Riding on holidays a bad idea?

[respite]

Im passing up on meeting friends out tonight, but i cant tell if im smart or paranoid for doing so.

Most of the people i know in los angeles live on the other side of the city. It just seems like a bad idea to drive at night on a holiday. Im sure most people on the road after 11pm or so have already had a few drinks. On top of that there is a huge street festival here in big ghey west hollywood that draws around 300,000 people every year. Road closures, people not familiar with the area, and amateur drinking..

Anyone else park the bike on holidays?

[GeeP]

No, I don't think you're paranoid.  In fact, I think you made a good decision.  Managing risk isn't just about when you're riding, but choosing when not to ride.

I generally don't park the bike on holidays, but I live waaaay out in the middle of nowhere.  I can ride 30 miles without seeing another car.  If I lived in LA, you can bet I'd be parking the bike when the stupid factor rises.

[nightrider]

I wouldn't give up a night out with friends just because of that. On the other hand, it's getting chilly, it is a 30 min ride, and it sounds like you don't feel like going anyway. All valid reasons. overall though when given the choice between going out with friends or sitting in the glow of your computer screen, man up and go out. You can always go home later. There are exceptions of course.

I was wondering the same thing, go out or not, when I logged on here. I havent decided yet. I might even check out the halloween festival.

If you operate around hollywood we should go for a ride sometime... i've ridden with foobar, slowinthestraights wants to go on a ride sometime too.

[ohgood]

Yes.

Also, there was an online source (police benevolant society or something similar) that stated that the percentage of drunk drivers increased dramatically at 8PM. After 8PM it increased around 5-10% depending upon the location in the country (usa) every hour afterward until around 4AM.

After reading that, I rarely ride after 8PM, since the chances are higher for a crash without knowing the hawt chick next to you is likely tanked, jamming Bon Jovi, and pissed off at some guy/girl.

Oh, and ANYTIME your gut tells you to stay home DO SO! For women it's 'intuition', for men, it's fearing the reaper

Ride safe, what those drunks.

[RichDesmond]

Im passing up on meeting friends out tonight, but i cant tell if im smart or paranoid for doing so.

Most of the people i know in los angeles live on the other side of the city. It just seems like a bad idea to drive at night on a holiday. Im sure most people on the road after 11pm or so have already had a few drinks. On top of that there is a huge street festival here in big ghey west hollywood that draws around 300,000 people every year. Road closures, people not familiar with the area, and amateur drinking..

Anyone else park the bike on holidays?

Sounds smart to me. I generally don't ride on any Friday-Saturday night for exactly that reason, I'll just take the car.

[gaspy]

Most of the people i know in los angeles live on the other side of the city. It just seems like a bad idea to drive at night on a holiday. Im sure most people on the road after 11pm or so have already had a few drinks. On top of that there is a huge street festival here in big ghey west hollywood that draws around 300,000 people every year. Road closures, people not familiar with the area, and amateur drinking..

Sounds smart to me. I generally don't ride on any Friday-Saturday night for exactly that reason, I'll just take the car.

Those sound like perfect conditions to leave the bike at home. We all have a different risk tolerance, and what you described is too high for my preference. I also opt against riding at night on the weekends or party holidays because of the greater risk involved. I don't know of the exact number, but I've read that a large rate of accidents occur on weekend nights/early mornings.  I would call that smart, not paranoid.

[Dan02GS]

It is a great idea not to ride on Holiday evenings, alot of people on the roads and a lot of those people have celebrated by drinking. The risks grow exponentially after 8:00 pm. Best to wait and go for a nice ride the next day when everyone is too tired to get on the road. Last night I was tempted to go riding too, but opted out as well.

[toyopete]

It is a great idea not to ride on Holiday evenings, alot of people on the roads and a lot of those people have celebrated by drinking. The risks grow exponentially after 8:00 pm. Best to wait and go for a nice ride the next day when everyone is too tired to get on the road. Last night I was tempted to go riding too, but opted out as well.

worst thing is if you don't know the way, further more it might be very bussy.
Buy a six pack,  stay at home watch a dvd and get pissed like all the other cardrivers.

[nightrider]

safety first.

but

owning only a moto, im not going to let a few drunk drivers careening around in mercedes benzes stop me from getting across town. 

[bobthebiker]

Riding is definately a risky thing,  but holidays, such as christmas and thanksgiving I sure aint gonna ride on.  generally, people celebrate those days by drinking(usually too much at that)  and I'm just not willing to take that risk of getting smashed by an intoxicated driver when I could remain home and be perfectly alive and well.

Being that you live in LA, I wouldnt ride there for any amount of money short of about a trillion bucks. those people crazy.   down here I just have to watch for bluehairs and the occaisional idiot.

[respite]

I think i made the right decision. Stayed in, got drunk, then walked to my usual dive.


nightrider, i too only own a motorcycle. Only have 400 miles under my belt. Think i should go out and practice swerving again before i start riding around at last call. Im down for a ride around the city. Still havent been on the freeway..

[recursive_name]

Is riding on the holidays more risky?  Given that we know more people are drinking, I'd have to say yes.  I think the big question, though, is not "is is risky," but "HOW risky?"  After all, if we really wanted to minimize risk, we'd be riding full-size SUVs, not motorcycles.

I can't answer that question.  There's a possibility, though, that the danger isn't as great as intuition would suggest.  I think this report from the NHTSA is interesting: on p 19 it has 2005 statistics showing more 2-vehicle moto accidents on weekend days than weekend nights (when, one assumes, significantly more drunks are out).  Perhaps the danger from drunks is not as great a factor as one might imagine.

Of course the achilles heel of these numbers, as is often the case with motorcycle crash stats, is that we don't know how many riders are out on weekend nights as opposed to weekend days.  There could still be a much higher risk of accidents on a weekend night, but if there are fewer riders out there, we'd still see fewer absolute numbers of crashes.

Plus, of course we have to be careful about generalizing from weekend drivers to holiday drivers; sure, both groups are probably more soused than average, but we don't know if there may be differences beyond that.

So, although the numbers are interesting, they're not enough to make an actual decision on.  I think that you did the right thing to go with  your gut.  Oh, and regardless of what other drivers have been doing, you massively increase your risk of a crash by drinking yourself, even if you're just having a few.  That's an easy call .

[CndnMax]

there will always be drunk drivers everyday, that number rises on Friday night and week ends and multiplies drastically on holidays like Christmas and new years. Riding on holidays is gonna be more risky but just take extra care and intersections and oncoming traffic- drunk drivers are usually easy to spot but can very easily catch you off guard. Maybe take a road with a dui check point to thin out the group, checkpoints are printed in the newspaper 

[Derec]

I seem to think that I have heard that dawn and dusk are when alot of accidents occur too.  If you think about it, it is when the sun isn't exactly at its most ideal point in the sky for drivers.  Weekdays, Weeknights, Weekends, whatever...I ride.  I have found that there are a ton of careless car drivers anytime of the day.  In fact...to be honest with you...all my close calls have been during rush hour when people are not paying attention (still have work on the mind) or are tring to rush to work and/or home.

The things people have done boggles my mind...right down to passing me in my own lane.  Some of these people are lucky I don't start kicking their vehicle with my boots.

[CndnMax]

The things people have done boggles my mind...right down to passing me in my own lane.  Some of these people are lucky I don't start kicking their vehicle with my boots.

I think its their way of shoving lane-sharing in our face, their saying if its legal for a bike share why can't a car do that same thing.