3,800 miles on the new bike and my observations of crappy drivers. And a poll!!!

[Glassunion]

My wife and I joke a lot about who is the better driver... Men or Women? So after having two close calls just riding the bike the 30 miles home from the dealership, she suggested that I keep track of who is trying to kill me. So I did. The result... EVERY DEMOGRAPHIC IS TRYING TO F****NG KILL ME!!! Kidding... I commute every day on the bike, so I have had to share the road with probably tens of thousands of drivers, who are overall quite nice and attentive.

Every night I would record if anyone tried to kill me. Now when I say "tried to kill me", I do not mean by any measure that they intended me harm, but if the two of us failed to act and continued on our merry way, I'd be a stain on the pavement. I am by far not the best driver in the world, but I do pay attention.

At my wife's suggestion, I started keeping track of each of the incidents in a spreadsheet.

For science, I grouped all of the categories, keeping track of the following (if possible): Sex, Age Group (my best guess), Vehicle Type, and Incident Type.
Sex = Either male or female
Age Group = New drivers (teens-24), young adult (25-30), adult (31-60), and seniors (61+)
Vehicle = Motorcycle, car, truck, SUV, mini-van, van, and semi trucks
Incident (from less severe to most) = Tailgating, failing to yield right of way, merging into my space, and what I call "intentional hate"

Results of the 30 incidents where I was able to gather all of the information...
My wife is right, women are better drivers: 13 compared to 17 incidents by males.
Age groupings, young adults seem to cause the fewest problems only accounting for 5 incidents. New divers were the worst at 11.
Vehicles, cars are the worst accounting for 13 incidents, with Vans and Trucks only accounting for 1 each.
Incidents, most common was failing to yield the right of way accounting for 16 followed closely by 11 tailgaters, the least common (thankfully) was intentional hate coming in with only 1 incident.

Here is the breakdown...
Male / Teen / Car / Tailgating = 1
Male / Teen / Car / Failing to Yield = 3
Male / Teen / Car / Merging Into = 1
Male / Teen / SUV / Tailgating = 1
Male / Teen / Mini-Van / Failing to Yield = 1
Male / Young Adult / Car / Tailgating = 1
Male / Young Adult / SUV / Failing to Yield = 1
Male / Young Adult / Semi / Failing To Yield = 1
Male / Adult / SUV / Failing to Yield = 1
Male / Adult / Mini - Van / Failing to Yield = 1
Male / Adult / Semi / Failing to Yield = 1
Male / Senior / Car / Tailgating = 1
Male / Senior / Truck / Failing to Yield = 1
Male / Senior / SUV / Failing to Yield = 1
Male / Senior / Van / Failing to Yield = 1

Female / Teen / Car / Tailgating = 3
Female / Teen / Car / Failing to Yield = 1
Female / Young Adult / Mini - Van / Tailgating = 2
Female / Adult / Car / Tailgating = 1
Female / Adult / Car / Intentional Hate = 1
Female / Adult / SUV / Failing to Yield = 1
Female / Adult / Mini - Van / Failing to Yield = 2
Female / Senior / Car / Tailgating = 1
Female / Senior / SUV / Merging Into = 1

Here are some of the anecdotal notes I have:
Male / Teen / Car / Merging Into - Was two cars behind, did not see me occupying the space in front of the car in front of him, decided to whip around the vehicle behind me by heading into the oncoming lane, only to be surprised by my presence. Then proceeded to force me to back up to the car behind so he could get out of the oncoming lane... Had a Coexist bumper sticker. Oh the irony.

Female / Adult / SUV / Failing to Yield - Traveling at 50 on back country road, pulled out right in front of me. Had to swerve into oncoming lane (Thankfully no traffic.) to avoid, flew right past her... She never saw me as she turned into my path, as I passed, she was so startled she dropped her phone.

Male / Teen / SUV / Tailgating - Dumb-ass hit me. No damage to bike. Dad is gonna be pissed when kid has to explain why the front plate on the Land Rover was ripped off.

Female / Senior / SUV / Merging Into - She did not hear the horn, but the kick to the passenger door worked.

Male / Teen / Car / Failing to Yield - If you are going to cut me off by pulling right out in front of me, don't stop once you see me, because not only are you in front of me, but now I have to stop in a much shorter distance.

Female / Teen / Car / Tailgating - half a car length... In the pouring rain... At 45mph... In a 45mph zone... Really?

Male / Young Adult / Semi / Failing To Yield - he had to get around the mower so bad... could not wait for me to pass... But I did get to ride on the sidewalk. That was kinda neat.

Female / Adult / Car / Intentional Hate - I don't like what she did, but I'm ashamed of what I said.

I commute daily on the bike, and I get to ride some of the really congested areas north of Philly, Central New Jersey and Upstate NY as well as some really beautiful back country areas.

Where do you ride and how are the other motorists in your area?

7 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	The drivers in my area are great, I never really have any problems.
	0 (0%)
	The drivers in my area are ok, I rarely have any problems.
	1 (14%)
	The drivers in my area are mediocre, I have occasional problems.
	3 (43%)
	The drivers in my area are bad, I have lots of problems.
	2 (29%)
	The drivers in my area get paid to try and kill me.
	1 (14%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[DrDan]

1. I live in Florida so share the roads with lots of seniors

However, knowing this lets me ride a bit more defensively - always riding toward the center, staying out of blind spots, staying away from other drivers as much as possible.

I have had two seriously close incidents in the past year - one a senior woman who changed lanes forcing me onto the center shoulder and the second a man who, in a hurry, only slowed through a stop sign and turned directly into my lane.

No incidents in past year with teens - but I do stay away as much as possible.

The major concern I have is being rear-ended - hard to avoid the cars at stop lights.

But I do live in the Daytona area so I think drivers here are a bit more conscious of motorcycles.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. I think women on the whole are safer drivers but they dominate in 2 problem areas:

1) Tailgating (the inattentive kind, not the 'get out or my way' kind)
2) "Multi-tasking" (phone/texting/makeup application/digging around the car/eating & drinking/etc. when they should be concentrating on driving)

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. My rule is that everyone who is trying to turn left is trying to kill me.

Whether they are at a stop sign or turning across traffic.

All rules have limitations. The only m/c accident I've ever been in is when I was rearended at a stop sign by a girl turning right.

[EnviroBat]

5. I wish we could pass legislation,

To make all intersections left on the arrow only. How many motorcyclists would that save. I can't begin to imagine how much safer that would be for everyone driving.

[EnviroBat]

4. One thing that has helped me over the years,

has been to make my bike more visible. Front headlight modulators really get peoples attention. My newest Harley has "Daymaker" headlights on it. I had the techs update the controller code to allow the passing lamps to remain on when switching on the high-beam headlamp. I can light up the road at night like a jumbo jet coming in for a landing. Also, as obnoxious as this might be, placing some type of message on the back of your bike to remind drivers to stay off your butt usually does do the trick. My license plate says BKOFF. Believe it or not, I've noticed that most drivers see that and stop tailgating me. I don't like to get belligerent with people when I ride, but many drivers don't even consider that they are screwing around with your life when they get behind the wheel and start f&$%king around with their damn cell phone. That pisses me off the worst, and I usually have kind advice to offer them at the next red light.

[jambo101]

6. I gave up biking

After biking for 35 years i found the close calls were getting too frequent,so about 10 tears ago i sold my last bike and bought a Miata,
Lots of fun,much more practical,and i felt it gave me much more protection in case of accident.
A perfect day in April of 08=

[cloudbase]

7. Ride as tough everybody is trying to kill you.

For some reason, a woman driving a Volvo seems to be the greatest threat.