Why two wheels are safer than four

Yesterday I was buzzing around town quite a bit on my scooter. From one errand to another, for business and for pleasure, my scooter was my mode of transportation. Around the 6:00 hour I found myself in the congestion of Speer heading into Cherry Creek, a slow moving trickle of vehicles trying to make it to the next destination. Honks, distracted drivers, and running red lights seemed to be the norm. I even saw one individual take off through a red light before it went to green when the other light went to red only to have me right by their side at the next red light. What is everyone rushing for?

But the real point of my safety comment is tied to the common fact that almost 50% of the folks I saw driving home were either talking on their phones or appeared to be texting. The New York Times recently reported of a study where a clown riding a unicycle rode into the vision of someone talking on their cell phones. Those individuals were questioned later on whether they recalled seeing anything unusual, or specifically if they noticed the clown. Numbers were as low as 8 to 20%.

That means there are a lot of people disconnected from the world operating tons of heavy machinery.

My point is simply this.. You don’t have hands free to talk on the phone when you are on a scooter or a bicycle, the two modes of transportation that have replaced my car. Even if I went hands free the wind would make it difficult to talk. Now I know that there are solutions for this, expensive motorcycle helmets and such. So even if the whole city of Denver started riding scooters and bicycles we would simply have more mobile headset salesmen on every corner… but I can still dream.

If you have taken two wheels into traffic lately, without trying to incorporate a cell phone, you know what I’m talking about. There is simply a greater sense of awareness and observation. Somehow while insulated inside the car reaching from texting on the phone to adjusting the radio the mere act of observing the road (or fellow road travelers) goes to the bottom of the list. It’s kinda scary.

Anywhoo that is my rant for the day. Until everyone starts scootering or biking to work I guess it’s just a matter of defense, defense defense. Be safe out there.