Driving Safety. Loud Motorcycles and Bright Headlights
Loud Pipes on Motorcycles
Have you been out enjoying the serenity of your backyard deck with a few friends, having nice dinner conversation, then suddenly VVRRROOOOOOMMM! You had to stop talking, everybody does, for what seems like forever because someone with a loud motorcycle is roaring by. So loud in fact that you can't hear over them until they are 2-3 blocks away. I don't know about you, but this infuriates me. They are loud beyond any reason. These inconsiderate people wake babies and third shift workers as they unnerve the rest of us. There is absolutely no reason for this interruption of dozens, if not hundreds of people's peace and sanity, and yet, police seem oblivious to it. I know it is against the law to make so much noise any time of day anywhere near other people's homes, and police never stop and ticket them for it. Why do the bikers claim they do it, why do they really do it, and why don't the police enforce the laws?
Why They Do It: Let me begin by saying my father was a biker, and had several friends who also were avid bikers. He had friends in a local biker gang, so I know the biker mentality from the inside. I remember back when running loud pipes began becoming popular in my area, and I also remember why they did it. Bikers and biker organizations will tell you ,"loud pipes save lives" and maybe once in a great while it has happened, but that is not the reason, it's the excuse. The vast majority of times a motorcycle gets into an accident is when someone fails to see them coming toward them, not going away from them. That said, these pipes are no louder than any other bike as the motorcycle approaches you, but are ear splitting as they leave, so it seems they would rarely, if ever, save lives.
Then what is the real reason? When my dad and his friends were first putting straight pipes on their bikes, the running joke was how they would wake up whole neighborhoods with these things, and they would drink another beer and laugh a good laugh over this. Most bikers have at least a streak of rebel in them, some more like a big smear, and this is what it is. Like many things in nature, many bikers, especially the big scary looking ones are actually kind, big hearted people who look scary so people will leave them alone as they have been hurt before. (unless you get on their bad side) Many felt powerless as youngsters with abusive parents or others, and annoying other people gives them some thrill, a power trip, if you will. Now you know what is behind this unnecesary noise. The next question is...
Why don't police do something? I have spoken with police about this issue, and they concede, even factory pipes are so loud to be considered a noise infraction. Yet because of the vague way the law is written in Illinois, and special protections for factory added items, they almost never stick so cops see it a waste of their time to do anything. If our cars were hallf as loud, we would be ticketed, and there would be no getting out of it. Seems to me if bikers kept getting pulled over and ticketed, eventually they would go buy a muffler. This is getting worse every year, someone needs to do something.
Do these loud motorcycles irritate you?
Dimming Bright Headlights and Foglights
Doesn't it just get your goat when you're driving down the highway and some jerk in the oncoming lane won't dim his brights no matter how many times you flash yours to remind them? That can be so irritating, and is also very unsafe, as you cannot see anything that may be moving onto the roadway, be it a deer, other animal, or worse yet, a person. A newer trend I have noticed is even worse, It is so much worse that an insurance study was completed recently in the U.K. and found it increases accidents substantially is people who run their fog lights when there is no fog. There is no excuse for this one, either. The excuse that the insurance company found was that young people left their fog lights on, "because it looks good" The saying about freedom that goes something like, "your freedom ends where my space begins" applies here. Your right to trick your car out ends when it could cause me to have a driving accident, if you can call it an accident in these cases. Before you say this should be illegal, you should know that in most places it is, so I wonder once again, why is it getting more common? Again the reason is, no enforcement of the existing laws.
Thank you for reading and please take a look at some of my other articles listed below, and be sure to comment, link, and vote!