Moto Flow!

     It's a common fallacy to assume that we, the people who read motorcycle magazines, make up the core user group. In truth, we are a zealous ten percent of the total motorcycling population. So, I propose that we do what religious and political zealots have always done when they're on the hot seat ...shift the spotlight onto the accuser.

     That would be motorists of the four wheeled kind. Pretty much everyone else. Whereas the death rate for motorcyclists (according to NHTSA's 2001stats) is twenty times as high as for car drivers, it could be argued that the "cagers" are more responsible and proficient than we are. Such factoids should not deter us. We should make it our business to tell them how to conduct theirs.

     There's plenty of precedant, you know. Two summers ago, in Boise, ID, I attended the first joint national conference of motorcycle safety and driver education officials. I'd say the motorcycle people outnumbered the car people ten to one, and the driver's ed. guys who showed quietly expressed their envy over the national curricula and overall unity of the two wheeled contingent. We've got the MSF, the AMA and the MRF. We've got Easyriders Magazine and fourteen governors who ride.

     We can be loud little buggers, and we've wagged the dog before. Had not we--today's fat, balding touring riders--clutched the 350 Honda to our bosom, would Honda and Japan Inc. have ever shaken the stigma of shoddy Oriental workmanship and risen to ascendency in the automotive world? Doubtful. And if not, would Americans today drive the same early Eighties drek--one rung higher than Soviet made Ladas--that nearly wiped General Motors and Chrysler off the manufacturing map? We have power and influence beyond our small numbers.

     So let's tell everyone else how to drive!

     Larry Hall, a professional accident investigator and a motorcyclist of my acquaintance, inspired me to pen a column some years ago titled "Flow Technology." That's the name which Hall coined for his personal philosophy of motoring--the idea that everyone wants to get somewhere, and we can do so more safely and efficiently by working communally to maintain the "flow." It's rather the same idea as a busy roundabout, which succeeds (or fails) on the premise that people can follow rules, keep their space and simply keep moving. I think it's a capital idea and that we have the mouth (if not the votes) to take it to the American people. Those wimpy driver's ed. guys wish they had a curriculum like ours, so let's give them one. We can call it "Moto Flow!"

     Okay, the following may seem little more than common sense, but compared to "55 Alive" or "Don't Drink & Ride" it's the Theory of Relativity. If you can't stop your friends from driving cages, at least share these fundamentals with them.
 

Keep right unless overtaking. Okay, we have urban freeways with left hand exits and boulevards with left turn lanes. These are exceptions to the rule. Left lane bandits have no idea the havoc they wreak. If only we could give each one an aerial video tape of themself, so that they'd witness the tidal wave of frustration and recklessness that swells behind their rolling barricades.

Keep right unless overtaking. Okay, we have urban freeways with left hand exits and boulevards with left turn lanes. These are exceptions to the rule. Left lane bandits have no idea the havoc they wreak. If only we could give each one an aerial video tape of themself, so that they'd witness the tidal wave of frustration and recklessness that swells behind their rolling barricades.

Maintain a two second following distance. Basic, basic, basic, but on crowded freeways, the average is about half that. Besides the obvious dangers, it's a leading cause of traffic congestion, since it takes more than two seconds to regain the speed lost in a moment of braking. A law officer once told me that he gave out tickets for tailgating ...if someone followed him so closely that he couldn't read their license plate in his rearview mirror. Doh!

Let us merge. Let us pass. A speed reduction of five percent two hundred yards before an entrance ramp will enable all but the most lethargic road users to accelerate up to the gap. Always make space for motorists who want to exit the faster lanes and give others (especially us motorcyclists) a chance to "make progress" on two lane roads.

Use the gas, not the brake. The cornerstone of flow technology is the belief that small, early speed adjustments work better than sudden, reactive ones. Sure, most cars lack the engine braking of our motorcycles, but we'd be so much better off if all motorists would learn to regulate their following distances with the gas pedal instead of their brake.

Signal your intent! I once scoured a series of driver training manuals and failed to find one with any recommendation for signaling intervals. How about this: Two seconds before every lane change; five seconds before every turn.

Keep out of the blind spot. If you can't see the driver in his sideview mirror, you shouldn't be there. Accelerate or decelerate; just don't stay there.

Create space, not noise. Okay--I know I'll get mail on this one, but loud horn blasts almost never prevent accidents that could not have been avoided by simple defensive motoring. Horns startle people and piss them off--plus they have no sense of direction. At a busy intersection a single blast can break the concentration of hundreds. A few short toots can promote the flow by alerting a sleepy driver to approaching danger. If you really have to lay on it, there's a high probability that you were asleep as well.

360° Awareness. Hard to say whether my curiosity is professional or morbid, but I have a fascination for people who do truly stupid things on the road. So often their awareness fails to break the plane of their own lane--and usually doesn't extend very far down that one either. I teach my students to use mirrors at a minimum every five or six seconds--three or four seconds in built up areas--and every time one even considers slowing down or changing direction. And 360° means blind spots too.

     Moto Flow! What do you think ...catchy? Whatever we call it, one thing is certain--our highways, byways and surface streets would be a whole lot safer if everyone handled their vehicle as if it didn't have four thousand pounds of steel surrounding it. Spread the word.