Cursed Left Turn
 

How do we stop it?

How do we get people to stop saying "I never saw them?"

How do we keep cagers from turning left in front of motorcycles??

And, I'm serious. I've had one too many friends get clipped. One too many hurt, mamed, killed then the driver gets a failure-to-yield ticket and go about their life in the bubble cursing those dangerous motorcycles.

I'm so done with it.

Is it education? Bumper stickers aren't working.

Quit doing 80mph in a 30mph zone. lol

The biker has to be aware of what is going on around him, know how to swerve, how to cut between cars and how to brake. Car drivers are not going to change and most bikes that get a car turning left in front of them are usually speeding.

Try again.

Two incidents that I'm in some way related to.... one happened in front of me at an intersection. The other happened to one of my best friends yesterday. She was following her father only to be Tboned.

Neither was speeding.

Neither was doing anything other than just traveling, and neither had the opportunity to *swerve*. We can't treat EVERY car like it is a barking dog.

Do we go big or go home on this?? PSAs??

Most motorcycle accidents on the street are at speeds of 30 mph or less, and most of those are the fault of a cager.

I am frequently disgusted at the inattentiveness of cagers, both while I'm in my cage, and while I'm on my bike.

Part of me thinks that there should be some sort of harsher penalty for being at fault when a motorcyclist is injured.

Until cops start enforcing driving laws other than speeding and people start paying large fines and losing licenses for accidents nothing will change. It is amazing the difference between driving here in the States and in Germany. Germany has a tiered license system and major fines for causing an accident especially if it's from negligence (talking on a phone, eating, painting your toe nails etc.)

It's a risk to even get out of bed and walk out your front door, I accept that risk to ride on the street and I can live with it. I decided a while back that life isn't worth living if I can't enjoy it along the way. I've got to die from something, doesn't matter to me what it is really :idk:

i agree with you, azoomm. i was doing the speed limit when that lady pulled out in front of me in january and all she kept telling the police was that i ran a red light (yes the light had turned red, but after i went through it). then the cop asked her if she was watching the road or the light and that is when the cop knew that she wasn't paying attention to the road. she was ticketed and yes she went upon her business and i went to the hospital and my bike went to the junk yard.

good luck trying to get something done...i'll help anyway i can from my corner of the country

make every left turn have its own signal light. not just the big streets, all of em. cant turn left without a green arrow. that would cause alil more to alot more traffic, but drastically stop to completely eliminate that "left turn accident"

every fucking week-no, every fucking day, on my 8mile(yes thats roundtrip) commute to work, some stupid motherfucker pulls out in front of me, or makes a left turn in front of me where i have to cut the throttle and get on the brakes. a few times ive had to swerve/split lanes, or end up as a hood ornament. so far so good. and this is only in 8miles. 15 freakin mins. this shit is ridiculous. we as riders have to be aware, but theres only so much we can control.

I was just reading in one of this months magazines... can't remember which one, either CW, PB, or RRX... but anyway, they had an article on a system the japanese are working on that would warn cars of approaching motorcycles... but it involved a lot of electronics, and I assume some sort of beacon on all mc's, but it was an interesting article nonetheless. I'll see if I can find it again.

Sadly it is all part of the risk. Tonight I had to get on the brakes to stop for a red light and almost got rear ended. There was screetching, tire smoke and less than a foot to spare when I looked behind me. All I can say is that my brake light flasher may have just paid itself off.

I try to do everything I can to reduce my risk such as brake light flasher, head light brighter, bright orange backpack at all times but I still know that people won't see me.


Sucks but we are far too much of a minority to get anything done.

i would say that about 95% of the lights here in florida have a left turn signal light and it doesn't do shit. people still turn infront of bikes. if its not at a left turn its up the road a little when they are making a uturn. hell my accident was because the asshole made a right turn into the left lane cutting cross two lanes of traffic