PSA: When a motorcycle is following behind you.
Evening all,
Just wanted to flag something to every driver in Ireland.
DO NOT STOP OR SLOW DOWN when a motorbike is following you where it can be avoided or would be unexpected (for example letting other vehicles out, slowing down for pedestrians to cross, etc). Nobody is expecting you to run red lights, but don’t slow down or stop unnecessarily.
By being nice to somebody else, or overly cautious, you are increasing the risk of us getting rear ended by somebody not paying attention tenfold. By letting somebody out or letting pedestrians cross where it would be otherwise unexpected , you are forcing us to stop in a situation where we can’t filter and have no escape path (the car/pedestrian you just let out is blocking it) and a driver behind us not paying attention is 10 times more likely to rear end the vehicle in front of them. I often see drivers on their phone in my mirrors and know full well I’m getting hit if I have to stop.
It’s all fine for you to get rear ended by another car, for you it’s a lump of metal and an insurance claim, but for us on motorbikes being rear ended can end in serious injury or death.
If there’s a motorbike behind you, KEEP MOVING until they pass you or you are forced to stop (red lights, queue of traffic, etc). In these situations we are reading the road ahead and will move past you to a safer position in traffic once you begin to slow down.
Edit: just for the record. This is nothing to do with the stopping distance we leave between us and you. Nor anything to do with hitting you. This is caused by you slowing down and the car behind us busy scrolling Facebook or Instagram driving straight through us.
Edit 2: for those wondering why I put out this post.
Other day I was going through traffic, driver behind me not paying attention. Traffic stopped suddenly, car in front decided to let a pedestrian cross. 6th sense was screaming danger, car behind me wasn’t slowing enough. Instead of stopping behind the car in front, I quickly moved the bike onto the opposite side of the road, car that was behind me went straight past me and ploughed into the car in front.
If I hadent moved there I would be seriously hurt. I’m also lucky there was no oncoming traffic.
The driver behind was at fault, no doubt about it, but if that car in front hadn’t suddenly and unexpectedly stopped, that situation would never have happened. The car in front stopping created a situation where the driver behind not paying attention could rear end me.
Regardless of who is it isint at fault, I would still have been seriously hurt had I not had the sudden instinct to move.
That’s why this post was created.
Edit 3:
An example of a scenario that can occur because you stopped to let somebody out or a pedestrian cross.
Bike had sufficient braking distance, but it didn’t matter in the end.