Washington State Dept. of Transportation: Biased Against Or Just Ignoring Motorcycles?

This question has, from time to time, been asked.  It deserves an answer.  In public transportation planning policy, there are world and national standards for highway infrastructure.  Safety features are designed into these pieces of highway infrastructure that afford a safety benefit to automobiles, and larger vehicles.  Transportation policy planners are aware of these standards.  Designing and planning policy around them.  Except for motorcycles.  In a 2016 Traffic Safety Conference, Dr. Chiara Dobrovolny, Ph.D. of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute stated that there is; “Limited research to address riders safety when impacting roadside safety hardware.  No US testing standards for motorcycle riders safety when impacting roadside safety devices” and “No world testing standards when impacting in an upright position.”

As early as 1982, Dr. J.V. Ouellet of the University of Southern California published a report entitled “Environmental Hazards In Motorcycle Accidents”.  This study had its data taken from the same data sets as the 1981 Hurt Report”.  The “Hurt Report” is widely considered the most in-depth motorcycle traffic safety study of the 20^th Century.  In the abstract for this 1982 report, Dr. Ouellet states; “Considerable research and development effort has been devoted to making the roadway environment a safer place for automobile collisions, but a commensurate effort for motorcycles is lacking.”

In the decades since, there have been several studies on the effects of motorcycles colliding with roadside safety barriers.  The results of these studies seem to be unknown to WSDOT policy planners or are discounted by them.  However, when a WSDOT study finds that the percentage of serious injury or fatal motorcycle crashes jumped significantly after installation of one of these safety features, the motorcycle datasets were “exempted” because “they are skewing” the analysis of the data.  The study also reported that; “The research team found that motorcycle crashes were heavily influenced by horizontal curves, which were linked to 30 of the 35 crashes. Of those 30, 26 were lane departures to the outside of the curve.”  However, the researchers did not even attempt to look at any possible contributing effect the “safety feature” they were researching may have had to these crashes.  All the while, this “safety feature” lay directly in the middle of the roadway, and were crossed by the 26 “lane departures to the outside of the curve”.  What was this “safety feature”?  Centerline Rumble Strips. 

The researchers apparently had so little understanding of the handling differences between motorcycle and automobiles that even their own words did nothing to draw their attention to a possible correlation between their installation and the increase in serious and fatal motorcycle crashes.  Their research was focused only on the primary contributing circumstances the CLRS were to influence when installed.  This was; “The primary contributing circumstances CLRS are expected to influence are those where an operator is asleep, fatigued, or distracted.”  Since there were no reports of “asleep, fatigued, or distracted” drivers in the motorcycle crashes, no other conclusions appear to even have been worth looking at.  Other than making the comment that the “motorcycle findings are an interesting study on their own” the dataset was exempted and no other related motorcycle study was ever conducted.

In all further studies on the performance analysis of centerline rumble strips, motorcycles were not even mentioned.  Not even to say their data had been exempted.  This is quite a common situation in WSDOT highway performance reports.  While studies around the world are being done that show the serious and significantly dangerous effects motorcyclists incur during a crash involving highway safety features, motorcycles and motorcyclists are rarely even mentioned in WSDOT studies and reports.

For example; both the “Two-Lane Rural Highways Safety Performance Functions” and the “Urban and Suburban Arterial Safety Performance Functions” from 2016 have a combined 574 pages.  In those pages; pedestrians are mentioned over fifty times, and bicyclists are mentioned nearly forty times. 

Neither motorcycles or motorcyclists are even mentioned once.  All while motorcycles account for four percent of Washington State’s registered vehicles.

Several studies from around the world have focused on the effects of motorcycles colliding with roadside safety barriers.  These studies have clearly shown the effects of a motorcycle colliding with barriers such as guardrails, jersey barriers, and cable barriers.  In the 2010 Virginia Tech-Wake Forest study “Fatality risk in motorcycle collisions with roadside objects in the United States” by Daniello and Gabler, one of the conclusions were that; “that motorcycle collisions with guardrail have a greater fatality risk for motorcyclists than collisions with the ground. Based on the most harmful event, collisions with guardrail were 7 times more likely to be fatal.”  Yet WSDOT seems to be resistant to performing simple mitigation efforts that would reduce significant fatal collisions between motorcyclists and these roadside safety barriers.  Rarely, if ever, admitting that any benefit would result in doing so.  Even

If only as a pilot program to mitigate effects on sections of roadway WSDOT’s own studies show have a significantly higher rate of motorcycle crashes.  While the WSDOT may hold the position that a high percentage of these crashes are “single-vehicle”, and therefore the riders fault.  It has also been shown that infrastructure “safety features” designed to protect automobile occupants can have an adverse effect on motorcycle stability and lead to crashes with no other vehicle involved.  There are always other factors that may need to be considered on an individual crash by crash basis, but disregarding those factors because of the class of vehicle involved will never allow WSDOT and the State of Washington to attain its “Target Zero” goal of zero fatal or serious traffic collisions by 2030.  By refusing to view motorcycles as a part of any comprehensive transportation planning policy, WSDOT would seem to be sacrificing the safety of Washington’s motorcyclists through either an institutional bias or worse by an institutional disregard for the safety of a class of Washington’s citizens.

Catch ya on the road sometime…

Studies referred to in this article:

1.        2016 Traffic Safety Conference, Dr. Chiara Dobrovolny, Ph.D. Texas A&M Transportation Institute

2.        Environmental Hazards In Motorcycle Accidents, Dr. J.V. Ouellet, Traffic Safety Center, University of Southern California 1982

3.        Performance Analysis of Centerline Rumble Strips in Washington State, Olson, Manchas, et al, March 2011 WSDOT WA-RD768.1

4.        Two-Lane Rural Highways Safety Performance Functions, Shankar, Hong, et al, May 2016, WSDOT WA-RD 856.1

5.        Urban and Suburban Arterial Safety Performance Functions: Final Report, Shankar, Venkataraman, et al, June 2016, WSDOT WA-RD 857.1

6.        Fatality risk in motorcycle collisions with roadside objects in the United States, Daniello, Gabler, Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University, School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, 2010

The Wind River/Columbia Gorge Loop

Starting in Camas, take State Road 500 and follow it north through the countryside until you reach the suburban junction with State Road 503.  At this point, turn right onto 503 and follow it out of the suburban environment it starts in to some very nice rural forests and farmlands. As you head north, you will find that traffic begins to thin out rather quickly a few miles after you leave Battleground.  Then you can really begin to enjoy some nice gentle sweeping turns and scenery.  By the time you reach Fargher Lake, the turns are beginning to get better as the road narrows down from the multi-lane highway to a two-lane road.

Remaining on 503 as you head towards Amboy, the turns begin to become sharper, and the speed limit advisory signs drop down to 15 mph.  Enjoying the road and scenery getting better as you ride through Amboy, and Chelatchie up to the Yale junction on 503.  At this point you again make a right hand turn and stay on 503 heading towards Cougar.  Riding along the shores of Yale Lake, you will begin to get a sense of how special this loop can be.  But the views are only just beginning, with secrets yet to be discovered.  Depending on the size of your fuel tank, you may want to top off in Cougar.  As fuel isn’t always available until you reach Carson.

Cougar Bar & Grill

Once you pass through Cougar, and enter the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, State Road 503 becomes forest road 90.  As you begin to climb along FR90, there are times you will find it hard not to look away from the road at the vistas appearing around you.  Go ahead and look, but look away from the road for too long and the road may make you pay for that mistake.  

One of the first secrets along this road is Ape Cave.  A few thousand-year-old lava tube on the south side of Mt St Helens.  It is a popular tourist attraction and well worth the slight side trip of only a couple of miles from this loop.  I can’t recall anyone ever telling me they didn’t enjoy it.  But do bring a good light, or rent a lantern at the Ape Cave entrance.  For more information click here and learn if you may be interested in spending a couple of hours enjoying Ape Cave. 

Continuing east on forest road 90, the road climbs up above the Swift Reservoir, and the truly fun riding has really begun.  With twists and “S” curves, and a few sweepers thrown into the mix a rider can really find themselves getting into the peace this road seems to bring.  Even though it seems to be remote, its being only a short trip from the Portland/Vancouver area does mean that this loop can often be well-populated by other motorcycles, and even other vehicles.  So keep your eyes open, and enjoy the ride as you go on.

When you reach the junction of FR90 with FR25, it can be misleading.  The “90 Road” make a left turn, and if you don’t make the turn you are on the “25 Road” and will end up in Randle if you don’t get back on the right road.  Sad to say, but FR25 used to be a truly great motorcycle road.  But budget cuts during the last decade or so have really turned it into a horrendous bike breaking road if you aren’t careful and avoid the many frost heaves and subsided sections of roadway that can stretch for a hundred yards or more.

Let’s get back to FR90 at the junction.  Following the road, you soon cross the Lewis River, and very shortly after that you come to Northwoods and Eagle Cliffs.  There is a gas station that during the summer sometimes has no fuel at Eagle Cliffs.  Also, there is a small store, cabins and a small campground that is more than suitable to use as a base camp if you want to make this loop into a longer ride than just a day trip.

When you leave Eagle Cliffs heading east on FR90, there are a couple of other little secrets just beyond the turn at Curly Creek Rd.  If you enjoy waterfalls, you can ride approximately 0.9 miles and turn left onto FR9039.  Follow the road about a mile or so to the trailhead for Curly Creek Falls.  The falls are on the opposite side of the river, and quite enjoyable.  There is another trailhead very close to another waterfall.  Both are enjoyable and worth the effort.  For more information ask at Eagle Cliffs about the many different waterfalls within a 15 to 20-minute ride of the store.  You will be glad you did if you enjoy waterfalls.

McClellan Overlook

If you don’t want to visit the falls, simply turn right when you reach the junction of the “90 Road” and Curly Creek Road.  This road was built around the turn of the millennium and I have always said that whoever laid it out must have been a biker.  The road climbs with a long left-handed sweeper that swings up the hill before the road wraps around past McClellan Overlook.  By this time the curves have begun to tighten and soon take on a sweet rhythm that feels so natural to a rider to make almost effortlessly.  This section of Curly Creek Road is one of my favorite roads to ride, and it soon passes by too quickly.  At the junction of Curly Creek Rd and Meadow Creek Rd (FR30) turn right and continue on.  The road will swing to the southeast and become Wind River Road.  You will be following this road all the way into Carson and the junction with State Road 14 along the Columbia River. 

Beacon Rock State Park on State Road 14

Turning right onto SR-14 you can follow this wonderful road through the green portion of the Columbia River Gorge all the way back to Camas and State Road 500.  If you don’t make any stops and don’t take any little side-trips, this route will take you a little over three hours to make the complete loop.  I haven’t mentioned most of the camping options along the way, simply because there are so many.  They can easily be found by going to the Gifford Pinchot National Forests website page for camping & cabins, or going to www.recreation.gov and finding great deals on campsites and cabins run by the US government.

I hope you enjoy this route.  It is one of my favorites.  After you have had the chance to check it out, let me know what you think.  I am always open to critiques if they are constructive and mean that I can improve my information to the motorcycling community here in the Pacific Northwest.

Catch you on the road sometime…

Spring Is Almost Here.

It is that time of year again.  When the frost is finally leaving the roadways and the snow is turning to rain with sun breaks.  The flowers and blossoms are beginning to be seen, and motorcyclist seem to come out of the woodwork.

The time of year when riders are beginning to spend more time creating reasons to ride and not drive.  When the bikes are getting gone over and awakened from their winter slumber.  Tires and other necessary items are being budgeted for and put on the bike.  The end of winter maintenance rituals we all seem to have been getting done.  If they haven't already been completed.

If you are reading this, then the odds are pretty good you are a motorcycle rider or passenger.  This is the time of year that you begin to really look forward to spending more time in the wind with your friends who ride. Whether it means throwing a get together so everyone can get a few miles worth of riding in, or sitting down and planning for a major ride later in the year.  You've probably already made plans to get together and ride somewhere.  

I hope that everyone has had the chance to get the final work done so they can ride without mechanical issues this year.  This looks to be an interesting year, and hopefully one that we can all enjoy riding in a diverse range of places and groups of riders.  And for those who prefer to ride alone, or with just one or two other bikes, I hope you find some great roads to enjoy, that will bring you to some lifelong memories.  Even a ride in nasty weather can bring with it great memories.  After all, here in the Pacific North "Wet" if you don't ride in the rain you don't get to ride a whole lot.

There are man wonderful places to ride to, and some incredible roads to ride in the region.  I hope you are able to enjoy them and can enjoy the thrill of riding through the amazing landscapes our region has to offer.  Who knows, maybe we will even be able to share some road together this year.  I hope so.  

Catch ya on the road sometime...

A Facebook Page and Other Changes

As the next step in rejuvenating the blog after dealing with the life-altering changes I have gone through in the past year and a half, I will be making changes to this blog.  Not so much in content, but in how it is published and/or promulgated.  I have started a Facebook page for the blog, and I am considering releasing YouTube videos related to the motorcycle community.  Some of which I hope to be simple sit-downs with riders to discuss issues before our community.

It's time I stepped back up and started getting back into life again.  But one thing is for sure; I am not going to give up the fight to bring motorcycles into public transportation policy planning more comprehensibly than it is currently.  Which is basically; ignored, exempted, and barely tolerated.

I will be trying my best to highlight some of the good people in our diverse two-wheeled community.  As well as highlighting some local events and issues I feel would be fun, and/or important for our community to take notice of and take part in.

Let's get this thing rolling again.

Catch you on the road sometime...

R.I.P. Daley Mathison...Some Thoughts On Life And Death And Motorcycling.

I was just sitting here, thinking about the events at today's Isle of Man TT. With the tragic death of racer Daley Mathison and the lack of huge financial prizes for winners at the TT, it got me thinking. Now I'm not going to say these racers, both men and women are crazy adrenaline junkies. They're not. It may be a small aspect of it, but that isn't the main reason they road race on closed circuits. Any moron with a need for an adrenaline rush can jump on a motorcycle and twist their wrist, sending them rocketing down a public road like a maniac. Hell-bent for leather as they fly low over the roadway without a care or a brain in their head except going fast.

I know, I can still remember riding up and down the twisting two-lane highway of US101 along Hoods Canal on an old chopped BSA with an extended front end, and no rear suspension (and no front brakes for that matter) doing 110 mph or so. If a deer or God forbid, an elk, crossed the road in front of me, I'd have been toasted spam on the highway. But it didn't matter. I was flying, and just living in the moment. Where nothing else mattered, except that instant, and the next instant was whatever it would bring with it. I loved it, and still, get nostalgic thinking about those days sometimes.

But the road racers at the TT; they aren't like that. They do, truly love to go fast on the road circuit. But it's controlled. Or at least controlled to a fine degree that a simple adrenaline junkie wouldn't even stand for. Months of physical exercise and training to build stamina, and strength, and reflexes. They don't even practice on the closed road circuit if it's raining (Hell, they don't even bring rain gear or "wet" tires with them), let alone race in the rain anymore. They push their skills to the limit, and they push their machines. Knowing if either one breaks in practice, or even worse in a real race, they may die. But they have done everything possible to reduce that risk to an extreme degree. However, the fact is, that risk is real and remains a part of road racing. They've taken the safety as nearly far as it can go, and they accept the risk they are taking. For the love of it, and the competition of it. And yes, for the thrill of it too.

The road racers who participate in the Isle of Man TT aren't insane adrenaline junkies. They are motorcyclists who love to ride their bikes to their limit and enjoy the pleasure and freedom of doing so on the longest and most intensely challenging road circuit in the world. All 37.7 miles of it. Most motorcyclists can understand that feeling; that need, to ride and feel the road rushing past them. To some greater or lesser degree I think everyone who truly loves riding their motorcycle understands and knows this feeling at some deep level.

My heart goes out to the wife and young daughter of Daley Mathison. This sudden realization that the reaper awaits us all along our path and we know not when our number will come up. The risk and danger of death is a given to motorcycle road racers and their families. Still, it is always a tragedy when a motorcyclist dies doing what they love so deeply. A tragedy, and yet...I can't think of a better way to leave this life, than doing something I love so much.

I send my prayers for comfort and compassion for this young family now in the depths of sorrow. Prayers for healing and joy as well. But those prayers are no less than I say every night for those who ride, and sadly many have died while just riding their motorcycles and so deeply enjoying the life that God gave them. It's not just adrenaline junkies and professional road racers, but everyone who lives to ride these machines we love. I say a prayer for all of us, and still, I thrill to ride, and to watch the TT. I hope that I always will.

As the old adage used to go; "If I have to explain it, you'd never understand."

Ride In Peace Daley.

Catch you on the road sometime...

Moral Equality vs Forced Equality

There has been a somewhat terrifying push for a forced equality of result that seems to oppose and even vilify what I refer to as 'Moral Equality'.  This 'Equality of Result' as some describe it focusses on equality between groups in for example; career fields.  This view refuses to admit any differences between the groups.  As if admitting that differences exist equates to one group somehow being superior to another.  That is an undesirable position, however, those with the viewpoint that it is necessary for example that there should be a 50/50 split between the genders in fields such as computer programming are trying to force such results with total disregard for any other end result.  Forcing equality in this manner does nothing but dehumanizes those, in this case, who chose freely to work as programmers.  Attempting to enforce an equality of result in this manner also dehumanizes those who are being pushed into the field because of someone else desire for an equality of result.  In other words, the individual's personal choices are seen as less important than achieving the desired resultant 50.50 gender split.

"If you argue that no true equality can be achieved unless we are all the same, then we can't have equality."  This quote made by Claire Lehman. founding editor of Quillette, during a podcast of the Rubin Report.  Claire continued by saying; "However, if you argue that we are all morally equal and that we deserve equal opportunity to live a happy flourishing life, however, there are differences between us.  Then you can preserve that ethical principle."  It seems to be just this concept that proves so problematic for many people.  In today's polarized political and social environment, problematic is more and more often conflated with being bad, or even just evil.  So that in many cases, people remain focused on the equality of result rather than the equality of opportunity.

Arguing that there are no differences between men and women seems to be not only rather lazy thinking, but also brings about any number of possible scenario's.  Many of which would seem to be in total contradiction with the base premise being proposed.  Few people would rationally advance a claim that there is no physical difference between men and women.  Yet that is exactly what is being proposed by a vocal portion of the far left or the political spectrum.  If there are no differences, and we are all the same, how can there be anything but uniformity?  Admitting there are physical differences does not mean inferiority or superiority, only difference.  And, if there can be differences physically, can there also not be differences mentally?  

Can it not be possible that evolution has created different mental interests and abilities among the genders?  Attempting to force an equality of result between genders in any field of endeavor has at its heart a total disregard for the individual desires and interests of those who may be affected.  However, providing an equal opportunity for people to succeed in their chosen field has at its core a faith that all people are morally equal and how they choose to strive for success is totally up to the individual.

It may be that society is on the verge of a dramatic series of events that will change what we are as a people, and a Nation.  It is my hope that we do not succumb to the desire for equality of outcome and a desire for an equal outcome of the balance between genders or races.  This would seem to mean that society as a whole will have conformed to the concept that quantity is better than quality.  That to attain a balance, mediocre abilities can be accepted as long as it allows the balance to be attained.  Think about the meaning of that.  People who are highly suited and qualified being turned away and mediocrely qualified individuals with a lack of interest accepted.  Simply to attain that equality of outcome.  I hope I never live to see America drop to that level.

Catch you on the road sometime...

My World Has Changed

My life over the past few months has changed so drastically I can hardly even comprehend all the changes and all the changes that are yet to come.  What seems the most bizarre to me is the fact that only a month before my wife suddenly died, I was reading the fortunes of friends using a normal deck of playing cards.  When I was done, they wanted me to read my fortune just for fun.   Normally I wouldn't, but for some reason, I did my own reading.  From the first card, I saw massive changes coming to my life.  With virtually every card I laid down, I was reading nothing but change in my life.  I didn't understand, and because I was reading my own fortune, my personal biases didn't allow me to be truly open to what I saw.  What the cards were telling me.  Everything in my life was about to change.

While Robin and I knew she was sick, and that she wasn't going to get better in the long term without a liver transplant, the calm and slow pace the Drs. seemed to be taking gave no hint as to the extent of her illness.  Or, how short her time truly was.  In a month, she went from needing a step to get in and out of our Explorer, to laying dead in a hospital room in Vancouver.

Now I am living in a house I can afford to pay the mortgage on, but not; the water, the electricity, phone, garbage, or the internet. I don't know what I am going to do yet.  Then today, after trying to get my health insurance renewed for another year, I get a letter in the mail saying I have two days to fill out the paperwork and bring everything into Social Security in Tacoma.  I think I have enough money for one tank of gas, so I am definitely going to be forced to start selling things.  It is time I adapt and go into survival mode as my world changes around me.  

Few people have a clue as to the hole I suddenly find myself in.  All I can do is my best to fulfill my obligations, and do everything in my power to finish what I have started to do to help get some new laws passed, and to help my local community.  But I also have to focus on my ability to survive, in order to do these things.

I will survive this and come out wiser on the other side.  With no clue yet as to what is going to happen, I'm just moving forward day to day trying to get a handle on what has happened and what I am going to have to do next.  Things are about to get interesting, to say the least.  My world has changed, and my life is going to have to change with it.  What all those changes will turn out to be, I'll find out as I reach and experience them.  I'll try to keep you posted.

Catch you on the road sometime...