LETTER: Watch out for riders!

I wish to write about a class of people, of which I am one.  This class consists of fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, Christians, atheists, professionals, blue-collar workers, whites, blacks, Latinos, Asians, American Indians, and probably several others. We pay taxes, mortgage payments, rent, utilities, buy groceries, gas, insurance, clothes, shoes, and do all the things everybody else does.  In other words, we come from many walks of life and are just like everybody else.  Yet, we are discriminated against in many ways.  I am talking about bikers and other motorcyclists.  I make a distinction between the two.  Being a biker is a lifestyle, while a motorcyclist is simply someone who rides a motorcycle.  For the sake of simplicity, I am going to call us all bikers.

There have been several motorcycle wrecks in the last several weeks, and the majority of them have been the fault of an automobile driver.  Admittedly, some bikers bring their misfortune on themselves, due to their unsafe riding styles, but statistics have shown that approximately 70 percent of motorcycle-car accidents are the fault of the car driver. This is why I say, we are discriminated against. I have been riding for a little over 55 years, and every day I see people in cars doing absolutely dumb stuff concerning motorcycles. They fail to yield the right of way to bikers, evidently refusing to recognize us as legitimate vehicles.
I have actually made eye contact with auto drivers, so they obviously have seen me, yet they still pull right out in front of me. I have had them tailgate me, change lanes right in front of me, and, most often, turn left in front of me when coming toward me. All motorcycles since about 1973 or there-abouts, have been required to have their headlights on at all times, yet car drivers seem to be blind as far as motorcycles are concerned.

I have become convinced that too many people actually don’t like bikers. And while some bikers do seem to go out of their way to be obnoxious, they are the 1 percent who give the rest of us a bad name. As stated in my first paragraph, bikers are just like anybody else. We just happen to choose a different mode of transportation than most people. I just wonder if the reason many people seem to hate us is because they are jealous of us? Possibly they feel threatened by us since we have the nerve to ride and they don’t? Or is it because motorcycles embody the very essence of freedom, and they don’t like it.  Some hate to see someone else having a good time.

Since I ride every day, I would just like to beg automobile drivers to remember that we are people just like them. We are somebody’s mother, father, etc.  What if it was your relative?  Please watch out for us and give us the courtesy of the road that you give other car drivers.

Sandy Miller