[catherd]

There are safe (and unsafe) drivers contributing to both car and motorcycle statistics. Is this an argument that the skill curve for motorcycle driving is skewed towards highly unskilled drivers but cars are more evenly distributed?

I don't remember much about my statistics classes but even if you're a 99th percentile driver can't you still say there will be a large increase in your own personal probability of a fatality if you jump from the car curve to the motorcycle one?

[bityard]

> Is this an argument that the skill curve for motorcycle driving is skewed towards highly unskilled drivers but cars are more evenly distributed?

Yes! Cars and motorcycles share the same roads but in North America at least, nearly everyone is a car driver and most people drive at _roughly_ the same skill level because we all drive for mostly the same reasons and have all had lots of time behind the wheel. (Of course there are outliers for all of these.) The vast majority of us wear our seatbelts, buy cars with good safety systems, and drive safely because even though it happens occasionally, none of us want to die at all, let alone due to something as mundane as a traffic accident.

But motorcycles are entirely recreational. People buy bikes for different reasons but the most popular ones are seeking thrills, looking cool, and trying to fit into a certain peer group. Safety is not a top concern for most motorcyclists, and is often something that even scoffed at. I personally know guys who refuse to wear a helmet because (to paraphrase their words), "I'd rather die as I am than end up half-alive as a paraplegic or vegetable." Nevermind that wearing a helmet makes the latter MORE likely, not less, but saying so would not have changed their minds anyway.

Those of us who DO take safety seriously are out there, wearing full-face helmets, armored jackets, pants, and boots. We practice our low-speed maneuvers and focus on situational awareness. We NEVER ride drunk or tired. We know we are not invincible. We acknowledge the risks but we try to push the odds more in our favor as much as we can. But we are a small minority and are severely underrepresented in injury statistics that non-riders like to tout on the Internet.