Excerpt from: Motorcycle Lawyer
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| September 17, 2007 | | Is the new witch hunt on? | No sooner did the new motorcycle safety study lead to new proposed legislation, than the findings started to resemble the old Senator Danforth approach to motorcycles.
The first proposal involves possible federal legislation requiring helmets for all riders. While I wear a helmet, always, I am not quite ready to require one for everyone riding under all circumstances.
Next, a study was released showing high fatality rates involving sportbikes.
Of course, this simply begs the question. Sportbikes are typically ridden faster than other bikes, are used for high speed rides on more difficult roads, are typically ridden by younger riders, and so forth. Which factor(s) are the critical ones? No one knows. How do these riders compare for safety courses and riding experience?
This correlates with something that I have noticed, which is that many newer riders buy sportbikes because they seem small and easy to ride, and they provide a lot of performance for a reasonable price. Women riders often pick out sportbikes because of the size. Newer riders often pick them out, because of the cost. Younger riders often pick them out because they ask "which is faster?". Many riders choose them, because of the cool and tech factors.
This provides a lot of different targets for a preliminary finding.
Hopefully, this is just a growing pain type of phenomenon, and we will see more useful analysis as the study continues.
In the meantime, we need to resist the quick fix, rush to judgment mentality.
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