And I won’t even get into the silly riding habits of the motorcyclists in Japan. Who ever heard of riding on the inside? Sheesh!
Unfortunately, I understand that this style is mandatory for mopeds (and as a result, some car drivers think they should force riders of larger bikes to behave the same way). I would strongly agree with your observation that an experienced motorcyclist (or cyclist) has an increased awareness of speed, mass, and the frailty of the human body in such circumstances.
Originally Posted by
studentbecometeacher
Also, the fact that cars have gotten safer is only relevant if the decline in fatalities in Japan is similar to the decline of other countries in the world.
The point that reductions in fatalities in the ‘90s and ‘00s were largely due to improved vehicle safety rather than improved driver skills was explained to me by a Japanese police driving instructor when I renewed my license two years ago. To support this argument, he showed some data on accident rates (which had declined somewhat) and fatality rates (which had declined greatly). I regret that I don't have that data to hand.
The police driving instructor held the view that young drivers were getting inadequate and inappropriate training. He told me that he had been given the job of fixing people’s bad habits two years too late.
I was pretty convinced by his arguments. They gel with my own observations from driving in Japan since 1992.
Please feel free to disagree and to dismiss any book that is "old".
(By the way, I wouldn't go near any mathematics textbooks if I were you. Rumor has it that some of that stuff was written thousands of years ago).
jib71 out.