An opinion entitled, "Bike processions can be a big headache" published last week in the Toronto Star seems to suggest that bikers riding in a group are the cause of a number of accidents.

Note: you can also get the full article here.

The opinion starts out by describing members of the Southern Cruisers out for a ride on what apparently was a two-lane highway, with one lane moving in each direction. The riders were riding at the posted speed limit. A person driving a car at a very high speed quickly caught up to them, and found himself stuck behind them.

Getting frustrated, he entered the opposite lane in an attempt to pass them by. The problem was that he failed to see the truck coming at him. He swerved his car back into his lane, but in doing so clipped a motorcycle. He ended up killing himself, and injuring the two people on the motorcycle.

The author who wrote the opinion used this scenario as the basis for expressing his/her own frustrations with group riders. In fact, as you read through the opinion, the author seems to focus solely on bikers for having created frustration with many other drivers, and that something ought to be done about it.

The author further incriminated him/herself by writing the following sentence...

Not to mention the annoyance of 20 sets of straight pipes pointing directly at your eardrums.

What the Hell does that have to do with road safety?

This is evidence that the author is biased against motorcycles. The scenario of the speeding car driver was used to justify his/her bias. And now, the author took this bias to print, in a large newspaper.

Group riding is no more dangerous than riding solo or driving a car. Problems are caused when a driver or rider makes a foolish decision, or fails to pay attention. But that's not inherent to group riding. Forcing bikers into smaller groups, with greater distance between groups, doesn't address the issue of dangerous drivers.

But try to tell that to someone who is already biased against bikers.

Labels: Biker Discrimination, Group Riding, Road Rage, Unsafe Drivers