Motorbikes 'to get safe driving aids'

[embee]

Hmmm, well.

I suppose first reaction should be that any developments aimed at safety are good "in principle" so I won't shoot them down out of hand. However some of the reported (and we have to be careful to differentiate between what the engineers are doing and what the journalists are reporting) beliefs and suppositions are frankly laughable, things like "motorcyclists have to remember to move their head to see what's beside them", well yes.

In practice I feel such systems would simply be distractions and potentially lead to "information overload". If they invented a system which told you which car was going to pull out on you it might be useful. Now putting something in cars which warned of side approaching bikes at junctions would be more productive.

There might even be a risk of riders trying to go faster than the warnings just for bravado.

I honestly don't think this is a productive route to travel, concentrate on rider training and driver awareness.

Originally Posted by embee

There might even be a risk of riders trying to go faster than the warnings just for bravado.

That thought crossed my mind too.

Originally Posted by embee

Now putting something in cars which warned of side approaching bikes at junctions would be more productive.

this would be far better, or even a sensor on the side of cars to warn of filtering motorcycles/cyclist's. my bike has a built in warning system, its a stainless oval beowulf-baffle less. makes heads turn when blipped

And another thought....

Does this sooperdooper all encompassing corner speed thingummyjig have a built in sensor for cowpats, horse ****, manhole covers, diesel spills.....


I give up, I really do

a diesel sniffer to warn you 50 yards away will be a fantastic thing,

im with embee here ,give them points for trying and giving a ****, as for the usefullness of these "inovations" well thats a different story, making a safer bike/ biking aids is a ridiculasly complex thing compared to other forms of transport (as well know on here) and tbh im likeing some of the simple is best thinking going on (a vibration or beep) to stop overload, but none of these ideas ring right to me

good start ,more work required ,kudos for trying ,back to the drawing board, please keep trying

agreed, great that they are thinking of us, and not just finding ways to get us off the road!!!

but i think they need to concentrate on better/cheaper saftey gear more than things like this. E.G. the airbag leathers......great idea, but the only thing out there at the moment is stupidly expensive!!!!

Weren't MIRA the people who wanted all M/C's to have compulsory leg shields a long time ago? Even though they admitted that in a crash you had a bigger chance of leg amputation. 1987 I believe.

Another quango the Government can get rid of.

Originally Posted by davepreston

....im with embee here ,give them points for trying and giving a ****, ....

Originally Posted by Jimmy2Feet

agreed, great that they are thinking of us, and not just finding ways to get us off the road!!!

I disagree, if you really think that's what they're trying to do, you're living in cuckoo land.

Fill the bike with *safety aids* = more safety gurus to monitor it all, additional cost for machines and more than likely additional costs at Mot time. Who'll end up paying?

You've guessed it, get real.

Personally, I think teejay has hit the nail on the head... there would be no point in developing a system such as this unless the intention was to make it compulsory down the road, and then the only way forward for it would be to interfere in the riding process (something I noticed the article mentioned, when it talked about a similar feature to the collision mitigation option on Mercs).

I'm sure I'll get the official line in the morning, when central office wakes up.