I am a driver, I ride both motorcycles and bicycles and I have those who slalom in traffic. It may sound very blunt, but these are the facts and it’s no use being overly protective. I can perfectly understand the natural penchant for lane splitting, even in countries or states where this is illegal. I can also understand very well the frustration of the riders in slow traffic and the way they are trying to streak through and break free from the clutter. And I can definitely understand that riders are at times less than ideally polite while at it… because I am a rider, too.
What surpasses my power of understanding is seeing certain riders acting like complete idiots in consummate disregard of laws and personal safety, let alone the safety and well-being of other road users. And when this happens aboard a scooter, things can only get worse.
Some believe that scooters are better than bikes because of their smaller dimensions, lighter weight and therefore being overall more maneuverable in tight spaces. While these claims may be true, we must not forget about the fact that the scooters’ braking system is generally not a high-performance one, in spite of what manufacturers say.
Their brakes do perform well, indeed, but not under “street racing” conditions. Even more most of them lack ABS and this makes them quite prone to wheels locking when applying the brakes too much. And that’s bad, even the dumbest rider would agree. So behaving like Marc Marquez when riding a scooter in busy Taiwanese traffic has really slim chances of getting you safe home and with the vehicle in one piece.
The video below shows how bad things can go when riding like an idiot and mindlessly waving in and out of traffic. And trust me, this is definite one of the best-case scenarios…
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