Do you like driving
a car? Of course you do. Okay, even if don’t you most certainly like to
travel, move from point A to B in a car as either a driver or a passenger. Most
probably you went on a trip to some long distant place and you did feel the
excitement of rushing early in the morning, packing yourself up and just
hitting the road. The act, the process of reaching the destination may be
somehow thrilling, as important as the trip alone. Now, take that appealing,
stimulating feeling of going on a trip with your car, imagine it, feel it and… quadruple it. That’s how riding a motorcycle is.
In short
Ever noticed how most of motorcyclists are just passionate about riding?
How wide of a smile they have on their face before, during and after a ride.
Because it brings joy, freedom, exploration, excitement, a connection to the
surroundings.
In
a car everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is
all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You're
completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it
anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.
Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Being on a motorcycle, taking those turns, ups and downs on a country
road on a beautiful day is an experience worth of living for. In contrast to
the car a rider absorbs his surroundings with his every sense. Feeling the
warmth of the sun in open road, sudden breeze from a shade of trees in fragrant
forest, the speed and slow, the wind and flow, the colourful world moving
around, you can all feel it, embrace it or rather it embraces you.
I ride because it's the next best
thing to sex, and I already have six children! Really, the reason I love to
ride is that it gets me to focus on the intensity and joy of being in the
moment, and is just about the only thing that gets me to stop thinking about 20
things at once. So an hour on a motorcycle is like 20 hours of vacation!
Erik Buell, founder, Buell Motorcycle Company MC
Erik Buell, founder, Buell Motorcycle Company MC
It is impossible to
pass on the feeling and fully explain the experience. Also, the whole bikers’ environment and little society is kind of
unique. It’s really like a big family (always waving and
greeting a fellow biker on the road). Bikers are always happy and eager to help
you on the road, most of them are very passionate about riding. Because of
that, they are also more aware riders, skilful as riding is more demanding than driving in regards of attention and technique. But I’m sure that if you own a motorcycle you know
what I mean and If you don’t have one, try it! I
guess it’s only possible to understand through
experiencing it.
2 https://orig00.deviantart.net/cdba/f/2012/337/8/b/8b5664689877c5be871823448629688f-d5mxnkp.jpg
The attitude
Before you grab a
pitchfork and start yaddaing how dangerous riding a motorcycle is and how crazy
bikers are, let me remind you that most of bikers are just simple people like
you and I, you might not even realize. Let’s not judge the whole
group based on few rotten fruits you can see on the streets sometimes. Most
motorcyclists are invisible. Few years back there was a campaign “Motocykliści są wśród nas” that pointed this out. What’s more, bikers’ family does much good like organizing, participating in awesome events
such as Motomikołaje, visiting orphanages, hospitals, spreading
road awareness and education.
Traffic jam? Oh I love strawberry jam
Another awesome thing
in riding a motorcycle in case of a city is that you don’t care about traffic jams, congestion. You
always flow like a water. It’s called filtering. How
does filtering works is explained in this short video which I highly recommend
watching:
Questions:
- Do you own, ride a motorcycle or know anyone who does? If not, would you like to try?
- Do you like to travel/move/explore distant places?
- What is your attitude
towards
bikersriders and motorcycles? Did you ever interact with one on the road? - What do you think
about filtering? Do you think “buspas” should be allowed for
bikersriders as well?
Comments
I love to travel. I does not matter if we are speaking about going abroad to sightseeing or relaxing, going work a walk in forest or trying to climb some mountain - I just love it. This feeling that makes you feel free while having your own journey - it's outstanding. Jogging at some parks is other way of exploring nature that I enjoy.
I do not have any specific felling about bikers or motorcycles. Sometimes there are some people that do not respect traffic rules and it makes me annoyed, but there are also car drivers that do it to, so...
Biker should have their own roads. Bike is neither a car or human so riding a bike on normal street or pavement is bad. The problem is that in countries like Poland bikers do not have their own roads ( or it's not much enough of it).
I like to travel. It is relaxing and give an opportuinity to get to know places, people, climates and cultures. About year or two ago I was "exploring" Poland - I was a weekend tourist. It was quite nice - I've beed in many places and some of them aren't too popular, as Pacanów (p,lae where Koziołek Matołek was going in all the books).
It bikers and motorcycles act normally I'm fine with that. But I've got a problem when they act like king of road - I'm not a experienced driver and it makes me very uncomfortable when they are trying to ride next to me, they squeeze between cars etc.
I think that buspas should be allowed for bikers, because of resons above. What the most important for this topic is that motorcycled woul rather not block this buspas, so it won't be a problem for buses.
2. I like to travel far, and for that I use my cars. I also found that for me personally motorcycle trips are not as comfortable. A car can deliver as much adrenaline as a bike does, only without all the pain biking causes.
3. I found that bikers are often (not always) called organ donors for a reason. There is no culture amongst bikers in Poland whatsoever and in most cases I do not feel sorry for them getting into accidents. They have to be aware of the fact, that they are much smaller and lighter than a car driver with his vehicle. Even the drivers mistake that would mean a scratch for another car, might mean death for the bike rider. Riders do very often ride their bikes like driving gods, which tends to cause even more ugly accidents. I do not like to generalize, but this time - generally bike culture in Poland is terrible, and my attitude towards bikers here is usually very negative. I do not like all the "look in the mirror, there might be a biker coming" campaigns. They are highlighted by the bikers while neglecting the fact that they zoom between cars with very high velocity, very often not giving the drivers a chance to see them. And ultimately it's their life that's at stake.
4. NO. Bikes are not buses. Bus lanes are there for a reason - for buses to be able to travel at a regular pace. Even though I drive a lot, I am strongly for raising the tickets that you get for driving in bus lanes. If the ticket would not be 100PLN, but for example 1500PLN, people would start respecting it, and commuting by public transport would be faster. Now imagine how fast it would be if your bus would get stuck after a group of bikers, casually doing 10kph in the bus lane...
That said, I would want to see more bike roads. Poland is terrible at providing them and the statistics are among the worst in Europe. This is not OK, considering the fact how congested the big cities are in Poland, and how that could be reduced by expanding the bicycle infrastructure.
I don't know what I think about buspass because on the one hand motorcycles are very small but on the other hand motorciclist ride very qucikly.
Yeaah,thank you for this question about travelling. My dream is to travel on my car, to explore new places,cities and other breathtaking views.
As i said, i'm not a hater of bikes, but they are not for all people i think. You must be 100% sure of yourself that you will not create a dangerous situation and also you must be 100% sure of someone, that can not create this kind of situation too - it's unreal.
I'm always on a side, that helps us to make our life easier and less dangerous, so i'm not against 'buspas'
I prefer urban riding rather than long distance voyages. In my opinion, car is a better vehicle for such trips.
Like in every social group there are bad and good people. The same thing relates to the motorcyclists. Some of them think they are allowed to do more and these type of people is annoying on the road. However there also good ones that behave properly on the road and don't cause any problems.
I think filtering is a blessing ;) Of course every motorcyclist should know how to do it safely and don't ride 100 km/h in a narrow line between cars. And as long as motorcycles doesn't make any problem for buses I think that motorcycles should be allowed on bus-lanes.
Thanks for the comment.
Bikers are allowed to ride on a buspasess in Łódź, Gdańsk or Kraków, it is considered to let them in Warsaw link
Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for the comment.
I agree that people in general in a car, bike, bicycle do not value their and/or others lifes. A car is massive compared to bike and can easly crush it, riders ride forgetting that and we happen to have those awful accidents. Not all bikers are like that fortunately. And we don't notice those who aren't. Those are invisible.
Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for the comment.
It is too fast and too dangerous for me. I rather prefer bike :P
I like to travel and discover new places but only by my car.
When I see a motorcycle in traffic jam I'm trying to make some place for him.
I think that current situation with "buspas" is ok. It is special lane for people whose are traveling by bus or taxis.
Ad. 2. I do like travel and to conquer large distances, finding new interesting places, sight-seeing, meeting new people. And I do it using car, train, plane – much safer than motorcycles ways of moving.
Ad. 3. I have very critical attitude towards rides and motorcycles, actually I am strictly against them. That’s because for “extraordinary impressions” too high price can be payed – because they expose to danger not only themselves, and also other people, and that’s simply not fair.
Ad. 4. I had no interaction on the road, but I’ve heard about many such situations. Riding should be acceptable only in special areas, that’s my opinion. “Buspas” is not such area, I mean large space available only to riders. It shouldn’t bring danger to people, who don’t have influence on such “phenomenon”.
Yes, I love travelling by car in the summer, but long-distance rides bore me and I get tired after 4-5 hours.
I don't have special attitude to them, however I think they are out of control and regulations, because of their behaviour on the road.
I am convinced that such "buspasses" can be allowed just to taxi drivers, bus drivers, ambulances and some other special exceptions.
I love long and slow rides by a car but I can imagine that motorcycle is far better for just riding for fun.
I have nothing against biker- they are neutral to me but sometiems I adore their motorbikes.
I'm not sure about buspas for bikers. If it's not a problem for buses I neither see any problem.
I don't have a motorcycle and I don't really want to try. I've tried quadbike a year ago, I was riding it in desert, that was a pure fun. But I don't see such potential fun in motorcycles.
I don't think it is a good idea to allow bikers to use "buspas". And why they even need it? Are they not flexible enough to avoid most of traffic jams? Bus lane is only in service for public transportations and in my opinion it should stay as it is.
I like travelling, especially when I'm driving alone, cause I can "floor it" on some expressways, although longer trips with high speed sometimes feel tiresome, mostly when the fun from "whoa I'm driving way above limit" ends...
I feel sympathetic towards riders and they should be allowed to use bus lanes. They are far better than bikers, who don't even have to have the licence and often ride recklessly, of course having their metal-butt syndrome (a.k.a I HAV PRIORTY, SO IM INVINCIBLE!11) and pretending they are healthier than car drivers (yea, cause riding a bike between hundreds of cars and inhaling all the "good stuff" must be healthy for you"). Motorcyclists are usually polite, are thankful for nice actions (like moving your car closer to one side) and ACCELERATE FASTER - seriously, its a real plague with cyclists - "hurr durr I'm gonna position myself on the front of everyone, right before the lights, so I will be blocking EVERYONE on this lane, instead of some people behind me"
Yes traveling is great, i love to explore new places because i tend to focus on non obvious parts of it, for example trip to paris while seeing eifell tower was huge(pun intended), seeing immigrand community live in barracks under the crossroad was also huge, most of us wont see the second part.
Bikers a great centralized culture, in spite of common belief very aware of responsibilities riding a motorcycle brings. The perception of bikers is skewed by young unexperienced drivers, with more muscles than brain in their head.
Allowing bikes on buspasses would change nothing for general traffic only make those bikers safer from actual ignorant drivers. And its not like we dont allow cars on busspasses we do just in "special defined" cases.
Once I came of age I instantly got myself a category A driving license. It was back in 2011, so there were no limits like there are today. I could have bought myself Hayabusa and it would be totally legal for me to drive it. Knowing that I had only experience with 50cc I decided to settle on Honda CBR600f 2011. And how beautiful it was. Fully black with some custom elements. The moments of riding it were definitely one of the best of my life.
Unfortunately in my history with motorcycles I had 4 accidents. Two of them resulted in total crashes, after the first one I bought a second exact same model. After the 2nd crash I decided to let myself mature a bit. The thing is that in all of these accidents I wasn't a perpetrator, but there were so many other close situations in my history with bikes, that would have most likely resulted in me riding a wheelchair, that I decided that I wasn't ready for bikes. I know that one day I will once more enjoy the beauty of motorcycles, but probably not in Poland, where most of the people don't know how to share road with 2-wheelers and probably not a racing motorcycle, but something more like Honda African Twin, so I wouldn't be internally pressured to speed it.
I'd want to try ride on a motorcycle sooner or later, but for some reason I never have an opportunity to do so :(.
I don't think buspas should be allowed for bikers. They aren't special on a road so why should it be?
2)Depends on the mood but mostly not really.
3) I don't judge them unless they do something dangerous in my vicinity. An do i have never had a close encounter with one.
4) Nope. Buss pas is for busses. Period. Bikes are smaller than cars so even in traffic they can easily mannipulate and get to their target faster than any car.
I have never been even a passenger, but I would like give it a try one day. Now I just prefer to travel by car and I really enjoy to travel this way.
I love to drive both car and motorcycles with our without purpose. There were whole days which I spent driving/riding only.
I respect them as road users, especially because they are vulnerable to have severe injuries during accidents. I always make space for them to pass me in a traffic jam.
Bus lanes should definitely be available to motorcycles since they do not slow the traffic.