When you hurry on the road your fixed goal takes priority over everything else – you “have to” get here or there. This focus on one thing makes you careless of others, and on a motorcycle that is dangerous. The hurrying attitude causes more accidents than speeding, as it makes people fail to give way and run traffic lights. Speeding can increase the consequences of a crash but the cause itself is the hurrying attitude. People associate speed with hurry because people who hurry usually also speed, but one can go fast without hurrying at all. Airline pilots go fast but they never hurry. Speed matters less than hurry on a motorbike because once you get above 60km/hr, the danger is always high. Hurrying is the real problem because it makes accidents more likely to happen. Riding safely has one simple rule: Never ever hurry!
Hurrying doesn’t work in the long run
When you hurry, your attitude is GO! GO! GO! On a motorcycle, hurrying makes you forget to wear gear (reduces readiness), ignore weather conditions, and not recognize risk situations. Hurrying makes cars drive in the rain as if it was a sunny day. Don’t be misled because hurrying sometimes works. It always increases your accident probability, i.e. your risk. You can hurry 99 times and be OK, but one day you will be slowed down a lot. Hurrying is never worth it because it increases every accident cause. When hurriers meet on the road, it is usually in accident alley.
Never hurry situations
The never hurry rule applies especially in two road situations:
- Intersections
- Changing lanes
Both these situations are cross-flow situations. Decide right now to NEVER EVER HURRY at intersections or when changing lanes. The decision to never hurry will reduce your accident chances enormously. When you hurry, you put yourself above the world. You have your plan which makes you hurry, but Life also has a Plan, and its Plan will always take precedence over your plan. Trust me on this. Hurrying causes accidents, as it disconnects you from the world as it is. Tune into the world, not yourself. It will tell you whether to go fast or slow. Never hurry, unless you want to hurry to disaster
Intersections
Most accidents occur at intersections, so whatever your speed, always slow down at intersections. Never accelerate into an intersection, e.g. to beat a red light. I can’t stress this enough. If the light turns red, accept it and stop – that’s life. You can’t win them all (except in your dreams). At intersections the rule is: stop accelerating, drop a gear and cover the brake. Be ready to stop, because an intersection is a high risk traffic cross-flow.
Changing lanes
Highways solve the problem of intersections but create another problem just as bad – that of changing lanes. Many highway accidents occur when people change lanes. So the rule is: never be in a hurry to change lanes. A sudden lane change is an invitation to an accident party. If you don’t have time to change lanes, then don’t. Just stay in the lane where you are, and then you will live well and prosper.