THE DAILY RIDERT h e J o u r n a l o f T r a n s p o r t a t i o n M o t o r c y c l i n g A d v o c a c y

published several times a year by Ride To Work, Inc.

To advocate and support theincreased use of motorcycles fortransportation, and to provideinformation about transporta-tion riding to motorcyclists andto the public.

I ssue

2

Contents :◊Edi tor ia l

◊Rider Wr i ter◊Let ters

◊Riding/Reading isFundament al

◊Digest◊Everday Rides

◊Endorsed!

Fal l 2000

m i sT h e s i 0 n

Ride To Work, Inc.Box 1072

Proctor, MN55810-0072

218 722 9806propaganda@ridetowork.org

www.ridetowork.org

© 2000 Ride To Work, Inc.

E d i t o r i a l

EXURBAN RIDING

URBAN

Someone once told me that motor-cyclists have 2 times as many fatali-ties as bicyclists and 10 times asmany as car drivers. Motorbikes aredangerous but they probably aren’tthat lethal. Another published statis-tic ‘proves’ you are 56 times morelikely to be killed when walking thanwhen riding in a car...on a per miletraveled basis. All popular statisticsare somewhat biased by social big-otry. Anti-motorcycle prejudicesthrive because bikes are 'non con-forming' vehicles. What makesthem seem excessively risky is...part-ly...that they are potentially disrup-tive to the order of our transporta-tion system. Superior nimblenesscauses bikes to be subconsciouslyseen as mildly threatening and sedi-tious. Our road network is optimizedfor cars and light trucks so this biasis well rooted and insidious.Motorcycling may statistically chartas being riskier because more ridersare young, male, and risk(speed/performance) oriented,...orbecause social drinking may moreoften be combined with riding thanwith overall driving activities. Riderssometimes become cynical, alienat-ed or estranged after they’ve accept-ed the apparently increased risks ofriding in return for it’s greater effi-ciency, enjoyment and fun.There are lot’s of people in cars whodo not understand this. Somejust...hate...it. (cops and judges,too.) Riders are culturally and social-ly marginalized whenever theydecide to motorcycle for transporta-tion. Motorcyclists must be more self-confident about their ability (andtheir luck) than all others on ourroads. Riders are the most hyper-abled users of our transportationinfrastructure...in the same way thatathletes surpass general fitnessnorms. If a rider is killed by some car

running a red light, the driver will geta $400 fine...and the availablecharge of vehicular manslaughterwill probably not be applied. Afterall, everyone drives a car, includingthe judge. Almost everyone appreci-ates and accepts bikes as 'toys'...sothat’s how they are understood. Thislimited awareness is enormouslyharmful to all transportation-motor-cycling riders.Choosing riding is one of the mostserious decisions anyone can make.The consequences of a typical bikeaccident are far less pre-determinedthan those of an average car acci-dent. A motorcycle accident mayproduce no injuries...ordeath,...depending on the specificcrash kinesthetic and what (if any-thing) a fallen rider bumps into. Weride paranoid, maintain good techni-cal riding skills and do not allowdaily experiences to make us over-confident. These disciplines distin-guish us from everyone else on theroad and help explain some of thepublic’s biases. Sometimes biasesare...believe it or not...jealousy-gen-erated. The advantages of transportationmotorcycling are easy to list: Moreparking, less road congestion, lessenergy consumption, less infrastruc-ture wear, shorter travel times, morehealthy and alert people, etc... Fartoo few persons view motorcycles asoffering practical solutions to trans-portation, social and environmentalproblems. Pervasive mechanisms ofsocial bigotry insure that many ofmotorcycling’s risks will be widelymisunderstood for some time. Butaccommodating both less-abled andhyper-abled road users improvesconditions for everyone. Much hasalready been done for the former.(Ask any traffic engineer or plan-ner...) Now we must begin to recog-nize the valuable contributions ofthe latter. Us. Transportation-motor-cycling riders. Motorcycling does not exist in asimple paper-covers-rock-breaks-

scissors world. Every SUV does notcrush every small car which doesnot crush every motorcycle whichdoes not crush every pedestrian.How we drive, ride and walk makesa huge difference in all of our indi-vidual survival chances. Riding fortransportation means placing oneless car on the road...or in a parkingspace. Safely splitting a lane or filter-ing up to a light can reduce every-one’s travel times. Other motorcy-cle-dense cultures already view rid-ers in more socially positive ways.Riding here is not yet seen as bothrecreation and a powerful socialgood. This change will happen if webelieve it can. Our cause is just nowbeginning. To borrow THE phrase:‘we shall overcome’.

There’s no substitute for hard statis-tics. Current information about rid-ing’s risks facilitates...and is affectedby...cultural biases. Motorcycle com-muting may be somewhat morerisky than taking a car or riding abus. On the other hand, it may notactually be as awful as is widelybelieved. We don’t yet know all ofthe answers or even all of the rightquestions. Advances in computers,software and other technologiesshould now permit the generation oftruer statistics to more clearly andaccurately gauge the risks of motor-cycle commuting. If you are a statis-tician, actuary, data miner, quant,nerd or wonk and are looking for anew hobby, you can help. Vastexisting databases are awaiting yourexamination. We’ll distribute yournew metrics. Over the long termeveryone may begin to understandand appreciate the benefits of hav-ing more motorcyclists sharing ourroads. It would be soooo great.

The annual nationwide Ride to WorkDay is the third Wednesday in July.(every year) Riding your motorcycle towork on this day will demonstrate:A) The number of motorcyclists tothe general public and to politicians.B) That motorcyclists are from alloccupations and all walks of life.C) That motorcyclists can reduce traf-fic congestion in large cities.D) That motorcycles are for trans-portation as well as recreation.We can change public attitudes aboutmotorcycling in ways that will benefiteveryone. Please tell your friends.

Joseph P. Joseph Medfield, MA Ridin’FoolPatrick Riley MD Washington, NC BelieverMichael Hanson Mounds View, MN BelieverCheryl & Paul Fleckenstein Barnum, MN ContributorDavid Reichert Rochester, MN ContributorRobert Covey San Pedro, CA ContributorWalter & Sarah Hooper Wassaic, NY ContributorWilliam Mazzei M.D. San Diego, CA ContributorFranklin Newton Bridgewater, NJ ContributorJohn Garner Richmond, CA ContributorKlaus Chavanne Lagrangeville, NY ContributorBarry Finch Ridgefield, CT ContributorJay Golden Mpls, MN ContributorDave Despain Watkinsville, GA ContributorHenry Winokur Bethesda, MD ContributorRex Walker Jr. Tampa, FL ContributorRussell Erbe Ravenna, OH ContributorJohn Elrod Tigard, OR Advocate

Receive the ‘Daily Rider’ plus:$25 Rider pin, sticker,T shirt$50 Supporter...as above + button $75 Advocate...as above + button + bandanna $100 Contributor...as above + button + bandanna + mug$150 Serious Contributor...as above + button + bandanna + mug + notecube$250 Believer...as above + button + bandanna + mug + notecube + wall clock$500 True Believer...as above + button + bandanna + mug + notecube + wall clock + sweatshirt $1000 Ridin' Fool...as above + button + bandanna + mug + notecube + wall clock + sweatshirt + an unbe-lievable sense of well being

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Your neighbors are moving further from their jobs. They commute further, oneneighbor per vehicle, in larger and larger vehicles: trucks or SUVs. They usedto drive VWs, Civics; Now they buy vehicles as if each time they drive they’removing their homes, not merely their bodies.

The freeways are parking lots mornings and evenings. Your neighbors insteadchoose scenic secondary roads you’ve ridden on your motorcycle for years.They drive as fast as they would on the freeway — if the freeway were empty.The freeway hasn’t been empty since 1971.

About 5mph-over feels right to you on those roads. Your neighbors want to gofaster. The wide, sneering grills of their Rams and Expeditions fill your mirrors.When there’s a shoulder, you pull over and wave them around. They’re nevergrateful.

You ride anyway.

Your neighbors’ high, wide vehicles might as well be semis on the road. Theirback windows are tinted dark. You can’t see through them or over them. It’sscary behind them. The drivers eat McMuffins and chat on cell-phones, notscared at all.

They pause in school zones, mom and dad dropping off Justin and Heather.You creep down School Street in second gear, down a corridor of fear vibrat-ing with the rattle of huge diesel engines.

When mom and dad see you, they look straight through you. Some of theirfriends are recent Harley riders, but HERE, it’s about the kids. You’re a bikernear a school. Probable pedophile. Possible drug dealer. Certainly unwelcome.

You navigate through sudden SUV U-turns and unpredictable F150 moves.You are beyond fearful. You’re a submarine captain listening for the depthcharge that cracks the hull, lets black freezing water rush in.

You ride anyway.

On your ride, young guys in baseball hats, one cheek bulging smokelessly,can’t stand being behind you. They roar by in their rusty old Ford four-b’-fours.You hear the big, whining mud ‘n’ snow tires, see the NFL team sticker in theback window.

If the guy’s lucky enough to have a girl sitting beside him in that old Ford, heswerves back into the lane scary-close in front of you after passing. You hearthe radio blaring as the truck skims by. It’s the Dixie Chicks. You hate the DixieChicks.

You ride anyway.

When you get to work, you park your bike under cover and peel off your rain-suit. You lay your gloves flat on your saddlebags and stuff your boots with theclassifieds as if you believed they’d dry by quitting time. They never have.

People at work do not mention your commuting by bike. They know that ifthey even start to discuss it with you, they’ll blurt out how crazy they thinkyou are. You ride in the RAIN and the DARK, they’d say; Why do you do that?

You can see all that in their eyes. Oh. Again today your rainsuit has leaked adark stain onto the crotch of your jeans. Your coworkers stare, embarrassed foryou. No one speaks.

You ride anyway.

The wide radial tires your motorcycle requires cost ten thousand dollars plusmount-and-balance and last four days. You’re either on slick new rubber,warned by your shop to take it easy, or you’re thinking about what tires to buynext.

You spend more on tires than rent, more than clothing, more than you do ongoing out or eating out, more than you ever could’ve imagined. Thank Godyour long-suffering sweetie, who got a supermarket bouquet on Valentine’s,hasn’t seen your check register.

You ride anyway.

You’re obsessive about rainy-weather chain lubrication. You know you are. Noone else on the planet cares about it, and you’re obsessed. You’d like to thinkyou have your little problem under control, but you don’t. It hasn’t impactedyour work life or relationship, but it could...You sense an intervention liesahead. Tough-love for the chain-lube freak.

You ride anyway.

You’ve spent four grand on high-tech lights. You’re considering changing yourbulbs again, based on a glowing magazine test. You know that some people,on learning of your somewhat excessive light-buying behavior, would con-clude that you’re a genuinely sick person. They would be correct.

You ride anyway.

You get a cold a year. It’s not a terrible cold, no worse than enduring a prisoncamp in Viet Nam or manning an oar in a Roman slave galley. Your cold typi-cally lasts eight or nine days, during which time you forget why you everthought life was worth living.

You ride anyway.

You take your ex-girlfriend to the airport in her car. She’s flying to Italy. She’llbe gone a month. She promises to buy you an Italian motorcycle magazine inFlorence. She leaves you her wine-colored Mazda Miata, the Special Editionwith tan leather and a tan top. CD player. Gorgeous. Enjoy it, she says.

She fills the tank for you, to thank you for dropping her off at UAL Departuresand picking her up next month. Sweet woman. Nice car. Rains all week.

You ride anyway.

You sit at a light next to a dark-eyed woman in a print dress in an old Ford sta-tion wagon. The instant the light changes, she gasses it, turns right, cuts youoff brutally. You yell something not quite coherent at her. She shakes her fistat you: It’s YOUR fault! You’re SCUM!

You see her three days later, same light. She honks. You look into the old Fordwagon. She’s made a little biker doll. It’s wearing a tiny white Nolan helmetand, ohmigawd, a jacket just like yours! She pushes a hat-pin through the dolland smiles at you. The light goes green.

You ride anyway.

RIDER Writer

Heroic supporters

written for the Daily Rider byMaynard Hershon

We don’t have any marble to sculpt, so here’s a list of our most...

SEND s u p p o r t

Thanks to Jason Emmert of Alpha Mailing Services (704 335 9907) for providing mailing services.

L e t t e r sHi folks,It's nice to see you undertaking this project!I have a couple of questions about statements inyour newsletter (IssueNo.1). I was wondering about the basis for your state-ment that "higher statistical accident rates for rid-ers are due to a greater incidence of excessivespeed or impairment (DUI) among motorcy-clists." I am an MSF instructor and the curriculumwe use states that the incidence of impairment(DUI) among motorcyclists is not higher thanamong other motorists, just the consequencesare. If you rely upon some authority in sayingmotorcyclists are impaired or DUI more than othermotorists, I would be very interested in knowingabout it. Second, the Hurt study (which analyzed thecauses of tens of thousands of motorcycle acci-dents, and remains the best information we haveabout why motorcyclists are accident-involved)indicates that the major causes of motorcycleaccidents is the motorcycle not being seen byother motorists (due in part to a lack of con-spicuity on the part of the motorcyclist) , fol-lowed by factors such as the motorcyclist's inabil-ity to swerve or use the brakes properly. I haven'tseen excessive speed and DUI identified as caus-es of higher accident rates for motorcyclists. Canyou tell me your authority for saying this? Finally, do motorcyclists actually have more acci-dents than other motorists? Again, the MSF cur-riculum teaches that motorcyclists do not, butthat the consequences of accidents for motorcy-clists are more severe. Once again, I would appre-ciate knowing what you rely on in saying thatthey do. I hope my requests aren't too burdensome... I fig-ure it's important that we motorcyclists are put-ting accurate information out there, me included.So thanks for responding. Happy trails,Susan Garner Russell (via email)

Hi Susan,Thank you for your message and questions. Theclaims and statements were not taken from empir-ical or statistical sources like the Hurt report. TheDaily Rider flyer was written to encourage partici-pation in Ride To Work day. The source materialfor most of the content was a variety of articlesand clippings published over the last few years.This pro-motorcycle editiorial material was com-bined and used without paying very much atten-tion to annotation or documentation because thepurpose of the flyer was to advocate riding towork. It is possible that some material was includ-ed which cannot be deductively supported. The

question at the center of this concern is: If leisure,social, and sport riding activities are removedfrom the motorcycling population so that only asmall daily commuting rider group remains....thenwhat kind of accident indices adhere to this com-muting group, and how do these indices compareto the exclusively automobile using commutingpopulation...and how do they compare to theoverall private vehicle population? I would like tobe able to statistically verify that motorcycle com-muting is statistically 'safer' than the risks for allleisure/social/sport/general motorcycle ridingactivities. At this point the logic for arriving atthat conclusion is inductively based, but withrecent data mining capabilities there is a chancethat additional kinds of statistically based evi-dence could be produced. One person with use-ful technical skills for doing this volunteered towork toward this end, but I do not know if he willproduce anything. This kind of information wouldbe useful for both motorcycling and for the RideTo Work day program. If you know someone whomight be interested in helping us develop thisdata, please contact them. Risk is sort of a redherring for motorcycling. On a per mile basis,walking is something like 56 times more likey toinvolve an individual in an accident which resultsin death than riding in or driving an automobile.Similarly, being in a car is many times more dan-gerous than being in an airplane. Motorcyclingfalls somewhere along that continium...possiblyeven past the risks of walking (on a per mile trav-eled basis). But the greater social benefits of walk-ing, bicycling, skating, skateboarding, and motor-cycling for transportation all outweigh their high-er risk factors (compared to using private auto-mobiles). Despite popular suburbanized, cap-sulized modern life styles, we are socialized enti-ties. Technologies which increase our socializa-tion and re-inforce positive social behavors mightsometimes be more directly risky, but they mayalso provide overall benefits that outweigh indi-vidual risks.Let me know if you have questions or if I can beof other assistance.Andy

Wow... that was quite a comprehensive response-- thanks!I do understand the purpose of the newsletter--and it's a good one. And I'm sure that we work-ing stiffs who ride to work are probably amongthe more risk avoidant of motorcycle riders in gen-eral. I wonder about the um..pitfalls.. of pittingone class of motorcycle rider against another, andthe risk that non-riders seeing statements thatindicate that there is "greater incidence of exces-sive speed or impairment (DUI) among motorcy-clists" could end up using that against all motor-

Recommended Reading from Progress:Surface Transportation Policy Project Volume X, Number 3; June 2000 Bureau ofTransportation

Divorce Your Car! Ending the Love Affairwith the Automobile,Katie Alvorod, 2000. New SocietyPublishing

Toward Sustainable Communities -Transition and Transportation inEnvironmental Policy,Daniel Mazmanian and Michael Kraft, eds.,2000 MIT Press

Transportation of Liveable Cities, Vukan R.Vuchic, 2000 CUPR Press

Green Urbanism: Learning from EuropeanCities,Timothy Beatley, 2000 Island Press

Car Free in Cleveland, Alt-Trans Cleveland,2000 Alt Trans Cleveland Project; EcoCityCleveland

r i d i n g / R e a d i n g I s f u n d a m e n t a l

The Charter of the New Urbanism, Congressfor the New Urbanism,1999 McGraw Hill Professional Publishing

Designing Sustainable Communities -Learning from Village Homes, Judy and Michael Corbett, 2000 Island Press

Car Free Cities,J.H. Crawford, 2000 Paul & Poe Press

Parking Spaces - A Design, Implentation,and Use Manual for Architects, Planners and Engineers, Mark Childs, 1999McGraw Hill Text

The Wealth of Cities - Revitalizing theCenters of American Life,John O. Norquist, 2000 Perseus Press

The Old Neighborhood - What We Lost inthe Great Suburban Migration: 1966 - 1999,Ray Suarez, 1999 Free Press

Sprawl City - Race, Politics, and Planning in

Atlanta,Robert D. Bullard, Glenn S. Johnson, andAngel O. Torres, eds., 2000 Island Press

The Nature of Economics,Jane Jacobs, 2000 Modem Library

The Livable City - Revitalizing UrbanCommunities, Partners for LivableCommunities,2000 McGraw Hill

Sprawl Busting: State Programs to GuideGrowth, Jerry Weitz, 1999 Planners Press

Bobos in Paradise - The New Upper Classand How They Got There, David Brooks, 2000 Simon & Schuster

Roads - Driving America’s Great Highways, Larry McMurty, 2000 Simon & Schuster

Outside Lies Magic - Regaining History andAwareness in Everyday Places, John Stilgoe, 1998 Walker & Co.

cyclists....But thanks for your response.... and good luckwith your project.Susan

Hi Susan,Thank you for your comments. I do not believethat identifying an existing segment of the motor-cycling population and then providing encourage-ment and affirmation for that segment will pit"one class of motorcycle rider against another".There is always a xenophobic tendancy to balka-nize behavior and culture (i.e. - 'think like me' or'mine’s better than yours' or stuff like that.) butthere are real bonds and shared concerns that linkall riders from (at one extreme...) the teenagefreerider with a 125cc MX bike to (something verydifferent....) the retired two-up touring rider withthe Wing and trailer setup. They both like motor-cycles and both might be members of WOW orthe AMA or any other motorcycle interest groups.These are two examples from almost oppositeends of the spectrum of all motorcyclists, butthey both might be riding to work and choosingto support the Ride to Work progam on its directand unique merits. The Ride to Work program isa unique and sharply focused addition to theexisting array of pro motorcycle advocacy, publicrelations and evangelical groups. Expanding par-ticipation in Ride to Work Day is important. Yoursupport will make a positive difference for motor-cycling. I hope you will contribute to it's supportand will enjoy participating in the Ride to Workprogram and it's objectives. Let me know if you have questions or if I can beof other assistance.Andy

Hi Andy,I got your newsletter re: rider rights, and will besending a check in support. I am, however, con-cerned that you may ask for so much so fast thatlegislators point at this document and feel likewhat you are pursuing is too radical. I don't knowwhat the history of other groups pursuing thingslike this is, but asking for lane splitting privilegesin the same breath as improved roads andemployers providing the "safe, secure parking"areas may have everybody from police groups toChambers of Commerce up in arms saying thatthey are not willing to give an inch for fear of theproverbial mile. Dave Lurye

Hi Dave,Thanks for your message and support of Ride toWork Day. I understand your points about howwe are asking for a lot, but my approach involves

two things: First, make Ride to Work day as pop-ular and successful as possible,....Second... askfor everything...absolutely everything...thatwould help motorcycling become more popular asa form of utility transportation. (the fun aspect ofriding motorcycles takes care of itself) The onlyway is to ask for everything. What is 'realistic' or'diplomatic' or 'possible' is not in any way rele-vant to the goals of this specific type of advocacyprogram. The analogy is to compare the NAACPwith the Black Panthers or more moderate Jewishadvocacy groups with more radical ones. TheRide to Work program is deliberately made to beradical in ways that would be impossible for analready politically engaged organization. Ride toWork will not directly advocate illegal riding activ-ities, but there is a definite edge to some of it’sgoals and positions. I think this radicalness willturn out to be a strength, not a weakness. We willnot get as stuck in conventional political issues.We seek to empower and educate and give affir-mation to those who ride for transportation...andsee what happens as a result. Riding to work is amundane, boring form of everyday radicalness. Ido not expect to change the world, but even asmall nudge in the motorcycle-as-transportationdirection will help everyone. Andy

From: "Macarthur, Douglas" (via email)What's your position on helmet laws. Notice Isay "laws". I believe this should be a free country,myself. Not arguing a safety issue here. This is a"freedom" issue. See you later,-Doug - pleaserespond to helmet issue.

RTW Helmet law positionRide to Work Inc. does not have any position onhelmet laws. We are focused on ‘advocating andsupporting the increased use of motorcycles fortransportation, and providing information abouttransportation riding to motorcyclists and to thepublic.’ Holding strong subjective views on hel-met laws and “freedom” issues is important, butthese things should not play a role in a riders deci-sion to use a motorcycle to ride to work. Ride toWork endorses boots, gloves, protective clothing,helmets, eye wear and other gear that can makesome everyday riding situations safer and morecomfortable, so in that sense, we like helmets.But issues involving constitutional questions cen-tered around the existing helmet laws are notrelated to our aim to expand participation in RideTo Work day....and to encourage motorcycle useas a fun and practical form of surface transporta-tion.Andy

RIDE TO WORK, INC.

Board of Advisors

Mitch BoehmLaura Brengelman

Tim CarrithersJohn Chase

Cassandra EarlsVoni Glaves

J. Richard GrayBrian HaltonAmy Holland

Robert E. HigdonMark Kalan

Mark LindemannDan Molina

Mike MoloneyBill MuhrFred Rau

Marilyn StempClement Salvadori

Doug TolandAnne VanBeveren

THE DAILY RIDERBox 1072Proctor, MN55810-0072

propaganda@ridetowork.orgwww.ridetowork.org 218 722 9806

“One thing we know is that theaccident rate for motorcyclists hasbeen declining for many years.Riders now are a much safergroup than in the ‘50s, ‘60s,and‘70s. And through the ‘80s and‘90s things seemed to improveeven more, though the decline inregistrations at the same time hadto have been a large part of theexplanation. Motorcycling hasundergone another boom, howev-er, and more people are ridingagain. Unavoidably, with greaterexposure comes more accidents,though the best data we’ve seenrecently still indicate that thenumber of riders is increasingfaster than the accident rate,which means that on the whole,motorcyclists are safer than ever.This fact is being ignored.Motorcycle accidents are per-ceived differently from other traf-fic incidents; car wrecks are con-sidered regrettable, but a culturalnorm; the same result on a motor-cycle is viewed as senseless. Orworse, inevitable.Motorcycles are potentially dan-gerous, of course, but they don’thave to be. The risk inherent tomotorcycling seems to me a fric-tionless sliding scale: dependingentirely on your own approach, itcan move freely between safe andrelaxed recreation and somethingverging on suicide. No other vehi-cle offers the movement so easilyfrom one extreme to the other. Soyes, you need to think aboutwhat you do and be careful.”‘Signal to Noise Ratio’ edito-rial by Bruce Reeve in CycleCanada July 2000, to sub-scribe, call 514 738 9439

People are famously irrational indeciding what hazard to pay atten-tion to. More Americans were killedin bicycling accidents last year(about 900) than died in all U.S.airplane crashes in the 1990’s. Butwhen a big plane goes down, thereare big stories - which we all read.Residents of Los Angeles or SanFrancisco are hundreds of timesmore likely to die in a householdfall from a ladder than in an earth-quake, yet the earthquake danger iswhat people are hundreds of timesmore likely to discuss. (In the 20thcentury, about 5,000 Americansdied in earthquakes, most of themin San Francisco in 1906. Thatmany die in household falls everyfour months.)

Our reaction to these differentperils is both not quite logical andcompletely understandable, sincewe are affected by more than thepure statistical risk. The other fac-tors we inevitably weigh includethe element of sudden horror -quite high when the earth opensup or you’re trapped in a fallingplane; an individual’s ability tocontrol the risk, which is close tozero for an airline passenger; andthe ability to correct or recoverfrom the damage after it hasoccurred, which is very low for air-plane crashes. Risk Assessment, By JamesFallows From The IndustryStandard, March 6, 2000

“A recent study in Tokyo showedthat if one in every five car driverswere to ride a bike instead, trafficspeed would rise by 35 percent andpollution would be 30 percentdown.”Performance Bike, April 2000issue.

“Cars lie to us and tell us we’resafe, powerful, and in control. The

air-conditioning fans murmurempty assurances and whisper,“Sleep, sleep.” Motorcycles tell usa more useful truth: we are smalland exposed, and probably movingtoo fast for our own good, butthat’s no reason not to enjoy everyminute of the ride.”Dave Karlotski, Season of TheBike 7/00

“...fundamental deficiencies in thismethodology are clearly demon-strated by the fact that if the sameanalysis is applied to all modes ofurban transportaion, one wouldreach the absurd conclusion thatmotorcycles are superior to allother modes of urban passengertransportation. They are cheaperand faster than cars, while theirgreat inferiority in safety and com-fort are not considered...”

Transportation for LivableCities, Vukan R. Vuchic, 1998(This is the single ‘motorcycle’ ref-erence in this “authoratative” 350page guide for transportationplanners. Sheesh.)

Maximum businesss deductionallowed US employers per employ-ee parking space they provide:$175Maximum deduction allowedemployers for van-pool or mass-transit expenses, per employee:$65From Harpers Index, July 98(for motorcycles-$0)

every ridesdayAlthough we’ve received a fewresponses to ‘Everyday Rides’, weneed more... So send ‘em in. (Ifyou don’t we’re gonna start puttingpics of MZ’s and diesel Enfields inhere...) See issue #1 for additionalinformation about this project.

digesT/clips

“Worlds WorstCommute” contest:

Close calls, bad roads,congestion, mean cops,

etc...Send your truestory entry to

<worstcommute_rtw@ridetowork.org.> Prizes,

about $200 in gifts

E N D O R S E D !Ride to Work Day has beenendorsed by the AMA. From theminutes of the October AMA boardmeeting:“Ride to Work, Inc. is a new organ-ization devoted to the concept ofpromoting motorcycling for every-day transportation. The AMA hasbeen approached to endorse "Rideto Work Day," which is held annu-ally on the third Wednesday in July,and honors those who ride to workon a daily basis... The officialendorsement by the AMA and posi-tive publicity in AmericanMotorcyclist will certainly help toheighten awareness among AMAmembers. A motion was made byMr. Smilie, seconded by Mr. Blank,and unanimously voted to:Approve and endorse the value ofmotorcycles as a vehicle for dailypersonal transportation and desig-nate the third Wednesday in July as‘Ride to Work Day’ in recognition ofthat value.”

To join the AMA call 1-800-AMA JOIN.

TDR issue #1 is on our website indownloadable and printable .PDF(Adobe Acrobat) form.Also downloadable are the followingRTW advocacy program materials:

1.The RTW ‘Hero Rider’ award2. The RTW shop agreement

3. RTW ads

other STUFF

PRESORTEDSTANDARD

U.S.POSTAGEPAIDAMS