[ST] re: For your consideration

[Jim Huber <jhuber@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>          An official at NHTSA (National Highway & Transportation
>  Safety Administration) has been quoted as saying "If the public turns
>  sour on motorcycling because motorcyclists cease to respect and
>  accommodate that public, motorcycling will become a historical
>  artifact!". The fact is that the 270 million Americans who care
>  nothing for motorcycles are getting fed-up with the aggravation of
>  riders burning their eyeballs with bright lights and assaulting their
>  eardrums with loud pipes. It will be EASY for this majority, under
>  color of altruism, to have their politicians simply regulate, tax and
>  restrict our sport to the point where riding will be
>  unaffordable or undesirable. A simple helmet law reduces motorcycle
>  registrations by almost a third; legal requirements for stringent
>  training, expensive and exhaustive licensing, mandated insurance
>  coverage, displacement limits, protective gear and safety & emissions
>  inspections (each of which is ALREADY in place in some nation) would
>  likely reduce the riding population by some 90%. The question then
>  becomes - who is going to manufacture motorcycles, in the face of
>  bloated product liability insurance rates, for so few prospective
>  buyers? This is the EXACT SAME SCENARIO used by the government to
>  effectively end production of light, single-engine aircraft in this
>  country a dozen years ago!

First of all, to give credit where credit is due, this came from a column in
the latest Motorcyclist magazine. Kudos to those guys for their dedication,
even though they have one of the coolest jobs in the world and we all envy
them.
	As for the content, I for one agree. "The public at large", which
really amounts to the influential few, do indeed have the power to make
motorcycling go away if they choose. So while visibility is a concern to me,
half of the "see and be seen" philosophy, I don't want to overdo it. I don't
wear a "hi-viz" Aerostich suit and don't run my high-beams during the day. I do
wear a fairly conspicuous helmet, though, and keep a close eye on the traffic
around me (read Keith Code's "wide screen vision" in Twist of the Wrist II).
While I have become a master of stoppie technique in downtown traffic out of
necessity, I haven't yet gone down on a streetbike (knock wood here if you're
the superstitious type). I also feel that I made the choice to ride, and while
I deserve consideration equal to that of other vehicles and frequently don't
get it, I don't think we deserve special consideration for our chosen lifestyle
or mode of transportation. Of course, I do think the roads would be a much more
polite place if we all rode motorcycles.

Yammer mode off...

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