But that only 10% of the pilots were blameless.
If you're on a motorcycle you have to treat everyone and everything as out to get you, because they are.
When you filter all these elements out (you're a rider with experience who "knows" the traffic and doesn't do stupid) then it's safer then you'd think.
After so many years of riding a bike in the city I feel like I just have a sixth sense about how cars are going to behave. It can be really small things. For example a car with plates from out of town approaching a crossroads driving a little too slow is probably wondering where the hell he should turn and is likely to suddenly change course, so keep your distance. And if you look several cars ahead you can predict what the car in front of you is likely to do.
The kicker for me is you can do everything perfectly correctly and a drunk driver sideswipes you and you’re just a list of organs available.
It wasn’t for me; I’m not saying it’s not for others.
But if you do want to ride, take those defensive motorcycle courses and, like a pilot, be willing to say “today is not my day to ride” and don’t mix alcohol (the eight hour bottle to throttle is a good rule for any piece of heavy machinery).
It was for me for a while until I got the fear after a near crash, became a father and ... it's not really worth it anymore. Still get dark thoughts about all the close calls I had and stupid shit I did (riding 6K km through Africa with fork oil dripping all over my front break disk). Problem is as soon as I get on the bike I become fearless again.
> The kicker for me is you can do everything perfectly correctly and a drunk driver sideswipes you and you’re just a list of organs available.
Yeah that's the old "you have to get it right all the time, they only need to get it right once"
But I get unreasonably annoyed when people who don't ride, or are very new to riding, parrot statistics about rider injury and mortality rates compared to cars and essentially wag their finger in smug disapproval. The reality is that the "dangerousness" of motorcycling is nuanced. You are not simply X times more likely to die on a motorcycle than in a car, there are a whole host of factors involved, like: Did you take a safety class? Do you look for opportunities to improve your safety? Is your bike well-maintained? Did you inspect it before riding? Are you completely sober and awake? Are you stressed or worried about something? Are you wearing your helmet and gear? Is your gear reflective and/or bright? Do you typically ride along in your own little world or are you constantly scanning your environment for danger?
Around here, the two most common kinds of riders are pirates (on Harleys) and squids (on sport bikes) tend not to worry about trivial details such as these and both groups represent motorcycling quite poorly in the safety department. They generally don't wear helmets (or any riding gear at all), tend to have obnoxiously loud exhausts (which don't save lives), and are attracted to motorcycles as a means to achieve a certain kind of personal image and/or to fit in with their desired peer group.
There is a third, smaller group that believes you don't have to sacrifice much fun in order to get quite a lot of (relative) safety. I like to think I am part of this group. I would love to see some research comparing motorcycle-related injury rates, taking into account more factors than just, "was the vehicle a motorcycle or not?" I suspect that a safety-conscious rider is not THAT much more at risk than the average car driver. (Accounting of course for the fact that riders are not surrounded by a strong steel cage.)
I suspect that your third group becomes better drivers in all vehicles because they learn more things to pay attention to, which permeates everything you do.
Common in SF as the anti-theft rock. You keep it hidden in your car to prevent the car from being broken into. Works really well.
That's not the best way to put it because it implies that motorists will purposefully try to crash into motorcyclists. In reality, it's due to inattention and the risk of a collision can be reduced by the motorcyclist through defensive driving techniques. For example, when approaching an intersection, is there a motorist approaching or waiting there who could cross my path? What's my plan to avoid that? It comes down to planning rather than reacting.
If they really were all you to get you, you'd be dead.
I mean, presumably in 2-vehicle collisions one person is at fault. So "50% of people not at fault" is just the baseline (if all collisions are 2-vehicle)
Whereas presumably collisions between aircraft are very rare.
To me it’s more of a "You are the only one with a vested interest in you making it home alive and in one piece".