|
Tales
from the Road
|
My Response to Bill 117 (banning children from being passengers on motorcycles)
This is a letter that I sent to Dr. Helena Jaczek, MPP, who recently introduced a Private Members Bill to ban children under the age of 14 from being allowed to ride as passengers on motorcycles.
>>>
Greetings Dr. Helena Jaczek,
I am writing to you to express my disappointment at the Bill 117, Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Child Passengers on Motorcycles).
I am a father of a 9yr old boy. I am 33 years old, and I am a passionate about motorcycling, and I very much look forward to passing on that passion to my son. I also run various websites that cater to the motorcycle enthusiast that promotes safe riding.
My son and I both look forward to spending time on the bike, taking him places and letting him experience the world in a way that cannot be replicated in a car. We look forward to exploring the open road, open skies, and generally speaking the road less traveled.
To me, you see, motorcycling is more than just an economical and environmentally responsible mode of transportation. It's freedom. Freedom to unglue my mind from life in an office, from life in front of a television, and yes - from life behind the glass windscreen of a car, which isolates me from the world around me.
I'm not a leather-clad "biker" that rides solely on sunny weekends to a coffee shop to hang out and rev my engine. Nor will you ever find me blasting through residential communities or riding at excessive speeds on backcountry roads. My passion is for touring and exploring the beauty of riding roads that take me through the countryside, forests and small towns along the way. In short...exploring our world and communities and I love sharing those with my son. Teaching him along the way that there is more to life than TV and video games.
This bill assumes a couple things; firstly, that motorcycles are so dangerous that children must be protected from them and secondly that because of this, parents should not be able to make the choice to ride with their children.
I would like to say, before I go any further, that any child hurt or killed is clearly a tragedy. And with any child hurt or killed on the back of a motorcycle, it's very easy to say, "If they had only not been on the motorcycle, they would have been fine." However, this is absolutely and without question a logical fallacy. Any child killed in a car accident would have been fine had they not been in the car. Any child killed in a skiing accident would have been fine if they had not gone skiing.
You provide statistics to support your Bill, but you don't mention the number of actual child fatalities over the last 10 years...only injuries.
Life is not without risk and nearly every recreational or sporting activity comes with some. It is a parent's responsibility to calculate those risks. Even our day-to-day routines can be dangerous, including taking our children to school could result in them being killed along the way.
The heavy-handed, reactionary legislation of Bill 117 takes away my right as a parent to make decisions about exposing my child to the world I want them to see, in a manner that is unfair, prejudicial and to be frank, discriminatory. It assumes that I am not capable to make decisions about the risks I'm prepared to expose my children to and the rewards associated with those risks.
And it's a slippery slope to saying I can't take my kids skiing or snowboarding, both of which also pose a safety risk to children; or that I can't allow my son to ride a bicycle because that too poses a safety risk. In fact, more people are killed riding bicycles each year than passengers are killed on motorcycles (regardless of age).
Many children regrettably drown in backyard pools, are we to go further with your train of thought and ban backyard pools also? Once we start enacting laws that restrict recreation and sporting activities for kids, where does it end? No more hockey, bicycles, ice-skating, skiing or snow boarding? No more camping trips because a child may trip and break an ankle? No more swimming for fear that they may drown?
Motorcycling seems to be an easy target for those that don't ride and don't care to understand our passion. They see idiots on cruisers wearing leather chaps with their loud pipes pretending to be gang members (who are actually more likely to be lawyers or doctors) or alternately the reckless sportbike riders who slalom in and out of traffic, and assume that these are the images represent all riders in general.
This legislation is inappropriate, sensationalist, one-sided and opportunistic. As a voter, I can promise that it will affect my behaviour at the polling station. This "save the children at any price" nonsense has gone on quite far enough. If you really want to save the children, ban backyard pools in any household where the children don't know how to swim. Ban children from ski slopes or from riding bicycles. Ban them from playing organized sports like hockey. All of which cause many injuries to children each year, even deaths.
posted by Shaun de Jager
Province of Ontario Introduces Cell Phone And Device Ban For Drivers
Ontario will now join Newfoundland-Labrador, Nova Scotia and Quebec in banning the use of hand-held cell phones while driving - although our ban may go farther than most. The new bill will also target Hand-held electronic entertainment devices such as iPods, or other portable MP3 players, or portable games as well as Texting and emailing.
However, Hands-free wireless communications devices with an earpiece or Bluetooth device or the use of dash mounted GPS devices will be allowed (many GPS units have Bluetooth and can be used as a speaker phone with a Bluetooth enabled phone).
Under the proposed legislation, drivers who break the new rules could face fines of up to $500. And those who place others at risk as a result of using a hands-free device can be charged with Careless Driving and fines of up to $1,000, six demerit points, a driver's licence suspension and possible jail time.
So once again, the government is attempting to make our roads safer, but they are going about it the wrong way...again. If the government is going to start banning in-car distractions, where is the line going to be drawn? Technically, there are many things in our cars that can distract us - are we going to eventually have then all banned? Phones, MP3, players, GPS, eatting/drinking, car radios....kids??
I have witnessed many times a car swerving on the road only to realize that the driver was trying to attend to their child in the back seat. Are we going to ban children from our cars too? Of course not. But many beleive that banning hand-held phones will help improve road safety. They seem to be ignorant to the many studies that have shown that hands-free systems are simply no better. Talking on the phone while driving impairs your judgement, reflexes and situational awareness as much as having the maximum, legal amount of alchohol in your blood. Yes, you are actually as dangerous simply talking on the phone as you are if you have been drinking, even if you are using a hands-free phone.
Carrying on a phone is as dangeous as drinking and driving - this has been proven many times, however, texting and emailing on your phone is far worse. There are longer periods of time that your eyes and attention are off the road. But will banning the use of phones actually stop people from using them? I seriously doubt it. If drivers didn't already think it was dangerous and refrain from the practice, they won't stop now...until they are caught. Once again, a law that is reactive and not proactive.
The law is also going to be very hard to enforce. Drivers will simply try and hide their phone below the wheel while using it to avoid the watchfull eyes of law enforcement. So now a driver is looking into their lap to use thier phone, thus taking their eyes and attention away from the road even longer each time.
Ok, so using anything in your car is dangerous...that is clear but do we really need a law banning devices in our cars? As I said earlier...where does it end? Most charges that will be applied will be when a collision occurs, so why can't we use the laws that are already on the books? Laws currently exhist that cover Dangerous Driving. If a driver is not giving enough attention to their driving, they are driving dangerously and can be charge accordingly as a result of a collision.
This new law once again misses the mark on improving road safety. The only way is to improve driver skill and awareness. Removing hand-held distractions will simply not improve a drivers skill behind the wheel and will not make our roads any safer. We will still have people eatting & drinking, reading and doing their nails, hair, makeup and shaving and talking on hands-free phones.
If you want safer roads...you need safer drivers with more skill and situational awareness. Drivers who possess these skills already are the ones who don't do any of the previously mentioned activites because they know better.
posted by Shaun de Jager
Fall Colours Ride
With the trees changing colours, comes the changing seasons. Soon the riding season will be over, or at least as we know it. For those of us who ride year round as much as we can, riding conditions will soon be far less comfortable as the temps begin to drop.
With that in mind, it was time to hop on the bike and do some riding and enjoy the fall scenery. A friend of mine John thought it would be nice to organize a group ride to take in the Fall colours on Saturday (Oct. 11th). As the date came closer, more and more riders decided that they wanted to join in. At the main meeting location, we ended up with about 100 riders! Wow...This had to be one of the largest group rides any of us had even been a part of (with the exception of Ride for Sight). For safety reasons, we broke into smaller groups ranging from 10-20 riders, each one had a leader and a sweeper (to keep an eye on the riders and respond to any incidents). I was to lead the third group with a 14 other bikes.
 We began rolling out around 11:30am with a couple minutes between groups so that we didn't likely bunch up except at designated stops along the way, either for photo opportunities or lunch.
Our ride took us along some great roads that John had layed out. Most of the group leaders had maps that John had provided although some, including myself, had the route loaded into our GPS units.
The route took us from Orangeville, up along Hockley Road, up Airport road to Mansfield. From there many zigzags lead us through towns like Horning Mills and Honeywood, finally stopping in Creemore for lunch. The look on the faces of the local towns folk was of shock as nearly 100 motorcycles converged on their sleepy little 1800's town. Many riders departed after lunch and headed back to the city but for the rest of us, we continued onward to Blue Mountain to take in the sights overlooking Georgian Bay.
At this point most riders headed home, but some of us headed off for further good times to Johns place for a BBQ. I ended up crashing there for the night.
The next day, it was time for more riding but not part of a group this time. I headed up to Wasaga to spend a couple nights there. Monday was another great day of riding taking in roads like Upper Big Chute and Southwood Rd. I also made sure to stop in Bala for lunch in a neat little place called the "Hook and Ladder", which is chalk full of firefighter decor.
 Once done it was another night in Wasaga watching a really beautiful sunset.
All in all, I had a great few days touring around on the bike. I'm glad I took the time to do it, since nice weekends will be a bit scarse from now until spring.
posted by Shaun de Jager
Time's up on `street racing' law
After one year, it's clear that the punitive new rule is not working
Jim Kenzie
Special to the Star
Oct 04, 2008
Anniversaries are often a time for taking stock. They are usually happy occasions. Candles are lit. Cakes are baked. Presents are handed out.
On such occasions, one can be forgiven for perhaps taking too rosy a view of the past.
Perhaps that's what's behind the shiny, happy faces of those celebrating the first anniversary of Section 172 of the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, which gives the police the power to seize vehicles going 50 km/h over the speed limit. This law, passed one year ago last Tuesday, also allows police to impose fines of up to $10,000 before the accused even gets a day in court.
They are still averaging 23 scofflaws a day. Now that is down from 40 a day when the crackdown began, but we don't know how many cops they have on patrol now versus then.
Regardless, with the amount of publicity this has received, you'd have thought that if the law had any deterrent effect whatsoever, nobody would dare take a chance.
Not so's you'd notice.
The reason people aren't paying much attention, of course, is that 150 km/h on a 400-series highway is, under the right circumstances, perfectly safe. It must be, because thousands of people - not just 23 - drive at this speed every day without incident. Only if they are unlucky enough to catch the eye of a police officer do they become heinous criminals.
Traffic engineers recommend that for optimal (i.e., safest) traffic flow, a speed limit should be set around the 85th percentile - the speed at or below which 85 per cent of traffic is moving. On any 400-series highway, that's somewhere between 120 and 130 km/h, depending on time of day, traffic, road and weather conditions, etc.
A hundred kilometres per hour? Get serious. It has been proven that no amount of enforcement will ever get people to drive at less than a road's design speed. As I always say, if we weren't in a hurry we'd all take Hwy. 2 east and west, or Hwy. 11 north. And we'd be in greater peril the entire time. As I keep saying, our fastest roads are our safest roads. You can look it up.
OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino and his predecessors have spent billions of our tax dollars trying to maintain this fiction of a 100 km/h speed limit, the lowest in the otherwise civilized world, to absolutely no effect.
Do we drive any more slowly than we did 30 years ago? No.
Are our highways safer than they were 30 years ago? Unquestionably, yes.
Does the speed we drive at or the limit the police try to impose have any effect on our safety? Not a bit.
As pointed out here a few weeks ago, the Ministry of Transportation's own statistics indicate that excessive speed is a factor in only 13 per cent of fatal collisions. Yet about 70 per cent of all traffic tickets written by the OPP and their local counterparts are for speeding.
We are not dying on the 400-series highways where the vast majority of section 172 enforcement is taking place. Kids are getting drunk and driving into lakes. Young women are making U-turns on regional roads and getting T-boned by transport trucks.
Is section 172 going to save any of them? Not a chance.
And where are our police officers? Out on the 400, turning respectable citizens into criminals.
Oh, and the real street racers? They love it, because the cops aren't even looking for them. Fantino has been quoted saying he is "satisfied" with the 41 per cent conviction rate under the new law. I'm glad he's not running a brain surgery school.
From what I'm hearing, many prosecutors are simply not taking these charges to court because they fear a challenge on one of at least two constitutional questions the law raises, the most obvious being its complete disregard for the most basic tenet of British common law: you get your day in court before being convicted and punished.
Speed is not at all like drunk driving, for which an immediate suspension is justified. The way this law is written and enforced, the police officer assumes the role of judge, jury and executioner.
Fantino also claims that the public is behind him on this law. Surely not the 8,459 people who have been charged under it, according to the latest statistics. Nor the masses, whom Fantino is sworn to serve and protect. They're voting with their right feet, every single day.
I wonder when Fantino last drove on a 400-series highway. In an unmarked car. I wonder if he saw anybody going 100 km/h - without their four-ways on, that is.
Not likely. Since this is supposed to be a democracy, you'd think that evidence alone would be enough. Ha, ha again.
Also taking issue with the law are the dozens of people who email me every week. Like the young woman who, by all accounts, is the most law-abiding, police-respecting person in the GTA. She waved at another driver at a stoplight and was charged with "street racing." Her parents' car impounded, huge fine, insurance rates inflated for all time.
Because she waved at someone?
Then there's the chap who had to hustle a little to squeeze into a gap in traffic and may have squealed a tire in doing so - it was a hot day. Same punishment.
There's a reason we have due process. Or did have.
Doing 90 in a 40 km/h school zone? Throw the book at 'em.
Doing 150 in a 130 km/h zone, which, like it or not, is what the 400-series highways are? It may be a lot of things, but street racing or stunt driving it is not.
Fantino claims the law is working, by which I assume he means it's saving lives. If he had some numbers to support this claim, you'd think he'd let us know. The OPP did trot out some spurious stats for the Civic Holiday weekend, but once they were challenged they never resurfaced, because they were totally bogus. And the police knew it.
The fact is that this law is costing lives because it takes scarce police resources away from real traffic issues and allocates them where there can be no hope of a positive result. (I define "positive result" as proof of reduced crashes and deaths, not meaningless numbers about charges or conviction rates.)
Enforcing section 172, or any speed limit, in fact, has absolutely nothing to do with what's causing us to die on our highways. Worldwide, the only things that correlate with traffic deaths are impaired driving, failure to use seat belts and highway design. Nothing else. End of story.
We've done reasonable work in the last 30 years on seat-belt use, but more must be accomplished. Likewise, impaired driving is down, but nowhere near enough.
If Fantino wants to do something positive for traffic safety, the lowest-hanging fruit would be to apply his considerable political skill to fight for real improvements to our highway system.
More roundabouts, for example - they produce 40 to 60 per cent fewer collisions, overnight. And no more disappearing right lanes. The most impressive thing about traffic in Germany or England isn't its speed or the safety (both of which are considerably higher than here, despite generally smaller, less crash-resistant cars) but lane discipline. Why is it better? Because their driving lane never disappears.
Oh, and would somebody please tell Jim Bradley, the transportation minister, to lay off this nonsense that the law is supported by "the people who are in a position of having to go to a funeral when it's someone in their family [who dies]." At least until he has lost a sister to a traffic collision, as I did.
Maudlin appeals may work in politics. But to improve traffic safety, we need to deal in facts. And the facts are not on his side.
Wheels' chief auto correspondent Jim Kenzie can be reached at jim@jimkenzie.com
Toronto Star
posted by Shaun de Jager
Ride for Sight 2009
 Once again, I'm participating in the annual Ride for Sight, which is the longest running motorcycle charity in Canada. In 2008, our team raised over $35,000, which added to over $300,000 raise in Ontario alone.
By sponsoring me in the Ride, you will be contributing to finding a cure for blindness! One hundred percent of funds raised by riders go directly to The Foundation Fighting Blindness, which continues to fund significant research breakthroughs.
You can help support me by making a secure online donation using your credit card. Click on the link below:
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1986527
posted by Shaun de Jager
Surviving the Cold
Well, it's coming up on that time of year again. Colder temps and less favourable riding conditions. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
Riding below 10C without proper gear can be unpleasant at best; at worst it can lead to hypothermia, which is extremely dangerous and once temperatures hit the freezing mark there are even further dangers. Not only do you need to worry about body heat, but must also consider the fact that when the road and your tires are cold, there is a significant drop in available grip.
The only way to survive cold weather riding is to plan for it and ensure that you have the right gear; some of which include the following:
1) Electric heated vest and gloves.
2) Fleece sweater
3) Fleece-lined jeans (or heavy rain pants with at least one additional layer like long-johns underneath).
4) Windproof & waterproof textile jacket & pants
5) Waterproof boots over wool socks
6) FLEECE NECK LINER
Adding handguards to your bike will help keep the worst of the wind and weather off your hands. They're great in the cold but in rain they really don't do anything to keep you dry.
#6 is important because your brain gets it blood from the carotid artery which is near the surface of the skin, right on the front of your neck where it can be in the direct wind blast. The last thing you want is to be chilling your brain, so ensure that your neck is completely covered one way or another.
Unless you REALLY enjoy the idea of crashing and dumping your bike, you should avoid riding on snow or ice. It's amazing how fast a bike can get away from you on those slippery surfaces. Even if there's no apparent snow or ice on the ground, take careful note of stuff like frost on streetcar tracks. Avoid areas in the shade when you can, and be extra careful on bridges. You should also avoid conditions that may ideal for black ice.
Oh ya...never forget that your tires will be very cold. As such, you will have far less grip and should avoid spirited cornering.
If you do ride in cold and/or wet weather and end up really chilled where you can't stop shivering, your hands and knees are numb or in pain, your lips are bluish, then you are in fact becoming hypothermic. This can be extremly dangerous as your body begins to shut down; your reflexes are deminushed and your ability for rational thought is greatly reduced. If this begins during your ride, you should take a break and try and warm up. Here are a couple of tips for recovery when you get home:
1) You need to get heat into your body. Start with a hot drink or some soup. Keep your warm clothes on, maybe some of your gear too until you feel warm.
2) The best thing is to take a hot BATH. Fill the tub with water as hot as you can stand it, and get in there. You will notice that it feels very hot at first, but in a short time it won't feel very hot anymore. This is for two reasons: The first is because as you warm up your perception of heat will change. The second is because you just basically tossed 100-200 pounds of chilled meat into that tub, and your cold body will bring down the temperature of the bathwater as the heat is tranferred to you. As soon as the water doesn't feel hot, either top it up or replace it with hotter water.
3) If you don't have access to a tub, a shower can be OK, but BE CAREFUL. The shower will heat the surface of your skin very quickly but it's not that effective at transferring a lot of heat to your body. You have to understand that to protect your core's temperature when you were very cold, your body decreased circulation to your arms and legs. When your skin is warmed, your body starts sending more blood out to your arms and legs, which feels great at first. However, the muscles in your arms and legs are still chilled, and the blood travelling through them gets cooled and that cooled blood goes back to your core and can make your core temp actually DROP shortly after starting this hot shower. This isn't the end of the world, but you should be expecting it. If you're using a shower to warm up, then start with the water not quite so hot and warm it up gradually. If you start shivering even though the water is hot, then you know what's going on. Turn up the heat and stay in there until you are thoroughly warmed up!
Whether you're using a bath, shower, hot soup, blankets, or gettin' it on as your way of warming up, keep doing it until you're actually sweating. That's the only way to know that you're properly warmed up, and your body will thank you for it.
BE AWARE of the symptoms of hypothermia when you're riding in cold and especially in wet weather. The initial signs (before you're in real danger) include:
1) Bouts of shivering
2) Grogginess and muddled thinking
3) Breathing and pulse are normal
#2 is the killer there when you're piloting a motorcycle. You'll feel tired and lethargic, have trouble keeping your eyes open. So the thing to remember is that if you're shivering persistently on your bike, you can't trust your judgement! Stop and get a bowl of chilli or soup, and a hot coffee or tea. If you are riding through the night, think seriously about just stopping and getting a room in a motel somewhere. $60 and a night of inconvenience is a lot less hassle than crashing.
You know that you MUST stop if you're having any of the following symptoms:
1) Violent shivering or shivering stops
2) Inability to think and pay attention
3) Slow, shallow breathing
4) Slow, weak pulse
Again, #2 is a big complicating factor. If you're having trouble keeping your eyes open or staying in your lane, if it seems like you've been riding forever but you've only done 2 km since the last time you checked the odometer, then you're experiencing impairment from the cold. STOP at your earliest opportunity and get warmed up!
Lets consider once agian your tires and road conditions. At lower temps, your tires are rock hard and grip is drastically reduced. Also if temps are within a couple of degrees of freezing, you might want to consider alternative transportation. Frost / Ice / Snow = CRASH. Usually so fast you don't even get a chance to know you are going down before you are on your butt or worse...
posted by Shaun de Jager
Mt. Washington Trip - The Journey Home
Our trip Mascot, Gomer was always ready to ride!
 
After three days of great weather, my rain curse made itself known and Monday night a massive storm rolled in. The sky lit up with lightening and everything shook from the thunder that followed, while strong winds tried to pull the tent pegs from the ground. The worst of the storm only lasted a few hours but the rain continued throughout the night.
In the morning, we woke to a soaked tent and damp sleeping bags. I wasn't looking forward to packing everything up in the rain to say the least. Susie brought all our riding gear up to the registration office and waited for me to pack up all the gear and strap it to the bike. Just before I finished, the rain finally stopped but left us with some very cold, damp riding conditions. I wondered at this point if Chris went through the same thing or if he opted for a motel room somewhere.
Back on the bike, we left the campground around 10am in New Hampshire and headed back towards the Lake Placid area. I wanted to do some more touring through the Adirondack Park again, even if it was on many of the same roads. Our first stop was in Plainfield, Vermont where I had, what turned out to be, the worst breakfast in history! I swear it tried to slowly kill me for the next two days. If you ever happen to roll through there...don't stop!
Once we rolled through Montpelier with their suspension killing potholes again, we jumped on the I-89 and headed towards Lake Champlain and crossing into New York State once again. After some insane crosswinds, our necks began to get fatigued from all the wind buffeting. I decided that it was time to get off the main roads and needed a bit of a break, so I decided that taking the ferry across the lake was a good idea.
 This ferry crossing was the first I actually used my tie-down straps. The chop on the water would have been too much for the kickstand to support the bike and it would have surely fallen over. Even though I was sitting on it, it would have been too much to hold on too. If you look carefully, you can make out the red strap around the green plate part along the side of the ferry.
 After crossing Lake Champlain, it was a reasonably short ride back to Wilmington, NY area. Considering all our gear was wet, we looked for a local motel and ended up at a great Bed & Breakfast (www.theinnatwhiteface.com). In hind sight it was a good idea. The temps dropped to 3 degrees celcius and considering all our gear was wet, it would have made camping rather miserable. Instead we had a nice warm bed and a terrific view of White Face Mountain from our bedroom window.
 Wednesday morning we started our final push home through the Dacks, along some great country roads, across the ferry and finally the least entertaining section across the 401 home. Once again, my tie-down strap came in handy on the Ferry across to Kingston and once all was said and done, we had travelled 1800km over 5 days.
Props must go to my travelling partner Susie. Prior to this trip, she hadn't spent more then 1.5hrs on the back of a bike. Nor had she ever been camping! This trip was full of "first time" experiences for her and she did great.
posted by Shaun de Jager
|
