As more people seem to be more attracted in buying motorcycles to get better gas mileage with gas prices being so high, can we expect alot more inexperienced riders on the road resulting in many more accidents than we normally would see and maybe an increase in insurances?
Or can we expect alot more motorcycles on the road, period, resulting in less larger cars and trucks on the road which may actually make the roads more safe for motorcyclists?
Death Rates have already increased over the past few years with Rider inexperience/excessive speed being the leading causes.
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ya, i think because of the increased gas prices, people will be buying more motorcycles and since there will be more people on the road with them, you can expect to have more accidents
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Look at the number of people on this forum inquiring which sport bike is good for a beginner. The number of incredibly fast, high speed motorcycles in the hands of complete novices will continue to lead to an increase in accidents and fatalities. The other aspect that will increase accidents/deaths is the high number of unskilled, uncaring, angry, distracted motorists. For example I have never witnessed so many drivers blatantly running red lights in the last few years as I have during the previous 30 or so years of driving.
If I was in charge, it would be a lot harder to get a driver’s license. The fees would be about 4 figures. That money would go toward real driver’s education. A new driver would be required to attend an advanced driving school such as the one offered by the Bob Bondurant driving school.
Also I would pull a lot more licenses and impound the offender’s vehicle. Blatant disregard for safe driving would not be tolerated. The laws would have real teeth to make it very clear the consequences for bad unsafe driving/riding.
Same would go for driving and drinking. Drunk driving also would not be tolerated if I was in charge. So many lives have been prematurely ended due to some fool have a few too many and getting behind the wheel.
http://www.bondurant.com/courses/teendri…
http://www.bondurant.com/courses/highway…
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Unfortunately I think you are right on the $$. Not only do I think there will be a lot of inexperienced riders, but they will choose to ride small bikes that will be hard to see…..especially the 1’s who decide to just get mopeds. I am a police officer in the Chicago area and I can tell you I’ve already seen more riders out there than I’ve ever seen. I also handled two accidents involving riders in less than a week…..one was a brand new rider who hit a pothole, lost it a little, panicked, and went down. I really hope you are wrong, but I think you could be right.
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I don’t think we’ll get to enough motorcycles on the road to reduce the risk. Even if we triple the number of motorcyclists it would still be overwhelmingly cars out there.
Will the rates rise? Probably. I see new riders every day and I’ve answered the “Should I buy an R6 or a GSXR600″ question four(?) times on this board in the last day or two.
Part of the problem is that there isn’t a great selection of starter bikes that are highway capable from the Big4. Look at Honda, their only real starter bikes are cruisers. Their smallest displacement sportbike is the CBR600RR. That last pair of Rs = Race Ready. Yamaha dropped the YZF-600S and has a new R600S to “replace” it. At least Suzuki is adding real options and keeping the old standard SV650 and GS500. Not that the mfg’s deserve all the blame, they sell what people want and what they want are literbikes.
I’d like to see gradual license increases as with the UK. That’s why you see Bandit 250s on the UK websites.
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As stated (and very convincingly) rates will go up because of young inexperienced riders wanting maximum hp to impress people and lack of knowledge to handle said hp. More and more riders out there zipping in and out of lanes scaring hell out of people in cars and even CAUSING crashes for cars. Giving experienced rider a bad name and causing the drivers out there to drive aggressively towards bikers. Then you have the people out there wanting to put motors on bicycles and go out on the road. They have no idea what is involved in driving a bike safely. Yep, a definite increase in crashes and with that……..a huge increase in deaths because with and increase in speed comes an increase in the severity of the injuries of bikers.
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I wish i could say no but i can’t.I cringe when i read some of the posts here.People getting sport bikes and cruisers they don’t even know how to ride!A kid here a few days ago was getting a GSXR 600 as a first bike and wanted to know how to make it faster.Or wanting to know when to shift.The list goes on and on.With the amount of cars on the road now that are filled with fools yacking on cell phones or eating lunch while they drive it’s a sure bet we are going to see a lot of people becoming hood ornaments.We have had 10 motorcycle deaths where i live this year.All but one were kids on sport bikes.In our society these days parents give kids whatever they want to shut them up(not all parents but you know what i mean).Giving them a 120 hp bike they don’t know how to ride is a sure way to shut them up forever.I think the death rate is going to go way up real soon.I hope i’m wrong though.
