Want to know what’s the fastest mode of transport from point A to point B?
Well, public transport may get a bad wrap from time to time, but trains are known to be one of the fastest ways you can get around. But what if you don’t want to go the public route and just be on your own? Then the old argument of cars vs. motorcycles comes back. The bare truth is that motorcycles will always be quicker than cars. It’s isn’t just that they accelerate harder and usually have a higher top speed, it’s that if you’re skilled enough, you can weave your way through traffic. Rather than wait at every red light and be just another motorist stuck in a traffic jam, motorcyclists can avoid all of these things by a bit of skillful riding and timing. Because of all these opportunities that riders have, they are often seen as instigators in a road accident. Despite being less of a threat and also being so much more maneuverable, a lot of the time motorcycles are treated as a nuisance by drivers. Yet when a crash happens, the shocking thing is that riders are usually blamed disproportionately. So how could you handle the clear bias against yourself if you do love to travel around on two wheels?
Get precautionary equipment
Proving who caused a road accident is like a game of chess. Everything is going to be taken into account, from the cars and motorcycles involved, the conditions, the day, time, location, road signs, traffic lights, pedestrians, and much more. So to protect yourself from any undue blame, it’s time for riders to give no chance for the other parties to accuse you. Buy some extended mirrors for your motorcycle that allows you not just to see who is behind you from a transfixed angle but who is in the other lanes beside you. With a large and wide-angle mirror, you can see the vehicles that are on either side of the car that is directly behind you. This means you get a three-lane vision of what’s going on behind you. With a riser kit for the mirrors, you can place them higher. Then you can also see who is driving and note their actions. Mirror raisers do this by sticking up from your handlebars. They don’t get in the way of your hands, so accelerating and braking are not obstructed in any way. It’s also wise to get a GoPro camera that video documents everything that happens to you. This way if a car pulls out in front of you from a side street and you’re traveling on the main road, the video footage will clearly show the negligence of the driver that caused you to slam into them.
Why is there a bias?
It’s quite obvious to some people why there is an inherent bias toward motorcyclists. They’re small and fast, so sometimes the police will be wary of who to blame when they arrive at a crash scene involving a motorcycle. The basic case against riders is that it’s seen as their job to make themselves seen and heard by car drivers. Due to the way cars are designed right now, the pillars block the vision of the driver from seeing a smaller object such as a motorcyclist. This means that drivers are more challenged to find where a rider might be at any given moment. Perhaps the most powerful reason for the bias against motorcyclists is that they can fit into more blind spots than a car could. Drivers are not trained to look for more than one blind spot. Their main blindspot to cars is just over their inner shoulder where their side mirrors cannot expose what is there. However, riders can fit into a blind spot that is on the outer shoulder of the driver too because they are much smaller than a car.
It’s also a fact that many riders who own and use high-performance motorcycles are prone to speeding. Since motorcycles cannot turn as well as cars even at low speed, when they are speeding riders need to take a long and wide line in and out of a corner. It’s not normal to drive over into another lane to make a turn which is why drivers react late to a rider doing this. Police and insurance companies know how motorcycles behave, but most drivers do not.
Fighting for innocence
Despite it being an unfair world for riders, this doesn’t mean you should just roll over and have your belly tickled like a dog. You should and must fight for your innocence when you have done nothing wrong. Serious injury lawyers are the type of legal team you need to contact when you have been hurt on the road as a motorcyclist. It’s in an insurance company’s interest to limit the amount of payment they give you and avoiding paying to fix your motorcycle. Any gap in time you allow to occur since the accident to your claim will be seen as a weakness. Why would you take so long if you were so confident in your innocence they will say. Legal teams won’t allow them to get away with this and clearly point out their bias against you. They know that you as a motorcyclist do face an unfair prejudice and you’re an easy scapegoat for the party that caused the accident and their insurance. The lawyers will calculate all the costs that you have or potentially might incur for repairs of both vehicles and of course your medical bills. They’ll factor in emotional stress and any time you miss off work whereby you’re losing income.
The world on the roads is almost the opposite of the normal pedestrian way of moving about. Every driver and rider is going to be held to a much higher standard of safety because you’re all living with higher stakes. Every day there are fatal accidents on the roads and motorcycle riders are the majority of victims. Yet there is a clear bias against riders because drivers aren’t trained to look out for and avoid riders. Don’t give them a chance to pin the blame on you when you’re involved in an accident by getting the right kind of protective equipment for your motorcycle.
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