Is Motorcycling Too Risky?

[Alfaguy]

Pat Kenny of Newstalk done a segment on bike safety recently - 22/2/23 - can't say it told us anything we already did not know except it did not mention what I consider to be the biggest risk for motorbike and pedal bike riders these days. People (mainly women in my experience) on the phone while driving and I don't mean speaking into it usually they have it on their lap and are actively texting.

[crank_case]

Have Motorycle fatalaties risen dramatically? If they haven't then I'd say the only way to talk about things perceived as dangerous is mathematically and we have an actual unit of measurement for this, it's called a micromort.

1 Micromort = 1 in 1 million chance of dying.

Things that are 1 Micromort

230 Miles in a car
6000 miles by train
3 flights

On the other hand, the following things have a value of five micromorts

30 miles on a motorcycle (so 3 miles = 1 micromort I guess)
Going under an anasthetic
4 Hours in the life of a Heroin user.
1 Scuba dive
4 hours serving in the UK Army when they were in Afghanistan.

https://nrich.maths.org/12174#:~:tex...in%20a%20train

So yeah Motorcycling has always been about as risky as being a smack addict for 4 hours or being in Afghanistan which funnily enough produces a lot of opium to make heroin, so this is all getting a bit trainspotting apart from trains actually being really safe.

You pay your micromorts you take your choice, but you could in theory still die running in the kitchen in your socks. Choose life or socks or something.

[pedrosixfour]

On the other hand, the following things have a value of five micromorts

30 miles on a motorcycle (so 3 miles = 1 micromort I guess)

That'd equate to 6 miles = 1 micromort.

Same odds of dying as sitting on the couch eating peanuts.*



*In my opinion!

[cmyk]

I actually started a thread on boards in the same vein a few weeks back. A lot of decent replies.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/205...e-realities/p1

[Derek172]

I don't know how bikers deal with other motorists that don't realise they aren't the only vehicle on the road, have had so many near misses in my car, can only imagine how sketchy it is for bikers. Although i will say 90% of pedal bikers have a death wish IMO, complete ignorance to the rules of the road, especially traffic lights.

[cmyk]

I don't know how bikers deal with other motorists that don't realise they aren't the only vehicle on the road, have had so many near misses in my car, can only imagine how sketchy it is for bikers. Although i will say 90% of pedal bikers have a death wish IMO, complete ignorance to the rules of the road, especially traffic lights.

I haven't had many near misses in the car to be honest. I feel they can, in the majority of cases, be negated with attention, distance and speed. I think as a biker I'd be even more cognisant of those. Plus every biker will tell you to drive as if everyone is out to kill you.

From a safety concern I'm more worried about road surfaces. The only near miss I've had in a car over the last few years was aquaplaning on an oil spill coming out of a petrol station, would've been a disaster on a bike.

[TuneR]

30 miles on a motorcycle (so 3 miles = 1 micromort I guess)
Going under an anasthetic
4 Hours in the life of a Heroin user.
1 Scuba dive
4 hours serving in the UK Army when they were in Afghanistan.

Jaysus taking heroin after that that colonoscopy was probably a bad idea so....anyway im off on my motorcycle to the airport as i've some scuba diving to do for the UK army in Afghanistan.

[pedrosixfour]

Jaysus taking heroin after that that colonoscopy was probably a bad idea so....anyway im off on my motorcycle to the airport as i've some scuba diving to do for the UK army in Afghanistan.

Don't forget your hi-vis!