Good Thing I Started Seeing Motorcycles Last Week

First of all, if you ride a motorcycle, I'm probably not talking about you.

I'm sure you ride carefully, responsibly, and without actually trying to aggravate as many drivers as possible. I'm sure you have a tendency to stop at red lights, seldom exceed 90 miles per hour, and generally aim your front wheel at the approximate center of whichever lane you inhabit. I don't think all motorcyclists are jerks.

What I'm starting to think is that 90% of them give the other 10% a bad name. In this way they are much like politicians and Matchbox 20 albums. (Notice my valiant effort to exclude 'churches' from that list.)

Whether you're in the US or Germany, it's not difficult to find a person on a motorcycle behaving stupidly. Why is this? I've never gotten on one, so it's hard for me to say. Is the wind in your hair so exhilarating that it precipitates an uncontrollable urge to maintain a constant rate of acceleration? Does being on a smaller vehicle make one feel immune to logic or physics, as in the case of bicyclists who cross diagonally through a red light and then fume at motorists who don't regard them the same as other cars, as the law says they should?

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk (although I've demonstrated many times that I don't mind sounding like one). This isn't about leather jackets or long hair. You can dress any way you like as long as you can refrain from using an exit ramp to pass me. And I'm all for billboards and bumper stickers promoting awareness of the existence of biwheelular agents of motorized transport. After all, there is a growing amount of evidence to suggest that Americans are incapable of assimilating any information at all until it is presented to them on a billboard or bumper sticker. I know that most accidents involving motorcycles are the fault of a driver failing to check their blind spot. I have nothing against motorcyclists. But I can't help noticing how many of them seem to want me to have something against them.

Footnote: In British Columbia it is illegal to ride a motorcycle without a helmet. Just another tidbit of evidence that where I come from, common sense actually is.