Bike Visibility and Safety
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.
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hi,
actually i’m not Gonzo, just dc by way of eyal’s website.
very nice blog. especially the images section. noticed you have Rosanne
rather than Race up there… rare discerning taste, impressive.
almost made up for the anti-Sing rants, but guess i’ll still have to throw the book at you… all 3 volumes of our Dear Leader’s memoirs (2000 pages and 10lbs of The Singapore Story - From Third World To First).
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seriously, enjoyed reading your blog. hope you enjoy most of your time in Spore.
a taxi-driving, motorcyclist-mangling, indicator-blind, queue-worshipping, glove-thieving, eh-lah-liao-dropping, just-cant-get-it, recently upgraded third-to-first worlder with finger still up my nose Singaporean muppet,
Gonzo-don
The Man Himself
Yes, well, glad you like it.
I’m not that harsh am I? It just amuses me.
(Except when I call people muppets).
Yes, throw the book at me. I have to brush up on my national day performance.
i like the muppets, so its all good…
actually, i’ve always thought Sporeans were more like the tiny buzzing Doozers from Fraggle Rock - always hurrying and working and building and moving and just…never…seem…to…stop…
of course, that makes the rest of the world out to be shiny happy vegan Fraggles, silly Human Creatures from Outer Space, swaggering dumb giant Gorgs or wise prophetic Trash Heaps… which pretty much sums up the world, anyway.
The Man Himself
Fraggles! I like that… along with traveling Max to give the right amount of information that there is an outside, exciting world spurring the more adventurous Fraggles to venture timidly into the unknown. And Red would have been the perfect Ah Lian with her scandalously short skirt.
Dance your cares away…