...................... Until something changes to get other motorists' attention back on what they're doing once they put it in Drive, I'm afraid I'm done trying to share the road with them unless I have some steel & airbags around me now. Overall I don't regret chickening out & leaving 2 wheels behind me, but then sometimes I see a sunset & feel my right wrist involuntarily start to roll a bit. Maybe someday I'll get us into a retirement community where I can at least have a scooter to go get cat food & Metamucil. Maybe I can put Indian saddlebags on a Super Cub...
I stopped riding a long time ago, but also for the same reasons........ people in cars with their heads in their ask. And that was long before cell phones!
I have no clue, even back then where people's heads were. I lucked out the last time, when a woman was waiting on a car that was ahead of me so she could turn left, then while it seemed like she was looking me right in the eye, turned right in front of me. I locked it up and had it sliding and I don't believe you could have gotten a finger between me and the back of her car. I didn't lay the bike down, but damn it was close. Thank God the wife knew enough to keep her feet on the pegs and ride it out with me.
I pulled that bike over, we got off and the wife was crying like a baby. Another couple we didn't know, was on a bike back behind us and stopped to see if we were ok. His first words to me were, "I can't believe you didn't crash!". I'll never forget how close that was, nor the location. East Lansing, MI and on Grand River Ave, just past the old Greyhound bus station.
Once the wife was able to get back on the bike, we rode it directly home, I parked it next to the road and put a FOR SALE sign on it. Three days later, a guy came and bought it, loaded it on a trailer and that was the last time I ever seen the bike. I'd put a lot of money and time into that Harley, chopping it. All molded, painted with what back then was called "flip flop colors". Had the mural of Pandora's box on the gas tank, with Zeus on the oil tank, holding a spear in one hand, three lightening bolts in the other. 18" over stock Fury twisted steel front end.
In 2016 and after being retired 11yrs and also being retired away from "city life", I got the urge to ride again. I asked the wife if she'd like to ride again and to my surprise, she said yes. We decided we'd go look over the Harley Road Glides. However, before we made the trip to the Harley dealer, we were watching a NASCAR race when an advertisement came on from Polaris about something called a Slingshot. It REALLY caught the wife's attention.
Side by side, inside a cage, seat belts and roll bars. Thinking about getting older and holding up a heavy bike wouldn't be as easy as days long past. We made the trip to the Polaris dealer and to shorten the story, the wife wrote the check.
Is it safer than being on 2 wheels? Yes. It is a much larger foot print for people in cars to see, at least somewhat better. Yes........ I still have that urge to be on two wheels, but we're happy with the Slingshot and most importantly, the wife feels much more safe. That means everything.