[extropy-chat] Real Extropians don't drive SUVs

Spike spike66 at comcast.net
Fri Aug 20 05:22:31 UTC 2004



> Matus:
> ...the sharp increase recently in Motorcyclist fatalities in the US
has corresponded almost directly with the increase in light truck
registrations...

Ja but be careful with the conclusion that the trucks
are the cause of the increase in biker deaths.  One
can show a very high correllation coefficient between
biker deaths and light truck registrations, but that
does not prove a cause/effect.  A better correlation
is seen between biker deaths and the increasing average
age of bikers.  Clearly motorcycling has become far more
mainstream, moving out of the exclusively young male
crowd it once was.

This gets us several different ways.  An older biker
is more likely to perish in the same accident that a
young squid will survive.  As we age, our reflexes get
slower.  If we do not compensate by riding easier, we
are more likely to perish in a single vehicle accident,
which accounts for most of the recent increase in biker 
deaths.  We also have more guys (and gals) taking up
biking in their later years.  You can be sure one will
*never* be as good a rider and the kid who grew up on them.  

My *mother* for instance, recently got a motorcycle,
at age 62 fer cryin out loud.  I was appalled of course,
and feel partially responsible.  I took her to an antique
motorcycle gathering where she met a number of people so
much like herself: retired adventurous types.  I would
prefer she wouldn't ride, but she didn't stop me from
doing so 33 years ago.

She also gave me bad advice as a child: always wear
clean underwear, so that if you get in an accident and
the medics cut away your clothing, it will not be an
embarrassment.  Terrible advice for bikers.  Always
wear your rattiest old dirty underwear, or if you are
a macho straight male, wear frilly pink lacy undergarments.
Then when you are tempted to go too fast, remember that
even a minor accident could be fatal, for you would die
of sheer embarrassment if the nurses saw you in that.  
So underwear can be a safety item.

> So motorcyclists on the list (spike et al) beware, imagine all those
> SUV's about as huge danger zones.   Michael Dickey

Ja that is an issue, but Ill tell you what scares me
even more: the increase in elderly car drivers.  Nothing
makes me squirm like coming up to an intersection where
the other road has a stop sign and I see a puffy white head
looking the other way.  Did she already look my direction
and decide there is nothing coming?  Will she dart out 
and slay me the instant I reach the intersection?  Which
way will I toss this bike if she pulls out?

As luck would have it, the silicon valley is not well
suited for retirees; they move away.  But riding a
motorcycle in my home town in Florida can cause one 
to soil one's lacy pink undergarments.

spike    




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