Driving on a busy freeway, I always check my mirrors and ensure that I have a clear space around my car. But, more than once, I have been shocked to hear a loud roar as a motorcyclist slips past my vehicle, in the same lane, without me even realizing that he was there. A friend recently had his car badly damaged by a kamikaze on a motorbike.
Bicycle riders, too, are often a danger to themselves, and others. While I have sympathy for those who need bicycles to get to work, recreational cyclists, who are often inconsiderate morons who train during rush hour on busy roads at twilight, need to be fined and taken off the road. Companies that sponsor cycle events should also be exposed to negative publicity whenever someone training for their events gets creamed.
Of course, it is politically correct to blame motorists for cycling accidents:
Anyone who has done their driver's licence in the last decade or so will know that the idea that they are not trained to look for cyclists is rubbish .
Most accidents on bikes, except in our rural areas, occur in cyclists between the ages of 7 and 17. Statistics improve once they reach their mid-teens by which time they have learned some road sense. Unfortunately the same is often not true of those driving cars, mini-bus taxis and large commercial vehicles. Since generally motorists in this country are not trained to take notice of cyclists, cyclists must learn to take notice of them!
Perhaps the time has come for drivers to become militant about our right to use the road and to push for cycles to be banned from major routes, and for motorcycles to be taken off our freeways.
