David Neely writes in his “On Two Wheels” column in the Belfast Telegraph regarding the Right To Ride Near Miss Survey.
David says about near misses, “if you have been riding for any length of time”, or “if you’ve been on a bikes for more years than you remember, you’ll have had more near misses than you would shake a stick at.”
Commenting on the “Near Miss Study of Motorcycles” David says, “Whilst some of it’s findings are not unexpected, it’s invaluable because the author has analysed and presented the information she collected from an internet questionnaire in a scientific manner.”
David pulls out of the study some examples of a few experiences of riders who replied, “driver doing a u-turn without looking; driver using a mobile phone turned across me; car driver changing lanes without indicating; guy pulled out and travelled on wrong side of road towards me to turn right into a junction which I had just passed and an elderly car driver drove through a red light.”
“And one which regular users of the Antrim Coast road will be familiar. ‘Just south of Glenarm the road surface, when wet, has the coefficient of dieselised plastic.”
As David commented, “l rode on this stretch of road just a couple of weeks ago in the wet and felt my back tyre moving slightly. In places you’re riding on pure tar.”
“A very small number of respondents admitted that near misses were their own fault. One set down his experiences. “Running wide missing a junction, messing up an overtake (between cars) and just before junctions.”
“257 riders from Northern Ireland, the Republic and Great Britain were surveyed.”
Our thanks to David Neely and the Belfast Telegraph for featuring the Near Miss Study.
Belfast Telegraph Website: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Near Miss Study – Click Here 
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