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Through a tinted visor, darkly. 2/16/2005

I was riding in to work this morning, when I saw an accident. No, I didn’t take a picture of this one, because, well, read on.

I was coming down the off ramp of one of the toll highways, where it merged with a slip ride coming off another highway. There was a gaggle of cars backed up on the slip road, and I wondered what was going on. At this point I was doing my customary fraction of local light speed when I suddenly realised that the cars in front of me were braking like mad.

I threw out the achors and picked my way between traffic, cursing the drivers who were changing lanes trying to avoid the traffic, when I saw the reason for the hold up. There had been an accident, involving a couple of motorcycles and a car. And one of the riders was lying on the road, with blood all over, and not moving. What had possibly happened was that a car had smerged into the riders, changing lanes without checking his mirrors first.

I considered stopping, to help and take photos, but the fact that the rider was quite possibly dead, and there were already people on the scene, made me ride on. And start thinking. Many people in this country ride small, underpowered motorcycles, as a convenience and as daily transport. I ride one myself to get to work daily. This is in spite of the fact that I have several vehicles to choose from, most of them high powered performance vehicles. I chose this mode of transport because it was light, convenient, and easy to maintain. The price I pay for that is a lack of speed, and being bullied by other road users. The image that I project means next to nothing to me. I know what I have sitting in my garage at home, and some boy racer with his Satria still under hire purchase to the finance company and ‘Fast and Furious’ body kit doesn’t impress me in the least.

I’ve noticed the driving habits of many drivers on the roads I travel daily, and the only word I can use is atrocious. Lack of due care, not checking mirrors, bad lane discipline, road hogging, pulling out into oncoming traffic, the list goes on. There is also the prevalent attitude that because you own a car and pay the tax, you behave as if you are the only person entitled to use the road. I’ve smartened up many of my driving skills of late, since I started using a small motorcycle daily. I still drive quickly, but I now pay much more care to other road users, because the vehicle I drive is large and heavy, and can do an inordinate amount of damage if I’m careless.

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