Eshin Direct

The colour and nature of your vehicle might make all the difference between whether you get into an accident or not. This article on how colour affects reaction times by drivers might explain the old “I just didn’t see him” excuse that car drivers have when hitting things and people.

In most countries that I’ve lived, the majority of car drivers are not primed to spot motorbikes. Motorcyclists, likewise, are not prone to wearing bright, visible colours either. It is almost a perfect recipe for disaster. I know that since I got my bike license, I am more aware of riders when I drive a car because I’ve been primed to know how they behave and where to expect them. I do think that car drivers should learn on two wheels first before being able to handle a four-wheeled contraption that allows them to be mobile and have conversations on the phone, fiddle with GPS, or do their make-up at the same time.

I know from my own experience that riding a bike means that you need to establish road presence a lot more than if you are driving a car. I think this manifests itself in a number of ways – revving your engine to ensure that you are heard, filtering to the front of traffic and refusing to let certain type of drivers you know are being oblivious to the world around them from cutting into your lane. Controlled speed is also your friend as I firmly believe that driving fast isn’t necessarily dangerous and driving slow isn’t necessarily safe.

In the Netherlands, drivers are much more aware of their two-wheeled counterparts than in most countries since most people have ridden a bicycle at some point in their lives over there. In Singapore, while there are a high number of motorbikes on the road (so you would assume the drivers are familiar with what to look out for), all bets are off as most Singaporean drivers are generally the worst I’ve seen in my life. Use of the indicator is often an after thought and incidentally, serves as a cue for cars to not let you change lanes.

Via Trader Eyal.

Tags: bikes, colour, motorcycles, riding, singapore drivers, Surfer Rants