Motorcyclists; can we be heroes, not victims

Sixty five per cent of car drivers don’t see motorcycles when driving. How do we know this? Because a recent study by IAM Roadsmart asked 1000 car drivers if they’d been tailgated by motorcyclists or surprised by a rider making a close pass and 35% of them replied ‘Yes’.

We also know, as riders that pretty much every single one of us tailgates and makes close passes, so for only 35% of car drivers to see it means that 65% of them don’t even notice us when we are most noticeably affecting their journey.

Probably.

Ok, I’m playing fast-and-loose with the statistics, but I’d still argue that my interpretation of the survey results is more accurate than most of the ‘poor motorcyclists, we’re all victims’ nonsense I’ve been reading elsewhere.

We can moan all we like about how car drivers should look for bikes, but 100 years of history suggests that’s not going to happen and the current generation of tin-top occupants have more distractions than ever. As riders, we have to stop blaming others and fix this issue ourselves.

The IAM study also asked riders how often they’d been the victim of litter chucked from cars and 37% of the 600 riders asked had experienced this. Again, the headlines have been all about drivers deliberately targeting riders – some of whom claimed that drivers had intentionally sprayed them with windscreen washer fluid, thrown food out of the window and moved around in their lane to block a rider when filtering.

I’m sure we’ve all seen this behaviour and, in the heat of the moment we might have believed it was deliberate. In fact, I’m sure there have been occasions when it was intentional, but the reporting of this IAM survey in the media makes it sound like this is the norm. ‘One third of motorcyclists have been pelted with litter,’ was one of the more hysterical bits of clickbait

We can’t have it both ways, claiming on the one hand that drivers don’t look out for bikes and then in the next breath accuse them of waiting until we’re in range and throwing things at us, blocking our path or getting trigger happy with the windscreen washers. It’s got to be one or the other.

Most car drivers would be disappointed to discover their windscreen washers did anything other than wash the windscreen, let alone view them as a weapon. And while some cars do move around in a queue as we filter towards them, I don’t believe many (if any) are doing it maliciously.

I ride 25,000 miles a year, much of it in busy traffic and my experience is that when drivers see me, they usually make room, if only to save the cost of a wing mirror. The vast majority are polite and helpful, and we should be bigger and smarter than to play the ‘poor-me’ victim card…again. We’ll be moaning about speed cameras next and how it’s not fair that we can’t break the law with impunity.

Flip it around and ask how many car drivers would describe being scared by ‘Speed-crazed motorcycle maniacs using the roads as racetracks.’ That’s mostly not true either but if you’ve been stuck in a queue for 38 minutes averaging 4mph, the battered 125cc scooter brushing your mirror at 19mph will look like an out-of-control Top Gun flypast if you didn’t see it coming. And why would you be looking in your mirror if you’re mid-pack in a queue that’s travelled 30 yards in the last five minutes?

Riding a bike in traffic is like entering a rocket in a balloon race. It comes with responsibilities to the rider because we are the ones with control of the safety outcomes.

Motorcycles are the mavericks on any given piece of road. We create our own ‘bike lanes’ and can control the speed we get from here to there regardless of the length of the queue(s).

So, it’s us who should take responsibility for our own safety. Understanding that is motorcycling 101.

Car drivers aren’t the enemy. They aren’t out to get us, they just want to be where they need to be.

I have no feelings about any of the 1500 or so cars and vans I passed this morning on my way to work. They are anonymous tin boxes to be processed as quickly and safely as possible before moving on to the next one. My aim is to not interrupt their journey at all. If I make them swerve or slow down or even really notice me for more than a split second, then I’ve done something wrong. I don’t need them to see me because I already saw them and acted accordingly.

That’s the skill, that’s the pleasure of a bike for me every bit as much as slick country cornering or imaginary wheelies. It’s my urban riding equivalent of Casey Stoner sliding both tyres at the Malaysian GP in that corner with the brakes full on and the throttle wide open. Casey could do miracles with a MotoGP bike, but I can get from Sussex to Peterborough through rush hour traffic in 131 minutes on a vintage Yamaha Fazer and still average 55mpg. Form an orderly queue please…

So, instead of playing the victim, let’s hone our skills, take pride in our risk awareness, our ability to predict driver behaviour and make smoother progress. Let’s be even more impressive to those poor bastards stuck in the queue with nothing but a half-eaten apple to cheer them up.

Thanks to the IAM survey we now know that 65 per cent of them don’t see us but that doesn’t matter because we’ve seen them and acted smartly.

Being on a bike makes us a winner…every day. No one wins the Manchester rush hour. And to most people a lap of the M25 is not as emotional as Mugello. But the skills required are every bit as valuable. Congratulations Colin of Wythenshawe, you are a winner.

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