Most collisions, motorcycle or otherwise, occur within five miles of your home. This is what we call your Red Zone. It’s where you should ride with a heightened “red alert” sense of focus because most auto drivers tend to “tune out” and become inattentive in this area, which is full of traffic hazards not found on the open road as well as careless and negligent drivers.
To identify your Red Zone, take out a map of where you live and draw a five-mile radius circle. This is where you’re most likely to encounter negligent drivers. The area you know best and where you feel most comfortable is actually one of the most dangerous.
Why is this Red Zone so dangerous? There are many empirical studies that tell us most collisions occur in the zone, but few tell us exactly why. Usually collisions occur here because it’s the first or last five miles of a driver’s trip, so drivers are either not tuned-in to the trip ahead or have tuned out because they’re so close to home. Consider these factors when the zone is the first or last five miles of your ride.
The first five miles
- This is when you may be more focused on the day ahead and least focused on the ride.
- This is when you are still warming up to the bike and current road conditions. Likewise, most drivers are in a hurry to get to the highway (and they are barely awake).
- This zone usually has heavy traffic, the most side streets, and the most intersections with potential “right of way” violators.
- This is the most familiar area to you, which often means you’re least attuned to the road around you. Drivers tend to be even less attuned than riders.
The last five miles
- This is when you and other drivers are the most tired.
- This is when you and other drivers are most likely to let down your guard.
- The zone is still heavy with traffic, but this time with drivers who are anxious to get home, or are too busy thinking about what’s for dinner when they should be focused on the road.
- This is when most drivers abandon the rules of the road and run yellow lights or “California roll” through stop signs.
The bottom line
Riders should stay alert in the Red Zone because drivers are likely to more inattentive than usual in this area.