Quote:
Originally Posted by tophcfa
It broke my heart to sell my motorcycle because of cell phones. After riding a bike for over 45 years (and never dropping a bike), I lost the enjoyment of riding about the last 10 years after almost getting into several accidents by complete idiots that thought whatever was on their phone was more important than the lives of the other people on the road. It just wasn’t fun anymore having to assume everyone else on the road was looking at their phone instead of paying attention to driving. Where is the outrage? There is mothers against drinking and driving to protect their kids, how about mothers against using a phone and driving to protect their parents?
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I hear ya.
I had my bike shipped here from Minnesota a couple of months after we moved here. After about a month of riding here, I sold it. I had more close calls in that month riding here than I had in the previous ten years of riding back home.
Cell phones were one of the reasons, though I had an anti-cell phone device on the bike: an aftermarket horn that that sounded like a locomotive horn, and at 117 dB it was guaranteed to get anyone's attention. The few times I used it back home I think a couple of texters got whiplash when I sounded it--once, with a younger woman who was coasting through a red light with her head buried in her phone. I used it sparingly (not sure of it's legality), but it surely did work.
That was just one of the problems though: a biggie was that in TV particularly I was just not being seen, even by people not using their cell phones. Handle-able on a straight road at speed, but in a crowded roundabout--no, thank you. I had people run stop signs on me, try to pass w/an oncoming car far too close for comfort, etc. It is dangerous enough around here in a car. On a motorcycle, it is far too risky.