DataDan
Mama says he's bona fide
In the recent thread Skill is Overrated I wondered what, if anything, the motorcycling community can do to promote good riding judgment. Urging fellow riders to wear protective gear and get trained is one thing. But trying to describe the observations, thought processes, and decisions that support a sense of when/where/how to ride to keep risk at an acceptable level is much more difficult.
As tzrider wrote in that thread: "It may not be possible to articulate a single, one-size-fits-all standard for judgment. Riders need to be able to honestly look at what they're trying to get from the experience of riding and what they're willing to risk to get it. They need to understand when they're risking more than they really want to." But in one aspect of riding judgment--managing speed--I think there are some simple rules riders of all skill levels can take advantage of. Following rules may not be the same as exercising good judgment, but judgment can develop as one comes to understand why the rules are necessary.
Eventually in this thread I'd like to brainstorm ideas about how speed on public roads causes crashes and speed-management strategies that go along with good judgment. But first I want to explore the pathological thinking about speed that is common in the sportbike community.
Many motorcycle crashes (though hardly all) are due to excessive speed. By excessive I don't mean "over the posted limit." I mean that the rider is unable to keep the motorcycle under control or that speed is so far beyond the prevailing flow of traffic that other motorists don't perceive the motorcycle as a threat and can't avoid a collision. How do riders get themselves into situations like that? Part of the problem, as I see it, is that we don't think about speed in ways that support good decision-making.
Our training in speed judgment can be summed up in two words: speed limits. Obey the speed limit and you'll be OK. Exceed it and you're taking your life in your hands. That's what we're told, beginning in driver education and continuing in rider education. No need for further discussion, and subtleties be damned. But that message falls apart in about a week as we find that we can often get away with exceeding the limit, and the only potential consequence is a ticket. With the loss of our only speed judgment standard, lame as it was, we no longer have any basis to distinguish between safe and unsafe speed because we never learned how to make the necessary observations and decisions. In addition we come to disdain speed limits because they don't seem to serve any purpose except for generating public revenue, even though they are often necessary and appropriate.
On a motorcycle, the machine itself encourages imprudent thinking about speed. It's easy to go fast on a sportbike. With its racing heritage and the technology it incorporates, speed is in its very DNA. And it's not just the horsepower. The machine's small size and effortless maneuverability make it possible to get beyond traffic to a place where the power can be used. The ease of speed is deceiving though, because it evolved on the track, not the street. On public roads thick with traffic, a sportbike has no significant safety advantage over a Harley or a Vespa.
Sportbike culture, too, fosters poor thinking about speed. Everyone speeds. If you don't speed, why do you have a sportbike? Rationalizations like these come up often. The fatal flaw (sometimes literally fatal) is a failure to acknowledge that safe speed depends entirely on the situation. Equating triple-digit speed on an empty road through farmland with miles of visibility to the same speed on an urban freeway or suburban thoroughfare reveals the pathological thinking about speed embedded in the culture.
What kinds of thinking about speed have you seen in your career as a motorcyclist?
How has your own thinking evolved?
How can ineffective modes of thinking be countered?
As tzrider wrote in that thread: "It may not be possible to articulate a single, one-size-fits-all standard for judgment. Riders need to be able to honestly look at what they're trying to get from the experience of riding and what they're willing to risk to get it. They need to understand when they're risking more than they really want to." But in one aspect of riding judgment--managing speed--I think there are some simple rules riders of all skill levels can take advantage of. Following rules may not be the same as exercising good judgment, but judgment can develop as one comes to understand why the rules are necessary.
Eventually in this thread I'd like to brainstorm ideas about how speed on public roads causes crashes and speed-management strategies that go along with good judgment. But first I want to explore the pathological thinking about speed that is common in the sportbike community.
Many motorcycle crashes (though hardly all) are due to excessive speed. By excessive I don't mean "over the posted limit." I mean that the rider is unable to keep the motorcycle under control or that speed is so far beyond the prevailing flow of traffic that other motorists don't perceive the motorcycle as a threat and can't avoid a collision. How do riders get themselves into situations like that? Part of the problem, as I see it, is that we don't think about speed in ways that support good decision-making.
Our training in speed judgment can be summed up in two words: speed limits. Obey the speed limit and you'll be OK. Exceed it and you're taking your life in your hands. That's what we're told, beginning in driver education and continuing in rider education. No need for further discussion, and subtleties be damned. But that message falls apart in about a week as we find that we can often get away with exceeding the limit, and the only potential consequence is a ticket. With the loss of our only speed judgment standard, lame as it was, we no longer have any basis to distinguish between safe and unsafe speed because we never learned how to make the necessary observations and decisions. In addition we come to disdain speed limits because they don't seem to serve any purpose except for generating public revenue, even though they are often necessary and appropriate.
On a motorcycle, the machine itself encourages imprudent thinking about speed. It's easy to go fast on a sportbike. With its racing heritage and the technology it incorporates, speed is in its very DNA. And it's not just the horsepower. The machine's small size and effortless maneuverability make it possible to get beyond traffic to a place where the power can be used. The ease of speed is deceiving though, because it evolved on the track, not the street. On public roads thick with traffic, a sportbike has no significant safety advantage over a Harley or a Vespa.
Sportbike culture, too, fosters poor thinking about speed. Everyone speeds. If you don't speed, why do you have a sportbike? Rationalizations like these come up often. The fatal flaw (sometimes literally fatal) is a failure to acknowledge that safe speed depends entirely on the situation. Equating triple-digit speed on an empty road through farmland with miles of visibility to the same speed on an urban freeway or suburban thoroughfare reveals the pathological thinking about speed embedded in the culture.
What kinds of thinking about speed have you seen in your career as a motorcyclist?
How has your own thinking evolved?
How can ineffective modes of thinking be countered?
