Its gone crazy or is it just catching up on us?

[Pavlovski]

Baie waar Welsh

Dink daars 2 belangrike aspekte wat daartoe bydrae; Daars baie meer bikers op die pad as bv 10jaar trug & tweedens dink ek daar's teveel cage drivers wat nie meer die basics van K53 toepas nie...eg. indicate & checking blindspot before changing lanes.

Anyways, seker mens kan dié lys baie lank maak. Ry versigtig ouens & dink maar vir die vaak-vis op die pad ook.

[jaybiker]

Time was that your ordinary cage driver couldn't give a biker much hassle, because the bike was quick while his cage was gutless. These days even the poor mans car has a lot more grunt, so the driver tends to be more aggressive, just because he can, and he's bigger, harder, and might is right.

[wiledog_X]

check this relevant article on N24.... the guy spells it out nicely. i see it every day, and i commute only 10km to work and back....  

"South Africa weighs in with an official 14 000 road deaths a year - some sources put the figure as high as 20 000 through inaccurate data recording."

http://www.wheels24.co.za/News/UGC/Road-slaughter-When-will-it-stop-20130403

[Eisbein]

Eerie - I just saw the thread about How Wilddogs started and on the 1st two pages there's posts by Watty, Beemerman and Malgat - all not with us anymore.

I know they have all been taken by other (non biking) circumstances - but it kinda made me stop a bit and give a think to our own fleeting mortality (and fragility).

Back on topic W - it also seems to me like we are hearing more and more about these things the past couple of months.




Every morning when I swing my leg over the seat I think to myself - today can be the day.

[subie]

Greer, that's exactly what I'm talking about.  I'm paranoid of green lights nowadays.  I mean, traffic rules install some sense of trust, trust that if my light is green you will stop for your red light. Well that sense of trust is gone.

Call me names and spiteful but this is one of the reasons why we moved to a one horse town with about 9 stop streets and not a single traffic light.
In fact 9km’s away from it and even when we go there, people actually stop at them.
I dealt with Jozi, CT and Pta commuting and this type of madness for long enough thank you very please.
Thankfully we survived it in one piece after countless near misses as described by many above that happened on a daily basis.
Sure there’s the issue of making a living, not enjoying certain luxuries and not being able to buy a new bike ever so often but I’m sooo happy, way more chilled, actually have some nails at the ends of my fingers and don’t fly off the handle for the slightest reason no more.
De-urbanise people, get the &^$%#@! out of those big cities and come live the simple life in an environment where people do still actually care about their neighbours and you can live to tell the tale.

We have moved from a very small town (Velddrif) to Gauteng and we are definately moving out of here as soon as we can. The quality of life is worth every penny you earn less in a small town.