THE RISKS:
The New Zealand Ministry of Transport provides comprehensive motor vehicle crash statistics. Here's my summary of the main points of interest:
Deaths from motorcycles accidents far outweigh any other mode of transport:
Empirically, the risk of death from a motorcycle accident is 23 times higher than for the driver of a car, for the same distance travelled.
If you're a potential scooter rider such as myself, perhaps you'd like to know what percentage of riders are injured every year? I assume these statistics are more difficult to determine, as the exact numbers of scooter drivers are probably unknown without some kind of national survey.
However, what is known, is that in a fatal multi-vehicle accident involving a motorcyclist, the motorcyclist is almost always (96%) amongst the fatalities. If you're a motorcyclist involved in a crash, you're always going to come off second best.
Unfortunately, it doesn't always matter how good a rider you are. Whilst more learner motorcycle riders (20%) are involved in accidents than learner car drivers (7%), most motorcyclists (54%) involved in accidents hold their full licenses.
I wonder if these statistics are skewed by the risk-taking nature of many motorcycle riders, particularly males. 93% of all motorcycle deaths are males (I don't know if this is proportionate to the total number of male motorcycle riders). I imagine that more experienced riders tend to take more risks by riding larger bikes at higher speeds. However, less experienced riders also take risks, as up to 25% of learner/restricted licence holders involved in accidents were illegally riding bikes with engine capacities over 250cc at the time of their accidents.
Even if you're a good rider and don't take risks, you are still likely to be involved in an accident. 45% of accidents involving motorcyclists occurred when the motorcyclists held no or minimal fault. Even if you're a good rider, you can't rely on other drivers.
However, on a more positive note:
The percentage of motorcycle casualties has decreased significantly over the last 20 years, from 21% in the 1980s to 9% today. (With a small increase in recent years).
Appropriate motorcycle gear is important. A rider without a helmet is 3 times more likely to suffer from severe brain damage than a rider with a helmet involved in the same type of crash.
I would have thought that the risks would be even higher for non helmet wearers. I've also observed a large proportion of scooter riders in Auckland wearing only half- or open-faced helmets rather than full faced helmets. I suspect that the risk of face injury is greatly increased when wearing these style of helmets, no matter how much more fashionable they look. I need to do further research to find out how important it is to wear full-body kevlar compared to summer shorts and sandals to prevent serious bodily injury.
THE BENEFITS:
Riding a scooter has many practical advantages over driving a car.
Scooters are far more practical in heavy traffic. The many bus lanes allow you to (moderately safely) manoevre around cars to the head of the traffic cue.
Scooters are far more practical and affordable to park. You can park a scooter almost anywhere for free.
Scooters are far more affordable to run than a car. You can purchase a 50cc scooter for $600-$1000, and petrol costs $10 a week maximum (and that would be an expensive scooter).
CONCLUSION:
The risks of death or serious injury for riding are deadly serious. The risks are independent of experience or skill level, and a motorcyclist involved in an accident has a far higher risk of death/disability than a car driver, whether or not they are responsible for causing the accident.
So will I ride a scooter? Yes. I currently cannot afford to fork out enough money to pay for a car park, and the convenience and affordability of a scooter over the pain and expense of public transport will win out. All I can do in the meantime is purchase enough safety gear so that if I do crash I know that I did everything in my power to prevent permanent injury.
[...] vest (the orange type that all tradesmen own) to wear whilst scootering. With all this talk of scooter safety (or lack there of), I’d like to keep my brain inside my skull where it belongs. As the [...]
ReplyDelete