Bikes vs. Bikes

I'm guessing it is going to break down as such...
40% of you are looking at the title and know exactly where this is going to go, 40% of you saw the title and the "?" just popped up above your head, and 20% don't give, and have just completely tuned out for the rest of this post. I urge all to keep reading.

I got into a “discussion” the other day with one of the people I work with, which of course means that in the end I was right. But I digress. At any rate, I made the comment that there is no way on Earth anyone could get me on a motorcycle for any reason. The point I was making isn’t that I feel motorcycles are unsafe, rather too many people drive like utter asses. As I delve deeper into making my point, I look to freeway traffic to help me out here. All was going fine, until he realized he held the trump card. So as I am ranting about how being on a five-hundred pound engine with wheels, doing upwards of 30 MPH when you’re going extremely slow, he pulls it; the trump card to the whole conversation. He points out that I have a problem being a large “hard to wreck if you’re paying attention” piece of machinery, while “(I) have no problem whatsoever being on a tiny twenty five pound or so (I corrected him, my bike is sub-twenty… didn’t help my argument) two wheel (and I) might as well be walking.” After my initial reaction, defending what I do in my free-time for recreation and health, it got me to thinking. I’ve ranted, in this blog actually, about how much I tend to hate cars, and how people have forgotten how to drive with bicycle traffic on the road. I’ve actually cut my road travel quite a bit, almost entirely really, and have replaced it with parkways and trails.

Then, this weekend I was out, we got stuck, in the car, in a line of traffic. Eventually they let us pass, but there was none of the usual. No broken tail lights, no fluids on the road, no parts strewn about. Then I saw it. One of the police cars, trunk open, a bike crammed into the trunk. When all was said and done, it left me questioning how safe we really are. It kind of gave me a new appreciation for what we do, and how dangerous it could be. It really made me want to move to a more secluded place, where there is far less traffic.

I do have two questions for everyone too, do any of you guys or gals also ride motorcycles? If so, do you feel safer, less safe, never thought about it? Just curious.