Glass on the Roadside

Glass on the roadside; the hard shoulder of the motorway glittering in the piercing morning sunlight. A sea of red brake lights, some amber hazard lights; like vivid flowers in a sea of grey. The familiar slowing of traffic until it’s barely moving. In the distance a siren, blue lights, emergency services. Another life wasted.

It is an all too familiar experience for a London commuter.

I’m not usually a morbid character. I don’t dwell on death or any sort of life altering devastation, I’m a strong believer in fate. If you’re there when the sticky stuff hits the metal oscillating object, it was meant to be. That’s not to say I go about my life thinking what will happen will happen, I do err on the side of caution.

I once had a coffee with Louis Theroux and whilst chatting he said something which spurred me on to do, amongst other things, write this website. His advice to me was; if you want to do something, just give it a go, regardless of whether you screw it up or humiliate yourself or it all goes horribly wrong. It might not, and it may end up being the best decision you ever made. But if it does end up dropping on you from a great height, take it on the chin, dust yourself off and move on, start again.

I’m sure you’re wondering, well it’s not very much concerned with motoring. And you’d be right initially, however it was this caveat which was a contributory factor to me learning to ride a motorcycle. Actually getting out there and just doing it.

But following the events of the past few days, I’m scared. In fact I’m quite petrified.

Let me rewind slightly I have spent the past two weeks embroiled in a seething pit of frustration. Traffic jam after traffic jam after traffic jam ad infinitum.

Toward the end of the week I was unfortunate enough to witness two road traffic accidents and the aftermath of another. I’m a rather sensitive soul and have found that I always have the events of my journey branded on my conscience for the rest of the day if not longer, be it frustration from the delay or the poignant images of an accident.

The last accident I saw involved a motorcylist and a van. The motorcyclist didn't make it.

When I told colleagues and friends about my decisions to get a bike to commute to work to solve the financial burden and lack of parking issues, the majority were encouraging and supported my decision knowing that it also appealed to my petrolhead side. However there were a select few, my father included whom upon telling them of my decision retorted with a dismayed 'Oh dear'. I was then subjected to recounts of the most horrendous stories of motorcycle crashes leaving death and destruction in their wake. Not quite what a fledging biker wants to hear.

Now I'm fully aware being a car driver, just how vulnerable bikers are. When I do go out on my little bike I'm lit up like a christmas tree, I'm more lurid than Jordan's wedding dress. But the events of the past week have frightened me. The one thing I can't apply Louis' advice to is actually riding a motorcycle as a means of transport, all well and good thinking I'll give it a go to learn, but if I balls up my everyday riding, I probably wouldn't be around to dust myself off and go and do something else.

However, despite all this and my fear I have remained positive. I got back on my bike yesterday when it came back from receiving some much needed electrical repair. I ambled around for 1/2 hour or so and fell in love with the feeling of freedom all over again. I will remain undeterred.

Thoughts of biker's vulnerability led me to this site Sorry Mate I Didn't See You (or smidsy for short). It's called SMIDSY as this is often what the driver's of vehicles that have hit bikers say to the injured biker. This campaign has been set up encouraging car driver's to be more biker aware and reducing the amount of 'look but failed to see' collisions a contributory factor being the design of car A pillars . The site also campaigns for overall road safety and has some very interesting facts and figures relating to speed cameras . I urge you to go and take a look.

Back to SMIDSY, there is a video clip of a driver approaching a roundabout, it makes for shocking veiwing. There are a few seconds where the biker, already making his way around the roundabout is obscured from view by the windscreen pillar of the car. It's like the biker isn't even there. I'm sure the vast majority of car and van drivers don't even give this a second thought.

I'm 101% behind the sentiment of SMIDSY and hope that its message carries across to the main public arena, perhaps with 'celebrity ' endorsement as help, campaigns such as these which are increasingly important as the amount of traffic increases, but all too often fall by the wayside due to lack of funding or government support.

When I'm driving my car I will always adopt the 2nd look for bikes and scooters from now on, I hope you will too.