The UK is statically one of the safest driving countries in the world, Thailand one of the most dangerous, but after 6 weeks of city riding I don't feel that safe here in the UK.

 

Okay I realise driving/riding styles differ, but everyone here in the UK is so GD impatient. Make your way through the busy traffic, pisses off at least one person, even if you are off and out of their way when the lights change. This is confirmed when you get to the next set of lights, where a few cars will try to block your progress.

 

I understand that in north America feeding through the traffic on a bike is illeagal and maybe that is the reason, that it angers some people to have a bike/scooter making progress while their car is stuck.

 

Portugal, where we spend summers is a little better, but a few drivers drive fast a close to bikers, so is Thailand really that bad?

As a car driver it might be one of the safest, but this does probably not apply when riding motorbikes

A problem in colder countries is that there are very few motorbikes. So when somebody is driving his car he does not expect that there might be a motorbike close to him so he might just not see it. Another situation are people missjudging speeds and distances of motorbikes. Also most people did never ride a motorbike, so they don't know very well how the rider might react.

In for example Thailand everybody has ridden a bike by himself, they are totally used to motorbikes in traffic, and they know that there can always be a motorbike arround.

 

If somebody would make a statistic taking into account the average ridden kilometers on motorbikes and you would assume everybody would wear proper gear the difference would probably not be too big.

47 minutes ago, AllanB said:

so is Thailand really that bad?

I go with #2 post some and personally I find as a long term motorbiker rider in UK and now in Thailand 13 years I feel much safer riding here than England.

 

I say coming Thailand to ride a motorcycle/scoot whatever for the first time you need to take time in getting to know what the western visitors would call bad habits but thought of as the norm here, then you will know what to expect and be aware of what may happen when out riding.