Tomorrow is national Ride Your Motorcycle To Work Day.

Of course, for me and thousands of others, everyday is ride your motorcycle to work day (I’ve only driven my truck to work 3 times so far in 2008).

Ride to Work.org has a list of reasons to ride to work:

I have ridden my motorcycle to work today because:

• Riding to work is fun
• Riding to work reduces traffic and parking congestion
• Riding to work uses less fuel than an automobile
• Riding to work leaves me alert and energized
• Riding to work results in less pollution than commuting in a larger vehicle
• Riding to work is less destructive to road surfaces, bridges, etc.
• Riding to work gets me to work (and back home) faster
• Riding to work demonstrates motorcycles as a social good

To that list I would add:

• I rode to work today because I ride to work almost everyday.

Out of a total 129,141,982 commuters in this country (USA, 2003) 147,703 of them ride motorcycles to work regularly. That’s only .11 percent.

US Census Bureau of all motorcycles registered in the USA, (6,567,197) 4.3% of them are used for year-round primary transportation (282,389), with an additional 9.9% used seasonally for this purpose (932,542 total).

Anyway…to all of you cagers out there — pay attention to the motorcycles around you. Not just today, but everyday. Most motorcycle accidents are not caused by careless riding, but rather by an idiot or unaware cager.

Here are some things that you, as a cager, can do to make motorcycle transportation safer for the motorcyclists around you:

• Turn off that damned cell phone. Or at least get a hands free device. When your phone is pressed to your left ear, your phone and your entire forearm blocks your entire peripheral vision on your left side. Which means that you won’t see me when you decide to switch lanes into my motorcycle.
• Look in your rearview mirror. If you see a motorcycle, please do not use your windshield wiper washers while we are riding behind you. Wiper fluid tastes like ass and messes up my goggles. And be careful what you throw out your window — not only is it littering (illegal), but if your cigarette butt hits me in the face, I will follow your car until you stop, and then I will pull you out of the drivers seat by your ears and beat you about the face.
• Don’t tailgate. If you rear end another car who had to unexpectedly stomp on his breaks, most likely you’ll both end up on the side of the road swapping insurance info before you both drive away. If you rear end me on my bike, you’ll probably kill me. If you don’t, I’ll probably try to kill you when I pick myself up off of the pavement.
• Use your turn signals. Always.
• Do not pull out in front of a motorcycle. If you can see me coming, than I am way too close for you to pull out in front of me. Wait an extra couple of seconds for me to pass.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 | Trackback |