Look out for two-wheelers

Three score years into my life, I bought a motor scooter. I mention the 80-plus miles per gallon to justify it, but I’d never before had a motorbike and had always wondered about them.

Mature, bright red, Japanese, a bit heavy, and fun, its 150 cc engine moves it quickly from stopped to 25 mph and then can slowly coax it to 50. I find it sprightly when I’m navigating around four-wheelers who attempt to share a lane with me when I am in it. In those instances, RPMs are my friends.

And I’m practicing conspicuity. Downtown in fair weather, I wear my hunter orange shirt, and I have a similarly colored vest for country roads. Still, I find that we two-wheelers are as invisible on the roads to four-wheelers as the homeless are to most people in our urban environments.

That’s why now when I drive my four-wheeler, I tune my eyes for two-wheelers, motorized or not. I triple check my blind spot when changing lanes. I use the turn signals – always.

Please join me in this additional level of thoughtful alertness. The guilt you save may be yours, and the life you save may be mine.

D.C. Elder

Spokane