They're back!

I guess he didnt save alot of time weaving in and out of traffic.

there is a reason they call them donorcycles.

I remember reading a statistic that a full 33% of people on motorcycles don't have the "M" endorsement on their license.

Meaning that they haven't even taken the road and written tests, much less a basic safety course on how to ride.

...the only things they know, they have learned thru trial and error, and what a friend has shown them.

The fact that insurance doesn't have to pay, just means that in many cases, Medicaid ends up paying.

....most of the injured don't have a lot of assets.

My hypothesis is tied to the ages of the men who seem to be disportionately involved in motorcycle accidents, those aged 17 - 35.

As one might suspect, this group also tends to ride the bikes with the most power.

Another emerging trend of concern to public health and safety experts is the growing popularity of racing-style motorcycles known as supersports, which have high power-to-weight ratios and are capable of extreme acceleration and speed (160+ mph). Although designed for the racetrack, supersport motorcycles are marketed and sold to the general public and have become especially popular among young riders. On September 11, 2007, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a report showing that "motorcyclists who ride supersports have driver death rates per 10,000 registered motorcycles nearly 4 times higher than motorcyclists who ride all other types of bikes."10

The IIHS report also noted that among fatally injured motorcycle drivers, those riding supersports are the youngest, with an average age of 27. For both 2000 and 2005, the death rate for riders of supersport bikes is twice that of sport bike riders and four times that for riders of other motorcycle types (See table 6).

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/special_reports_and_issue_briefs/special_report/2009_05_14/html/entire.html

In NYC, and perhaps throughout the nation, young men have been hardest hit by the recession (aka "new normal"), and have high rates of unemployment, which is closely correlated to assets. ...such young men have disportionately few financial assets.

If coupled with a poor education and a wealth of other social markers, these same men seem to be most at risk of engaging in all sorts of high risk behavior, such as violent crime, and (I purport) the type of motorcycling I classify as "reckless".

Programs strive to get them to be more connected to society as well as take charge of their own well being:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/ymi/downloads/pdf/young_mens_initiative_annual_report_2012.pdf

1) your link does not provide adequate information stating where the highest concentration of these motorcycles is located. i do not believe it's in brooklyn.

2) the price of one of these motorcycles can be thousands of dollars, with several models exceeding a sticker price of 10k.

based on the limited information you've given, it's actually more likely that people who have the assets to afford buying those motorcycles would be the ones with higher rates of accidents, because they are the ones more likely to be riding them. the link that you've provided regarding race and motorcycle accidents is interesting, but largely counterproductive to your argument. according to that article, though blacks are more likely to DIE in accidents, there are more white people actually riding motorcycles. secondly, and perhaps most detrimental to your argument of risk taking behavior, is this fact:

"Crude helmet use among black motorcyclists was 79.1%,

compared with 77.3% for whites. When adjusting for age,

sex, insurance status, and year of admission, blacks were

found to have a higher odds (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.19–1.43)of wearing a helmet than their white counterparts"

lastly, the wrap up of the article makes the point i'd like to stress.

"It is not clear why blacks are more likely to die after a

MC... First, it is

possible that the mechanisms that underlie other racial disparities in health outcomes—lack of insurance, reduced

access to care, poorer quality of care, greater comorbidi-

ties—are likely at play here."

if you want to argue lack of access to healthcare or insurance, fine. but please don't argue that people of color die because of their own reckless behavior and need to be saved from themselves. its both racist and classist.

i mean, im just pointing out that your argument doesn't have much basis, despite the attempt to quantify it. stating that young black men are more likely to engage in violent crime in nyc because of the recession is a broad statement too. violent crime has gone down in nyc in the time of the recession.

also, latinos have been most hard hit by the recession in terms of loss of assets, with asian americans second hardest hit, followed by african americans. and its actually women who have been hit harder, at least on a global scale (though in the us women have fared better than their male counterparts, but those who are unemployed have a harder time finding a job) not young black men. and i dont see many angry asian american or latino women carrying out violent crimes or engaging in behavior where they are a danger to themselves. so your argument is based on a whole lot of nothing except preconceptions about a certain group: low income black men. and that's an issue when we live where we live. just calling it like i see it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/us/26hispanics.html?_r=0

http://www.stanford.edu/group/recessiontrends/cgi-bin/web/sites/all/themes/barron/pdf/LaborMarkets_fact_sheet.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21088042

I call when:

1)It is apparent that its going to escalate from yelling to something more; or

2)If it has gone on for more than ten minutes;or

3)If I feel like both parties would turn on me if I opted to go downstairs to tell them that a)they woke me up and b)could they keep it down

Newguy, I'm pretty sure you've mentioned you're on or near the same block as me, park and nostrand/rogers. Don't hesitate to call the cops. The last weekend a fight was escalating which spawned a "warning" shot followed by a "you scared now?" The cops showed up almost immediately as the gunman took off but with the weather starting to warm up, it will be a familiar scene.

Now that we have bikeshare, hopefully we can redirect these young men to safer and more responsible forms of sick wheelies:

call the 77th pct. and press 0 for operator. a officer will usually answer.