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A lot of this I think we already knew, but now there is proof of it.

Bike riders have a higher chance of fatality than non-bikes.
Impaired riding increases chance of accident and death.
Speed increases chance of injury/death.
Not wearing a helmet increases chance of death or serious injury.
In multi-vehicle accidents (car vs MC) the car was at fault more often (49% for car, 25% bike, 26% no-fault). Those bikes in no fault collisions were more likely to be dark bikes.
Urban riding has more accidents than rural.
Rural accidents have more serious injuries/fatalities than urban.
If you don't have an "M" endorsement, you are more likely to be in a fatal accident.
Curves are dangerous (twice the fatalities of accidents on straight roads).


Another interesting fact I read, 49 year old males are at the highest risk of fatal injuries (like 4x higher than general population). Can't show my wife that one (I am 49).
 
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The one I didn't see in there was not riding at night when the critters are out.

Also wonder if the rural crash fatality rate has to do with the access and proximity of emergency services.

There was a snippet about animals (urban vs rural), but nothing about night time riding, at least in the pdf pictorals. Maybe something in the actual report.

Rural fatality rate probably has many factors. Speed, curves, emergency response times, distance from hospital, time till found, etc.

edit: Page 57-58 and page 89 of report talk a little about lighting:

pp. 57-58
Table 23 displays the frequency of crashes by light condition and crash severity. A majority
of crashes occurred during daylight regardless of crash severity, including 66 percent of all
crashes and 59 percent of all fatal and suspected serious injury crashes. Of importance,
there was a higher percentage of fatal and suspected serious injury crashes at dark, night
lighted and dark, lighted compared to all severities. This finding indicates that dark lighting
conditions may be associated with greater crash severity.

attachment.jpg

p. 89:
There was a slightly higher percentage of cloudy weather conditions for fatal and suspected
serious injury crashes. A majority of crashes occurred in dry conditions regardless of crash
severity. The proportion of surface conditions did not vary greatly by crash severity. A
majority of crashes occurred during daylight regardless of crash severity. However, there was
a higher percentage of fatal and suspected serious injury crashes at dark, night lighted and
dark, lighted compared to all severity crashes.
 

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Many of these factors also overlap, making it a bit of a challenge sometimes to unravel it all. There's also an experience factor that I've seen in many studies. Basically, if you survive your first month of riding, your chances get a lot better. If you survive a couple of years of steady riding, they get a LOT better. Part is physical skills development, part of it is mental awareness and developing that 6th sense. When you've been at this a few years, you get to where you know when the Tahoe in the next lane is going to change lanes even before HE knows. That kind of awareness turns what might have been a crash, or at least a terrifying near miss in your early riding days, into a non-event at a higher experience level, because you simply read a potential situation and corrected for it before it ever became a real threat.

That said, there are some traffic areas I simply avoid. For some reason, the traffic around Grapevine on 121 and 114, or the 183 corridor from about Bedford Road to Northeast Mall, seem to be magnets for careless lane changes.
 
Aren't these A&M geniuses also the ones that did a study and came up with the brilliant idea of putting a median on state highways through towns forcing U-turns that are impossible in a full size truck without making a three point turn around?
 
tshelf,

Agree completely on that sixth sense, or intuition. I think fatigue combined with summer heat/humidity may be issues also. Glad to see studies like this.
 
The Three Sisters isn't innately more dangerous than any curvy road. I see two threats:
1) The temptation to go too fast & get yourself in trouble on some decreasing-radius curve, of which there are a number. And
2) The OTHER guy who's going too fast. When I was there several years ago, I encountered a pack of Goldwings coming up a hill with a curve to their right. I was closer to the center line than I should have been. But one of the Wing riders drifted wide on the curve, and into my path, far enough that I had to overcorrect way to the outside of MY track. By then I was down to about 40mph, and the Strom & I took a short excursion through the grass. The Wing was technically at fault. But I was just as much at fault for not being better placed in my lane, for not reading the threat earlier, and for not starting to correct before it almost became an accident. THAT'S something you really have to watch for on popular MC roads. That's also what I meant earlier about the sensory skills you build over time so that situations like that get nipped in the bud.

So as my wife would say, "Have fun, be careful, watch out for the nuts." And I'll add, don't assume the "nut" will be in a cage. Don't be fooled by the bravado you hear on MC sites - there are as just as many incompetent riders, by ratio, as there are drivers. In fact, probably more.
 
You can't believe the numbers in some of the tables. For example, number of registrations in Real and Edwards counties vs number of crashes yeilding a number of crashes per registrations is simply just a number. If one was to look, the majority of the crash victims in these two counties were not registered in either county.
 
You can't believe the numbers in some of the tables. For example, number of registrations in Real and Edwards counties vs number of crashes yeilding a number of crashes per registrations is simply just a number. If one was to look, the majority of the crash victims in these two counties were not registered in either county.

I was thinking the same thing when I read that. You know there is a problem when the county puts up a sign stating how many motorcycles crashed along a rural road.

One way to look at the data is how many 49-year-olds have only been riding for a handful of years. We all know that guy who turns middle aged, grows a rat-tail, buys a bike and then rides it like it's the F250 he used to commute to the office. Of course wearing a helmet is for sissies.

As for the Sisters, it's a crap shoot in terms of fun. A couple of times I've been there when it was raining and everybody else was in a nearby watering hole. Midweek the week the only traffic is the local rancher. On a nice weekend, it can be a cruiser parade - noisy and slow. Nothing like being stuck behind a beginner horsing a Harley around at the speed of trees.
 
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One way to look at the data is how many 49-year-olds have only been riding for a handful of years. We all know that guy who turns middle aged, grows a rat-tail, buys a bike and then rides it like it's the F250 he used to commute to the office. Of course wearing a helmet is for sissies.

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I was thinking the same thing. There is a drop off in the late 20's to mid 40's (getting married, being "responsible" etc), then midlife crisis comes, I need a bike, gets a bike, and either never rode one or been years since riding.
Ends up crashing and becoming a statistic.

That is the thing with numbers, there are always factors that are not in the results.
Riding experience is not something I see in this report, which makes a huge difference.
As said above, you get a 6th sense (or hopefully you do) after riding a lot.
I have noticed doing drivers ed with my daughter that she just does not see things coming like I do, and forget that that comes with experience. I find I am talking to her more as I drive of things I see and what could be (and many times does) happening.
We have all seen the youtube videos of stupid things people do on the streets, and those statistics show up in things like this (to an extent, much of that youtube stuff never gets reported for statistics).
I also know watching some of these youtube dash cam "accidents" you can many times see what is going to happen just by how others (either the camera vehicle or other vehicles) are driving. Sometimes they do come out of nowhere though and are out of the drivers control.

And I had to laugh at the rat-tail, do people still grow those? I have seen the man bun, but don't think I have seen a tail in decades.
 
One of the issues with high fatality rate in rural areas is that if you go through the trees it is actually pretty difficult to tell.

The distance from emergency services can also be an issue, I grew up 8 miles from small town (3,500 people) and it would take the fire department about 20 minutes to get out there. That is forever when you have severe injuries. What this tells me is that if you ride solo out in rural areas you should take a page from the military and have a first aid kit on your body and not your bike, also a system like SPOT personal tracker that has a emergency response button that sends your location to emergency services. I also heard that they will dispatch a helicopter ambulance if available.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 
And I had to laugh at the rat-tail, do people still grow those? I have seen the man bun, but don't think I have seen a tail in decades.

It's been decades since I hung out with any of those guys, so I'll bet you're right.

As far as the sixth sense, I do believe that practiced riders with a lot of miles under them ride differently than midlife newbies. I started street riding when I was 14 and spent summers in college driving OTR, so by the time I was in my mid twenties I had a different view of traffic than a lot of my peers. (Not claiming to be better, just more cautious.)

I decided not to teach my wife to ride a motorcycle for that very reason. On the freeway I'm looking for an open lane and to get out of the traffic while she'll head for the middle of the scrum. One a rural road, I'm constantly shifting lane position to keep on good surface while she barrels through. A fender bender on a motorcycle is when it's dropped in the driveway. Getting tapped by a car is almost always really bad news.
 
It's been decades since I hung out with any of those guys, so I'll bet you're right.

As far as the sixth sense, I do believe that practiced riders with a lot of miles under them ride differently than midlife newbies. I started street riding when I was 14 and spent summers in college driving OTR, so by the time I was in my mid twenties I had a different view of traffic than a lot of my peers. (Not claiming to be better, just more cautious.)

I decided not to teach my wife to ride a motorcycle for that very reason. On the freeway I'm looking for an open lane and to get out of the traffic while she'll head for the middle of the scrum. One a rural road, I'm constantly shifting lane position to keep on good surface while she barrels through. A fender bender on a motorcycle is when it's dropped in the driveway. Getting tapped by a car is almost always really bad news.
The five years or so I rode in Austin traffic everyday taught me bunches! My awareness level went way up! Stressful riding though.....:trust:
 
Houston Chronicle, in today's Sunday paper, front page: long discussion of Harris County and number one in drunk driving. Also, how low effectiveness law enforcement is on prevention and stopping repeat offenders.

Hence, why I never ride at night, and avoid some areas. Ugly stuff, all those drunks on the roads. My home state of CO, with legal pot: rising accident rates, from more stoned drivers.
 
Is that cited somewhere that I could read?

As with most studies, it depends on where the data comes from.
One shows an increase greater than expected after marijuana legalization, another shows no change.
Difference are one compares states near the states that legalized it (the one that shows an increase), the other uses data from states with similar population and traffic.

Another study shows that driving under the influence of marijuana is "safer" than alcohol.

Me personally, I don't want either on the road.
 
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Those daily rides for work were an impressive feat. More miles than most of us were putting on in a week. Did you finally give it up?

m

Career change; I left HEB to manage a beerhouse in Bastrop. Now I manage the first shift at a much larger beer distributor in Manor. So I still get to commute, but not as many miles...:sun:
 
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