I am sure this post will stir up some controversy like the Prius one. So before I go into more details I would like to say that I am talking purely from my own riding experience. Not a vast one. However I believe that logging approximately 1000 miles (1600 km) per month might entitle me to build some sort of a stereotype about various driver types. Also I am not trying to “target” a certain group out of hate or malice. Again this is just the result of my statistical analysis of all cases of “attacks” or rather clueless and poorly executed maneuvers by drivers on the road that resulted in me hard braking, weaving and/or swerving.

Now that I’ve made this disclaimer I shall proceed with my story.

In my half a year of riding there have been at least 10 instances of close calls if not more. Most of the time these are cases of someone merging pretty much into me. And for the ones who don’t know I am not one of the riders who splits lanes at space rocket like speeds. I try to be cautious and ride defensively. Also my new bike has got a louder exhaust note. And the first day (or night rathe) while riding it back to Los Angeles I was almost swept off the road on the 10 freeway in the LA downtown area by a big black SUV. Motodisiac who was driving his car in front of me saw that also in his rear view mirror. The driver - middle age woman on her cell.

Today I made a quick lunch getaway from the office. My route lied through somewhat congested streets of West Hollywood. As I headed back to the office 2 close calls happened in the time frame of less than 5 minutes. First, as I was splitting lanes while going not more than 35 mph in a 25-30mph traffic a young woman in a red Mini Cooper suddenly changed lanes not more than one inch in front of me. I had to brake hard to avoid being side swiped. And a second later when I was passing her on the left I took a look and, what a surprise, she was talking on her cell and looking straight ahead. 5 minutes later a woman in a big black SUV did pretty much the same, except this time she was a little further away from me. May be 10 inches or so. Again, as I was passing her by to make some eye contact and shake my head I saw her looking straight ahead while talking on her cell phone. I felt much safer riding a beat up 250cc off road bike in Thailand with no protective gear. This was my thought at that moment.

I am not sure if it is women in particular or the fact that they are on the cell phone, or just the fact that a driver talking on his/her cell have to pay or at least try to pay more attention to what they are doing on the road. But this seems like a trend as far as I am concerned.

To conclude this rant I clearly remember one of my first days riding. I took the streets to go visit one of my friends and show off my new toy. A couple of blocks away from his house I was almost hit by a young woman merging left while looking right and holding her cell phone with her left hand. Back then I did not think it was a trend …

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Motorcycles, Street, Auto, Cars, SUVs, Riding, Life, Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.