re-evaluating night riding....close call....

[lonesoldier84]

let me start by saying I LOVE NIGHT-RIDING!!! something about it is just so amazing. Ive always loved jogging at night, driving at night, walking at night, cycling at night, so riding at night just fits right in. You feel like you own the city it is so relaxing and freeing I find.

But after a close call tonight I think I will be stoping my night-rides. Thing is the risks just arent worth the reward. My view on motorcycling is one of risk-management. If you take steps to put yourself in a group of riders that have a statistically lower chance of dying or being in a serious crash, then you are increasing your own chance of survival. Over time I have been addressing my actual riding, but now I think the time has come to address riding at night at all unless it is necessary.

My belief before was it's actually safer as there is less traffic on the roads. And to an extent I still feel that way. I don't worry too much about visibility and such because I wear a high-visibility traffic vest and ride defensively and such.

But what has made me change my mind?

Drunk drivers and a close call I had tonight.

If I don't ride at night I don't give the many drunk drivers a chance to hit me. That's my logic. Still drunkards during the day, but less of them and there is more visibility in daytime for them to see me.

The close call? This is what happened.

Downtown city centre. Red light. 3 lanes. I'm in far right lane. SUV in middle lane. Cavalier behind him. Far left lane has some random car. I gun it to get in front of the SUV as my lane is ending. I get in front of him safely with room to spare. He has tried to prevent me from getting in front of him initially as he tried gunning it also. Now the next red light. I am in far left, SUV in the only other lane to my right. Cavalier behind SUV. I take off at casual pace for traffic. SUV takes off aggressively and then SUV turns off at next right. Cavalier now beside me. He nods his head to say hello and smiles. I nod and say hello. Light turns green. Cavalier guns it expecting a race. I dont oblige. Next red light. He is behind a car now. I notice the passenger is sleeping and sprawled out. There is a big keg in the backseat.

Here is where I made my mistake, I should have analyzed the situation and gotten behind him. I didnt. Even if it didnt click in my mind that this guy is drunk I should have seen he was in an aggressive driving mode which could have been triggered by his desire to prove something in watching the SUV and my quick acceleration from one red light to the next.

So now, I stayed in my left lane and the cavalier is in the right lane behind another car as we approach the next set of lights which is green. He comes SCREEEEAMING through @ at least 50 kph faster than me and I was doing 50ish. He passes me in my own lane and misses my back tire by like 6 inches. I swerve away but dont have much room to work with as there is oncoming traffic on my left. At the next light I give him an earful but he thinks it is a big joke and isnt entirely capable of holding his end of the conversation. I follow him for a while and try to indicate to a passing cop that they need to follow this car but the cop is on her cell phone. I follow him some more (hoping to pull up next to a cop so i can point him out) but he starts driving EXTREMELY quickly and I stop for fear that he's going to kill someone just trying to get away from me.

Could have been nasty, rat bastard drunk drivers!!!!!!! and i know he was drunk for a few reasons (horrible driving he almost crashed a few more times before i stopped following him; keg in backseat; passed out buddy in passenger; dirty looking guy in general; inability to have a conversation).

When I came home I looked at my family and decided that its not worth it. Riding at night puts me in a higher risk situation and diminishes my chance of making it out alive to my 60's at least.

 

[wrightme43]

Dang man.

Drunk drivers are bad news. I love to ride at night too. I probley wont stop. Just add that to the experince bag and go on. I will. Thanks for posting it.

 

[damnpoor]

I get off work at 2am, right when the bars close

So far I've been lucky.

And I love the irony of the cop not paying attention due to the cell phone.

 

[lonesoldier84]

ya no doubt, lesson learned was if ANY reason to doubt get behind them. And FIND reasons to doubt. i learned some stuff about how to spot drunk drivers

1) interior lights turned on while driving.

2) headlights not turned on in models with manual headlight switch

3) obvious one of erratic driving and such

but just any aggressive driver im gonna just get behind them as quickly and safely as possible.

im still gonna cut back my night riding A LOT though. to me its just not worth the risk. I cant stop entirely cuz i love it so much, but picking better locations as well would be good. so no going thru downtown and stuff would be for me personally.

 

[lonesoldier84]

I get off work at 2am, right when the bars close

So far I've been lucky.

go to walmart. buy a high visibility traffic vest from their occupational safety aisle. it costs 15 bucks and is AMAZING for visibility. Drunks have a problem with lights. their occular (eye) function is diminished in regards to their ability to go from light source to dark to light source. it takes their eye longer to focus after coming from being blinded by headlights. having a BEACON of a traffic vest would save your life.

i NEVER ride at night without it. its ur typical construction vest, orange and yellow X in middle. walmart 15 bucks. the aisle with occupational safety gear, its near the sporting goods aisle. you feel like a dork the first 3 times you wear it. Then you refuse to ride without it.

 

[damnpoor]

go to walmart. buy a high visibility traffic vest from their occupational safety aisle. it costs 15 bucks and is AMAZING for visibility. Drunks have a problem with lights. their occular (eye) function is diminished in regards to their ability to go from light source to dark to light source. it takes their eye longer to focus after coming from being blinded by headlights. having a BEACON of a traffic vest would save your life.

i NEVER ride at night without it. its ur typical construction vest, orange and yellow X in middle. walmart 15 bucks. the aisle with occupational safety gear, its near the sporting goods aisle. you feel like a dork the first 3 times you wear it. Then you refuse to ride without it.

I'm pretty sure that kinda vest is also a requirement for riding on military bases, so maybe I should finally get one. I have a reflective belt that I wrap around myself and my backpack at night, which gives me a *tiny* bit more confidence.

 

[lonesoldier84]

I'm pretty sure that kinda vest is also a requirement for riding on military bases, so maybe I should finally get one. I have a reflective belt that I wrap around myself and my backpack at night, which gives me a *tiny* bit more confidence.

ya trust me this thing turns you into a BEACON of light you know EVERYONE sees you its amazing how awesome it is. Still ride like youre invisible though as always, but trust that it greatly improves your odds. coming up on left hand turners as well you STAND OUT which is a plus because it means they are seeing YOU before they see everything around you.

youre essentially a big massive yellow reflective "X" floating around traffic

 

[Nelly]

let me start by saying I LOVE NIGHT-RIDING!!! something about it is just so amazing. Ive always loved jogging at night, driving at night, walking at night, cycling at night, so riding at night just fits right in. You feel like you own the city it is so relaxing and freeing I find.

But after a close call tonight I think I will be stoping my night-rides. Thing is the risks just arent worth the reward. My view on motorcycling is one of risk-management. If you take steps to put yourself in a group of riders that have a statistically lower chance of dying or being in a serious crash, then you are increasing your own chance of survival. Over time I have been addressing my actual riding, but now I think the time has come to address riding at night at all unless it is necessary.

My belief before was it's actually safer as there is less traffic on the roads. And to an extent I still feel that way. I don't worry too much about visibility and such because I wear a high-visibility traffic vest and ride defensively and such.

But what has made me change my mind?

Drunk drivers and a close call I had tonight.

If I don't ride at night I don't give the many drunk drivers a chance to hit me. That's my logic. Still drunkards during the day, but less of them and there is more visibility in daytime for them to see me.

The close call? This is what happened.

Downtown city centre. Red light. 3 lanes. I'm in far right lane. SUV in middle lane. Cavalier behind him. Far left lane has some random car. I gun it to get in front of the SUV as my lane is ending. I get in front of him safely with room to spare. He has tried to prevent me from getting in front of him initially as he tried gunning it also. Now the next red light. I am in far left, SUV in the only other lane to my right. Cavalier behind SUV. I take off at casual pace for traffic. SUV takes off aggressively and then SUV turns off at next right. Cavalier now beside me. He nods his head to say hello and smiles. I nod and say hello. Light turns green. Cavalier guns it expecting a race. I dont oblige. Next red light. He is behind a car now. I notice the passenger is sleeping and sprawled out. There is a big keg in the backseat.

Here is where I made my mistake, I should have analyzed the situation and gotten behind him. I didnt. Even if it didnt click in my mind that this guy is drunk I should have seen he was in an aggressive driving mode which could have been triggered by his desire to prove something in watching the SUV and my quick acceleration from one red light to the next.

So now, I stayed in my left lane and the cavalier is in the right lane behind another car as we approach the next set of lights which is green. He comes SCREEEEAMING through @ at least 50 kph faster than me and I was doing 50ish. He passes me in my own lane and misses my back tire by like 6 inches. I swerve away but dont have much room to work with as there is oncoming traffic on my left. At the next light I give him an earful but he thinks it is a big joke and isnt entirely capable of holding his end of the conversation. I follow him for a while and try to indicate to a passing cop that they need to follow this car but the cop is on her cell phone. I follow him some more (hoping to pull up next to a cop so i can point him out) but he starts driving EXTREMELY quickly and I stop for fear that he's going to kill someone just trying to get away from me.

Could have been nasty, rat bastard drunk drivers!!!!!!! and i know he was drunk for a few reasons (horrible driving he almost crashed a few more times before i stopped following him; keg in backseat; passed out buddy in passenger; dirty looking guy in general; inability to have a conversation).

When I came home I looked at my family and decided that its not worth it. Riding at night puts me in a higher risk situation and diminishes my chance of making it out alive to my 60's at least.

Hi Mate,
Its typical isn't it, you address the areas of your own riding that make you unsafe and then nearly get shafted by a drunk. I love night riding and often go out when my family are tucked up and I can't sleep. Fortunately we don't has as much of a problem as you guys with DWI's. I am glad that you are OK. Could you have taken his plate number then stopped to talk to the Police officer or got on your horn to draw attention?

 

[damnpoor]

On a related note, this promoted my curiosity and I started a poll

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-general-discussion/6598-night-gear-poll.html

 

[lonesoldier84]

Hi Mate,
Its typical isn't it, you address the areas of your own riding that make you unsafe and then nearly get shafted by a drunk. I love night riding and often go out when my family are tucked up and I can't sleep. Fortunately we don't has as much of a problem as you guys with DWI's. I am glad that you are OK. Could you have taken his plate number then stopped to talk to the Police officer or got on your horn to draw attention?

i had his license plate number and was gonna tell the first copi saw so they could radio it to be on the lookout for him. then i couldnt find one. then it started to rain and the lightning show started so i headed for home instead of stopping by a police station as i was considering. thought about calling it in but they would never have found him anyway. id have to come in and fill out paperwork or who knows what and all for nothing

 

[mastakilla]

I'm sorry, but I think you made the wrong conclusion here.

First of all, by gunning it to try to get in front of the SUV, you kinda started the whole thing. Maybe that's not something you should do at night.

Second, when you noticed that stuff about the drunk driver, you should have gotten behind him. It has happened to me before, some cager wanted to race me on an empty road at night. Not only did I get behind him quickly, I also slowed downed considerably, so he would get out of my sight. No point in getting only 10 feet behind him.

I don't see why you should cut back on your night driving. There's less people on the road, so there's less chance to get in an accident. Just be extra careful around the cars that are on the road, and make sure not to tempt anyone to race you.

You don't have to give up something you love just because of one a$$hat.

 

[abraxas]

Less people on the road, perhaps, but the chances one of them's going to hit you is more than 100 times up.
Be visible, wear one of those luminous vests. And assume they're all drunk, blind and stupid and want to see road kill.

At night i don't even stick around at robots. Check it's clear and go.

 

[lonesoldier84]

robots? u mean red lights?

and ya i admitted my mistake of not getting behind him. but the thing is there's a bigger danger of people running red lights at night. im not gonna cut it out completely tho, think ill cut back on it a bit tho.

 

[paul1149]

My cousin was killed by a drunk driver at Laconia bike week three weeks ago. The guy crossed the center line and plowed into him. Left the accident scene; was still legally drunk 5 hrs later. So your observation is valid. Your conclusion is personal. If you know the dangers you can minimize, but never eliminate, the risk.

All that said, I just did the dual-low beam mod and started riding at night recently. Around here probably the greatest danger is deer. Lots of unlit secondary roads.

Is it worth it? I find it a physical/mental challenge and think it's one I should take on, as carefully as I can. But I respect anyone's opinion that it's not worth it. And thanks for that vest tip. I'm going to carry one in the bag.
p.

 

[mdr]

Hi Mate,
Its typical isn't it, you address the areas of your own riding that make you unsafe and then nearly get shafted by a drunk. I love night riding and often go out when my family are tucked up and I can't sleep. Fortunately we don't has as much of a problem as you guys with DWI's. I am glad that you are OK. Could you have taken his plate number then stopped to talk to the Police officer or got on your horn to draw attention?

I've tried this with zero positive results. It might make you feel better but the LEO is unlikely to do anything with the info. It's a "he said-she said" argument and at least in a BIG city LEOs tend to ignore those. If they didn't ignore it the LEOs would be off on wild goose chases all the time as the kids here would be calling "drunk" on random cars just for kicks.

They pretty much have to see the infraction to go after them. My experience anyway. Was different when I lived in small town. Then it might have worked.

 

[NRVOUZ]

I'm pretty sure that kinda vest is also a requirement for riding on military bases, so maybe I should finally get one. I have a reflective belt that I wrap around myself and my backpack at night, which gives me a *tiny* bit more confidence.

Yes. It is actually a reqirement off post at night anyway. I think they let you slide during the day but definately a requirement on post.

 

[Hollow]

let me start by saying I LOVE NIGHT-RIDING!!! something about it is just so amazing. Ive always loved jogging at night, driving at night, walking at night, cycling at night, so riding at night just fits right in. You feel like you own the city it is so relaxing and freeing I find.

But after a close call tonight I think I will be stoping my night-rides. Thing is the risks just arent worth the reward. My view on motorcycling is one of risk-management. If you take steps to put yourself in a group of riders that have a statistically lower chance of dying or being in a serious crash, then you are increasing your own chance of survival. Over time I have been addressing my actual riding, but now I think the time has come to address riding at night at all unless it is necessary.

My belief before was it's actually safer as there is less traffic on the roads. And to an extent I still feel that way. I don't worry too much about visibility and such because I wear a high-visibility traffic vest and ride defensively and such.

But what has made me change my mind?

Drunk drivers and a close call I had tonight.

If I don't ride at night I don't give the many drunk drivers a chance to hit me. That's my logic. Still drunkards during the day, but less of them and there is more visibility in daytime for them to see me.

The close call? This is what happened.

Downtown city centre. Red light. 3 lanes. I'm in far right lane. SUV in middle lane. Cavalier behind him. Far left lane has some random car. I gun it to get in front of the SUV as my lane is ending. I get in front of him safely with room to spare. He has tried to prevent me from getting in front of him initially as he tried gunning it also. Now the next red light. I am in far left, SUV in the only other lane to my right. Cavalier behind SUV. I take off at casual pace for traffic. SUV takes off aggressively and then SUV turns off at next right. Cavalier now beside me. He nods his head to say hello and smiles. I nod and say hello. Light turns green. Cavalier guns it expecting a race. I dont oblige. Next red light. He is behind a car now. I notice the passenger is sleeping and sprawled out. There is a big keg in the backseat.

Here is where I made my mistake, I should have analyzed the situation and gotten behind him. I didnt. Even if it didnt click in my mind that this guy is drunk I should have seen he was in an aggressive driving mode which could have been triggered by his desire to prove something in watching the SUV and my quick acceleration from one red light to the next.

So now, I stayed in my left lane and the cavalier is in the right lane behind another car as we approach the next set of lights which is green. He comes SCREEEEAMING through @ at least 50 kph faster than me and I was doing 50ish. He passes me in my own lane and misses my back tire by like 6 inches. I swerve away but dont have much room to work with as there is oncoming traffic on my left. At the next light I give him an earful but he thinks it is a big joke and isnt entirely capable of holding his end of the conversation. I follow him for a while and try to indicate to a passing cop that they need to follow this car but the cop is on her cell phone. I follow him some more (hoping to pull up next to a cop so i can point him out) but he starts driving EXTREMELY quickly and I stop for fear that he's going to kill someone just trying to get away from me.

Could have been nasty, rat bastard drunk drivers!!!!!!! and i know he was drunk for a few reasons (horrible driving he almost crashed a few more times before i stopped following him; keg in backseat; passed out buddy in passenger; dirty looking guy in general; inability to have a conversation).

When I came home I looked at my family and decided that its not worth it. Riding at night puts me in a higher risk situation and diminishes my chance of making it out alive to my 60's at least.

You need to see the post called something like OMG you have to see this. Read on in the post to find he was a drunk driver.

 

[lonesoldier84]

I've tried this with zero positive results. It might make you feel better but the LEO is unlikely to do anything with the info. It's a "he said-she said" argument and at least in a BIG city LEOs tend to ignore those. If they didn't ignore it the LEOs would be off on wild goose chases all the time as the kids here would be calling "drunk" on random cars just for kicks.

They pretty much have to see the infraction to go after them. My experience anyway. Was different when I lived in small town. Then it might have worked.

i live in a city of 1.5 million

you can call 9-1-1 and tell them youre tailing a drunk driver. they send a car immediately and it pulls em over. then you stick around and give em ur info in case they need u as a witness. ive done it before.