Anatomy of a crash: ‘We just happened to be on motorcycles’ | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Anatomy of a crash: ‘We just happened to be on motorcycles’

Always puts a knot in my gut when I am reminded of Rob Harris (or Editor 'Arris, as I will always think of him). He left a heck of a human legacy, a truly well loved man.

Indeed. Yet almost ten years after his passing, Rob Harris still isn't in the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Which to me, undermines the whole thing. There are plenty of people in there for racing, ok, fair enough I guess... But who were they? Have any of us met them? Would we at least be able to recognize them? Have we actually even have heard of them?

With Rob we have someone who was actually a face in the community for decades, and reached and was read by hundreds of thousands of Canadians. He may have helped inform them, inspire them, maybe even lead them to make some purchase or take on some adventure.

Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame: ... *crickets*

Good job guys. Way to go.
 
Has anyone nominated Mr. Harris for the hall of Fame? There's a process
Maybe, maybe not, but if we're being honest...
If no one from within the panel that goes through the list of nominations has thought to nominate him, then the panel is a joke.
 
Over the years of motorcycle riding since I started in 1958, when with a Chauffeur's class driver's licence in Ontario, one did not have to pass a test on a motorcycle, to the era when I passed the "new M/C driving test" (in the late 60's - early 1970's) -that everybody used a 50cc Honda to pass the test but all I had was a 980cc v-twin) to the new test system of instructed driving over a test course, it has seemed to me that the Ontario governments have never seriously dealt with driver, or rider, post- initial qualification rider and driver improvement which would lead to safer motorcycle riding and safer car and truck operation on our roads.
Sure, the cops write speeding tickets, lay charges in accidents and for impaired driving. But we don't seem to have the ability or programs in force to get people to willingly obey the traffic regulations and drive, or ride, in greater safety with fewer accidents, injuries and deaths.
AFJ
Memories, getting my M at 401 and Keele on a borrowed 50 cc Honda Cub with the course being laid out by OPP Harleys. :)

My opinionated rant:

As far as the decline in general respect for law and order let's start at the top. Our federal government sets new lows for examples of decency, prudence, truth and competence. Make your own list as I don't feel like typing that much. These used to be people we respected and were supposed to emulate. They now set the bar so low it's underground.

Provincially they follow the same path. Skipping the developer bias and dealing with road safety, the objective is all about money. Fighting crime costs money with hundreds or thousand of dollars in investigation time resulting in costly trials resulting in costly incarcerations.

Minor crime and you're advised to go to the nearest police station and fill out a form.

On the other hand digital traffic offences, red light and speed cameras are a one time expense with revenue being hundreds of dollars per click. Call it road revenue or policing for profit, it's a money maker. The technology exists for stop sign cameras, the next step.

Judgement calls for crappy turns or lane changes means the issuing officer has to go to court which hurts the bottom line but AI could change that.

Lane marking obedience, signaling turns are not mandatory in Ontario.

Cheating on M-1 tests and M exits is apparently common.

Follow the money. Under the present system the government makes more money. Tow and impound yards make more. Insurance companies make more money and that will increase when eventually the photo offences are linked to vehicle owners. Lawyers make more money.

But no new taxes.

Municipalities are a confused mess, trying to make up for past shortcomings and voter indifference means a small sector of the population controls the masses using theatrics. So many e-variants are out there breaking laws that trying to stop them is like peeing upwind. The cost / reward factor is a negative outcome.

The above has gone on so long that it's ingrained in our culture. Cheat when you can and pay when you can't. To most, ethics don't matter anymore.

The solution is to come up with a correctional system that doesn't involve monetary fines. I have no idea what it would be but the various levels of government would be faced with the reality of balancing budgets without the road revenue cash cow.

There are apparently some municipalities in the USA that have low or no property taxes because income from traffic fines cover them.

Time for a decaf.
 
then the panel is a joke
The "panel" does not nominate inductees, the "panel" votes on induction.
Join the Hall of Fame, and nominate him... someone has to nominate him (I don't think the "panel" can nominate inductees, that would create a conflict of interest)
 
The "panel" does not nominate inductees, the "panel" votes on induction.
Join the Hall of Fame, and nominate him... someone has to nominate him (I don't think the "panel" can nominate inductees, that would create a conflict of interest)
Conflict of interest ? I doubt that has stopped anyone in the past.
 
Yup. And you can literally nominate someone with no proof of who you are either.

bitzz dm me your full name and I'll get chatgpt to make you up an entire career and backstory and nominate you using my pen name, "John Smith" , right now.

And just to be clear... my real name is not John Smith. But they won't know that.
 
And this is the idiocy - trying to stop people who don't follow rules by adding more rules.

My neighborhood complained about people occasionally speeding as they went to/from the nestled park. City reduced the speed limit and added stop signs at 2 intersections. Now the speeders either blow through the stops, or treat it like a drag strip. One neighbor who lives in front of one of the stops is furious because all he hears day and night is the sound of vehicles accelerating (legally or illegally) as opposed to coasting by.
Funny. Happened in mine too. Folks a few streets over asked for massive speed bumps, the got them. Now they’re screaming to have them removed … they can’t stand the suspension banging, and the fart can supercars accelerating off the back side of the bumps.
 
Just got back from a ride out to Mississauga, and out at Mississauga Road and King, at a school? On the southwest corner there were a couple of exotic cars and a group of bikes, didn’t see police but with the looks on the riders faces it didn’t look good. Luckily I was just a tad over the speed limit.
There are pockets of enforcement but very few.
 
I agree that many of the speed calming issues create more problems. In York region, many of the arterial roads got speeds reduced by 10kmh about a year ago. They also de-syncronized lights to create more speed calming stops. Finally they removed a lot or right-on-reds at major intersections.

They achieved the goal of slowing traffic. My journey from 48 to the 404 increased from 12 minutes to 17 minutes.

I see way more aggressive driving, running reds, drivers cutting thru gas stations and plazas to shortcut the no-right-on-reds.

Exactly. Nail on head, 100%.

In my neck of the woods they seem to have decided that piling in stop sign after stop sign is somehow going to help. Most of them are completely unnecessary as the are at tiny side street intersections that see very little traffic. But this is "traffic calming". All it does is frustrate people, many almost roll through them now because a 2km stretch of road has 5 stop signs, and in the end it's just a bunch of wasted fuel and extra noise.

The municipality has also somehow decided that if people are not following a 60kph speed limit... changing the signs to 50, or 40, yeah, that'll fix the speeding issue. But then, <shocked pikachu face>, the people who drove 80 in a 60 zone before are still driving 80 in a 40 zone. Stunting charge now? Yep. Anyone around to catch them and lay that charge? Ha...yeah, no.

WTF. Who thinks these are solutions?

Put F'n police, or cameras out there in regular use all over the place, and ticket the sh!t out of these people. I'm tired of living in the wild west.
The ONLY thing that will slow down these people is getting kicked in their wallet. Kick them over and over and over again. As someone who spends 8-12 hours a day driving for a living and am getting tired of dealing with these idiots who think they own the roads, and my spare time on 2 wheels just trying to not get squashed by these same idiots, I'm perfectly OK with this.

One neighbor who lives in front of one of the stops is furious because all he hears day and night is the sound of vehicles accelerating (legally or illegally) as opposed to coasting by.

Story of my life now - the street behind our house used to be a quiet secondary street. Now (thanks to unfettered growth without any meaninful road infrastructure improvements, that's another story) it's a busy secondary street with stop signs every few hundred feet, so instead of just regular traffic noise, now we head endless stop and go traffic, chirping tires, roaring engines (with the usual smattering of fart-can mufflers and such), and it's just not like it used to be because in an effort to band-aid speeding, they drop stop signs everywhere.
 
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Funny. Happened in mine too. Folks a few streets over asked for massive speed bumps, the got them. Now they’re screaming to have them removed … they can’t stand the suspension banging, and the fart can supercars accelerating off the back side of the bumps.
There's a house not far from us, great curb appeal. It's at a four way stop. iirk vrooom, iirk vrooom, iirr vrooom 24/7.

The rich folks on The Bridal Path lobbied to get speed bumps. Ambulances can't handle them at speed so emergency runs to Sunnybrook are longer.
 

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