Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

The Norwegian insurance company "If..." wants the motorcycle riders to pay the price for unattentive car drivers.

Ulf Larsen, If... Insurance

Ulf Larsen is one of the head honchos of the If... insurance company, a major one in Norway. At his company's web site we can read the following (my translation - if you read Norwegian you can read his own words here):

"Every fourth serious person injury rapported to If... is after a motorcycle accident. The most common accident is collisions between motorcycle and car, and in 8 out of 10 cases the car driver is to blame. Visibility is a major problem. Therefore we in If... mean that bright yellow colours must be a part of the riders' protective clothing."

Mr Larsen wants to put the responsibility for the havoc caused by inattentive car drivers on the victims, namely the motorcycle riders.

Do you think it still seems fair given that we, the riders, are the ones that get hurt anyway? Well, research has proven that yellow bright clothing does not have any impact on visibilty except in rainy or foggy situations e.g. while riding on a highway - which is why rain riding clothes often are very colourful. A Swedish test demonstrated that neither fluorizing tape, re-arranged lightings nor yellow vests enhanced the driver's ability to spot the motorcycle.

On the contrary, in situations e.g. in the city lights and otherwise colourful surroundings, yellow vests and fluorizing tapes may actually act as a camouflage to the rider. It may also give the rider a unrealistic sense of safety, believing he/she is more visible with his/her yellow clothing.

So a yellow vest will not help. The alternative is to make sure that the driver gets proper training when he/she gets his/hers driver's license with regard to spotting motorcyclists. It is more than possible to do this. And it will help. A mandatory yellow vest, for instance, is to ordinate the wrong medicine to the wrong patient.

If... wanted to sell me an insurance package last Friday. I bet you can imagine what my response was.