Same with normal bikes, by the way: cycling on the same road with fast-driving cars should not be an actual phenomenon. I cycle to work every day, and love it, but would never do it if there wasn't a separate bike lane.
/pedant
On the other hand the reason for most car accidents is bad road design, especially designs that encourage high speeds.
If the way you operate a motor vehicle causes a death, you should be charged. If there were a meaningful risk of jail time for bad driving (including driving tired, speeding, driving recklessly, etc), people would either drive less, or would drive more carefully.
Motorcycles _and_ pedestrians equally take an unfair share of the mortality associated with vehicles. Which hints at a broader infrastructure and design problem, that makes it very much seem like "automated" cars are thrown into this mess without any design changes with the hope that they will also obscure the underlying error.
Aside from that, even my 650cc motorcycle got 52mpg most days. Yes, absurd power to weight ratio, but also absurd fuel efficiency and reduced lane occupancy. Very green.
We build shit transportation infrastructure, force everybody to drive, don't build enough housing (forcing longer commutes), and then people like you complain that cars aren't given enough leeway?
I don’t think “everyone should be allowed to use the road safely” is a statement anyone disagrees with, but the laws of physics make this very difficult to implement in any practical way. Pretty sure that even in Europe, cycling and motorcycling are far more dangerous than driving.
Electric cars are the only viable, general purpose solve for climate change as it pertains to personal transit. We aren’t going to get everyone to start (motor)cycling or taking public transit over the coming decades, but EVs are a drop-in replacement for most personal transit use cases.
Oh, of course we can practically implement road safety for everyone:
- limit inner-city speeds outside of major influx roads to 30 km/h
- build dedicated bicycle and bus lanes in cities
- build dedicated pedestrian lanes (not an issue in urban Europe, a bit of an issue in rural areas though)
- enforce speeding and distance-keeping regulations
- make sure the quality of the roads and pedestrian ways is acceptable (i.e. no potholes, even surface) to minimize accident risk
- keep heavy haul traffic on highways wherever possible, prevent toll evasion
- build out public transport to reduce the amount of individual traffic
- provide elderly citizens with taxi vouchers or other forms that ensure their mobility without having them drive themselves
- get old vehicles outside of historical preservation interests off the road to increase the amount of cars with up-to-date safety features
- enforce regular technical check-ups (Germany, for example, requires one every two years) so that vehicles in dangerous condition get taken off the road and owners of vehicles in barely-roadworthy condition also get the hint
Countries that prioritise safe infrastructure for bicyclists like the Netherlands fare significantly better in road accident statistics [1] over countries that just say "fuck it, cars first" like the US.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
And yes, motorcycles transport two people at the most - but for real, look outside a window and count how many car drives are made by single-occupants. In the UK, for example, it's 60% [1].
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/314733/single-occupant-c...
Something like a CBR300F is about half the emissions of a hybrid and a grom can get lower, but plenty of motorbikes are actually worse than a compact car and getting close to SUV territory.
Still more aerodynamic and fuel efficient than someone riding a full-blown SUV to work solo.
> but plenty of motorbikes are actually worse than a compact car and getting close to SUV territory.
Not everyone drives a Kawasaki Ninja H2 R with 310 hp or whatever the top record is these days. Per German ADAC, the average motorcycle consumes 2-3 liters/100km [1], whereas the average car is at 7-8 liters/100km [2].
[1] https://www.adac.de/verkehr/tanken-kraftstoff-antrieb/tipps-...
[2] https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/daten/verkehr/kraftstoffe
For what it's worth, I've never driven a motorcycle and probably never will, for danger.
