule breakers, and more money than brains for a (dangerous) hobby that is frowned upon by the majority. The little stunts like last year's group ride don't help either in any way towards our cause.
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^^^ Sooo true.

When I did my bike trip in Japan, I was trying to figure out why (when I was warned I was gonna die on a motorcycle on Japan roads with Japanese motorists) it turned out to be the complete opposite. Everyone was courteous and drove well and everyone moved over and let me pass on the motorcycle. Turns out their driving schools are literally schools. Costs $$ and can be over a month long. Separate licenses for Manual and Automatic cars even. The girl I spoke to there was horrified to hear what our driving schools were like and yet we regularly do 130+ on our highways.

I'm always bummed when I think about how nothing is going to change here. The majority of motorists are ****** drivers and are discourteous and unaware of their surroundings.
If you lane split here you get the book thrown at you, but if you make a left infront of a motorcycle and kill the rider you get a slap on the wrist.

DemonPig said:
....I don't care for it much - especially the kangaroo police and upside down walking.
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LMAO Hilarious. :lmao:
 
mimico_polak said:
Of course they have more awareness! How can they not?

The have:
1. Better Weather
2. More people
3. Motorcycles / Scooters are seen as viable/normal/acceptable mode of daily transport
4. Insurance is probably (?) cheaper

Canada will never reach critical mass or the type of awareness that we are looking for, simply because the opposite of the 4 reasons above. Plus we are seen as entitled, owning the road, rule breakers, and more money than brains for a (dangerous) hobby that is frowned upon by the majority. The little stunts like last year's group ride don't help either in any way towards our cause.

I'd love to see it, see more people be aware, and positive about riding, but I don't see it happening. Hell I'm tempted every stop and go traffic to rip in b/w the cars but don't feel like fighting a ******** charge (HTA172 is it?) simply to move forward so I can breathe under my gear.

Next topic, India and China have awareness of motorcycles/scooters greater than Barcelona!
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.


This.
The weather in canada is just never going to get better, thats the price we pay for a high-ish standard of living, free health care, hockey, and cute girls.
 
Insurance assigned to a vehicle and not the individual is very prohibitive. I have one car and 2 motorcycles at the moment. I can easily afford more vehicles (bikes or hobby cars) but cannot afford to pay insurance on them, considering I'm only getting a 10-15% discount per.

I wouldn't mind having several bikes that I could ride interchangeably but the reasoning here is that if I have 10 vehicles I am clearly 10x the risk on the road.

At least the sticker price remained the same even though they keep raising the car one every single damn year.
 
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What I constantly see through you-tube videos is more often than not when a SMIDSY incident happens the motorcyclist was in the wrong blocking position or riding in the middle of the lane. In my humble 4 years of riding and QEW commuting I have yet to experience any egregious SMIDSY moments. It's a conscious effort to make oneself seen.

Also, consider the overwhelming opinion of GTAM that the world's car drivers are absolute numpties. In general - I'd agree. Very little is in place to teach and (more importantly) reinforce (even just through licensing system) good driving habits. Sorry to say, but especially given our lackluster licensing system it stands to great reason that the vast majority of riders are less than ideal themselves.

Suggestion: look to yourself for why the crash happened, rather than someone else to blame. Too common in today's society to look to blame someone else than take responsibility.
 
Bagman said:
What I constantly see through you-tube videos is more often than not when a SMIDSY incident happens the motorcyclist was in the wrong blocking position or riding in the middle of the lane. In my humble 4 years of riding and QEW commuting I have yet to experience any egregious SMIDSY moments. It's a conscious effort to make oneself seen.

Also, consider the overwhelming opinion of GTAM that the world's car drivers are absolute numpties. In general - I'd agree. Very little is in place to teach and (more importantly) reinforce (even just through licensing system) good driving habits. Sorry to say, but especially given our lackluster licensing system it stands to great reason that the vast majority of riders are less than ideal themselves.

Suggestion: look to yourself for why the crash happened, rather than someone else to blame. Too common in today's society to look to blame someone else than take responsibility.
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Can't judge an entire community based off of YouTube vids.

The very nature of a SMIDSY incident is the motorcyclist not being at fault. Hence the term.

"I had a SMIDSY accident when the guy made a left infront of me while I was doing a wheelie at 100 over the limit." IMO that ain't a SMIDSY. You can't see a missile.

A SMIDSY accident by it's very nature has no one but the mate that didn't see ya at fault. Can you make yourself MORE visible? Yeah! Sure! But if the driver ain't looking it's not going to matter. You could be dressed like Pokaroo riding Snufalupagus.

Your suggestion to look to oneself when an accident happens is good advice for the world. Not just Motorcyclists. When I had my accident last year and the girl that hit me came running out of her car screaming "I DIDN'T SEE HIM!" quickly changed her story when the fuzz showed up and she saw me being carted away on a stretcher. Luckily they saw through her BS and gave her a ticket anyways.

I hope you continue to have safe and amazing commuting moments bagman. I did as well for 9 years until the one accident last year. It was impossible for that girl to have NOT seen me...unless of course she just wasn't looking.
 
Indeed you can't judge an entire community based off you-tube vids. I'm merely offering the idea of looking to oneself to avoid accidents, and it is a good idea for everyone. For a motorcyclist it's an especially life-preserving idea. lol. Take the you-tube videos out of the mix and I'd still say the motorcycle community is just as rife with less than adequate skill as the driving world.

Sorry Mate I Didn't See Ya. I get what you're saying, but the driver didn't see the rider while they were a missile and that's reasonable. By your own example I can't find anyone BUT the rider to blame. Not the driver. It's really not about laying blame, however. It's about being dead or alive. Injured or not, etc.. So I'm suggesting a number of SMIDSY accidents could be avoided by the motorcyclist adjusting their action.
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