Safe Speed Forums

I thought I post this here as it may be something that the RoadPeace people have experience with or want to build on.

I teach advanced motorcycling as a hobby through a number of routes including commercial courses, IAM and BikeSafe. One thing I do that I'm told is different is include statistics when talking about risk. I don't mean the stat that says motorcyclists are 35 time more likely to be killed than car drivers as there isn't much a rider can do with this information (not to mention the fact that its not correct).

I do it like this:

Lets say I'm talking to a rider about planning and executing safe overtakes and covering off the differences between 2 stage and 3 stage overtakes, exposure rates etc and I ask.

which of the following are you most likely to come in to conflict with?

A) the car coming the other way
b) the car you are overtaking

Most opt for A. But the reality is we are most likely to come in to conflict with B. Sounds strange, but vehicles turning while being overtaken or overtaking while being overtaken cause many more accidents than head ons.

Hopefull it gets the message over that we need to think about what can go wrong rather than just calculating if we have enough space.

I use the same approach when talking about defensive riding and hazard priority when dealing with junctions and the fact that up to 80% of all bike accidents are Right of way violations (SMIDSYs).

Anyone else use statistic like this in driver education?

We tend to see statistic only to illustrate the physical effects (e.g. hit a child at 30mph and most survive...) rather than the physcological influencers (the 85th percentile is a good example)

Hi there,
I think this is an excellent idea. Any teaching aids that make people think of different possabilites can only give a wider perspective of how a situation could arise.
I personally know very little about riding a bike, but like all drivers see plenty on the roads. As I have mentioned before I spend a great deal of time in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, which is a favourite meeting place for bikers. I do this selling at the car boots, but also promoting what we in Roadpeace Lancs are trying to do. The bikers are very reseptive to us, and often spend time chating to us, and sharing their experiences. This is good, and not only are we promoting RoadPeace, we ourselves gain experience and take advice from them.
If you would like to 'enlarge' on your way of 'doing things' I would be more than pleased to share it with others on my site.
Don't panic about doing it at great speed, as website still not up and running yet due to a few probs my end, but hope to be there in a few days.
Your imput is valuable, as is everyones. Thanks.

_________________
belladonna
'Wisdom is knowing how little we know'
Socrates

feel free to lift any of the advanced riding articles from the following web address:

www.motorcycle-training.f2s.com/improve.html

I'd be more than happy to put something specific together too

Thanks so much.
I have briefly chacked out the site, and will 'sift and put onto' our website.
Yes, please, if you would like to write your own piece, that would be great, and we could make a feature from it, and use it as a topic at next meeting.
Talk soon,

_________________
belladonna
'Wisdom is knowing how little we know'
Socrates