> but if it is not combined with training and of course a sound attitude, you may sooner or later find yourself in an undesirable situation.

I ride motorcycles, so this is not a argument against it, but even with all the best safety gear and perfect habits you’re still significantly more likely to die in an accident compared to a motorcycle per mile driven.

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bityard an hour ago | parent [-]

Motorcycle fatality and injury statistics don't control for a rider's skills, experience, or attitude. Add to that the fact that motorcycles tend to attract a large number of young thrill seekers on crotch rockets and counter-culture types on choppers--neither of which put much, if any, level of effort into safety--and you get studies and statistics saying that motorcycles are basically two-wheeled insta-death machines.

Yes, a motorcycle rider will never be as protected as a person in a car surrounded by a steel frame and airbags. That should go without saying. But it would be nice if we can acknowledge that people who actually make an effort to wear their gear and maintain situational awareness generally aren't well represented in the statistics.

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Workaccount2 an hour ago | parent [-]

It's been probably over a decade since I dug into this, but IIRC, if you have a motorcycle license, insurance, a registered bike, and wear a helmet, your fatal accident chances drop by 70%.

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philwelch 40 minutes ago | parent [-]

That’s equivalent to saying that if you don’t have a motorcycle license, don’t register your bike, don’t have insurance, and don’t wear your helmet, your fatal accident risk increases by over 3x. Put that way, it’s not surprising, nor does it actually tell you anything about the base rate safety of lawful motorcycling. By way of analogy, you could just as easily say “not dousing yourself in gasoline reduces the risk of death by smoking by 98%”, which is both true and useless.

	▲	Workaccount2 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I totally get what you are saying, but if you ride motorcycles and have been around motorcycle groups, the stat is clearly saying "as expected, it's the dumb kids doing the dieing". The comment is written for other riders, I left out a lot of detail for it to be a general comment.