I will never drive a motorcycle in Thailand, mostly because I am from the US, and I know that sooner or later I will get confused about the sides of the road to drive on and turning. Certain death I am sure of it. Happy to let those who are experienced get me where I need to go.

29 minutes ago, timendres said:

I will never drive a motorcycle in Thailand, mostly because I am from the US, and I know that sooner or later I will get confused about the sides of the road to drive on and turning. Certain death I am sure of it. Happy to let those who are experienced get me where I need to go.

And thats fair enough. 

 

On the other hand, I do ride a motorcycle here, purely for convenience in busy traffic and the reason I do so is that I don’t have to rely on those who have a far poorer education and far lesser understanding of the risks... having driven here for 15 years I felt sufficiently familiar enough to understand predictability of the utterly unpredictable nature of traffic here (never second guess, always slow, always give). 

 

Motorcycling is dangers and there is always an elevated risk in Thailand as those around you are also dangerous, however, a lot of the risk can minimised with sensible riding, though never eliminated. 

 

 

 

 

As far as ‘squeezing’ up the inside... Thats a national past-time for motorcyclists here. 

 

I suspect the young lady thought there was space to ‘squeeze up’ the inside after seeing numerous locals do the same before....  not sure what knocked her off, but riding close to heavy lorries is fraught with such risk... a horrible way to go, I hope it was quick and painless at least. 

 

 

On 5/5/2023 at 12:52 PM, BritScot said:

Have you ever riden in Thailand?

I mostly drive a car, occasionally motorbike, and I can verify that 90 percent of the time, it is foreigners who go zipping past me way over the speed limit, from both sides, no helmet, etc. and I KNOW their time is limited on this planet.  Thai motorcycle drivers are FAR better, when it comes to predictability.

On 5/8/2023 at 5:54 AM, richard_smith237 said:

As far as ‘squeezing’ up the inside... Thats a national past-time for motorcyclists here. 

 

I suspect the young lady thought there was space to ‘squeeze up’ the inside after seeing numerous locals do the same before....  not sure what knocked her off, but riding close to heavy lorries is fraught with such risk... a horrible way to go, I hope it was quick and painless at least. 

 

 

The locals grew up this way and acquired skills. That tourists dont have. 

6 hours ago, Harsh Jones said:

The locals grew up this way and acquired skills. That tourists dont have. 

Not really... as exampled by the astronomical accident and road fatality stats... 

 

The locals just take chances.. we see it all the time..  these acquired skills you talk of mean that maybe that they have a good degree of ‘control’ of their machine having been familiar with riding for a long time, however, with regards to the interpretation of danger around them, riding intelligently, defensively and not placing themselves in the ‘liner of fire’ etc I’d make the sweeping generalisation that many Thai’s can be their own worst enemy when it comes to motorcycles and road safety. 

 

Of course, tourists are often equally oblivious which is also compounded by the fact that many are unfamiliar with handling a motorcycle.