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Really, you didn't even bother reading most of it. I mean, if I have to quote my self, you will just embarrass your self. Considering I was driving motorcycles before half this forum was ever conceived, from the late 90's, before our crumbling infrastructure made the driving/riding condition a "tad" sketchy. Mini bus taxi's weren't as prominent, to be fair peak hour traffic was still bad but nothing compared today's peak hour.
But considering even back then, in the early 90's while staying in Sunnyside PTA, taxi's were driving like palooka's, it just got significantly worse, pending where you live, you could go from decent driving/riding conditions to atrocious conditions at best.
I can't even remember half the accidents I personally witness at that particular intersection, there are a couple of stand out skipping red light accidents, and people and body parts getting flung about, nothing quite like seeing a taxi getting air time spining around, hurtling backwards towards you and seeing people getting flung from the taxi, and a fat lady sitting in on the back seat getting ejected from the back window and the taxi proceeding to pushing/scraping the lady like a bad paint job on the road, hitting a park car getting airtime and landing with the back wheels directly on top off the fat ladies back. I didn't stick around long as my bus arrived, so can only assume there were a few deaths that day.
But I didn't even mention the crumbling railway infrastructure, which has led to the current pandemic of heavy goods vehicles on road, if you are close to feeder road systems or industrial areas you were shyte out of luck, as that was all you were going to get, but to the point not all driving/riding conditions are the same everywhere in the country, suburban areas outside main city centers makes for a significant quieter and easier commuting and working 6-6 shifts made it even better, and made for the best open road experiences given the time of day, it isn't without it hazards and faults, but it was mostly pleasant.
The place where I grew up and spend a decent chunk of my life were in the quiet suburban area in kempton park close to tembisa informal housing, it wasn't close it was 10's of KM's away in the distance, and then progressively crept closer and closer during time spend living in the area, as with everything in this country it got progressively worse and worse, were riding to work and coming from work during the 6-6 shifts were dangerous for an entirely different reason. Having survived an attempted hijacking on a bike with criminal scum shooting in front of you with their home made pistol, was probably the last straw, bike was a life saver as it made for a relative quick get away.
Besides that I was born with a naturally fused disc in my lower back, which was starting to act up, to the point where surgery was the only option, you haven't exprienced lower back pain like this, a slipped disc is nothing compared to a disintegration disc and having to deal with daily chronic pain, numbness in lower limbs as nerves occasionally get pinched, having numbness and loss of sensation on a bike is a hazard in it self, thankfully the specialist recommended trying core strengthening first, which kinda worked, but riding bikes as a daily driver wasn't doing it any good.
Thankfully I avoided surgery but still to this day, I still have chronic pain and numbness and there are days, were I am barely able to move about, additionally I moved to the country side, where towns are quite some distances from one another, it would actually be the perfect riding conditions if it weren't for the roads being as bad a condition as they are in, ask anyone that lives in the freestate about the condition of the R26. From the villiers all the way where it meets up with the N8 it probably the most laid back and fun ride you can have, you can also take a small detour via the golden gate national park, those twist and bends are some of the best in the entire country and the views are just as great.
The R26 is almost a 500Km long stretch of road of awesomeness adventure bikers can often be seen on this road, but they have become significantly less in recent years due to the worsening road conditions, more than half of the entire stretch is littered with potholes and generally poor roads surfaces, most of the times you will be driving on the side of the road due to it being safer.
So in the end it was compounding factors that let to my demise, you know what they say don't judge a book by it's cover. You just automatically assumed I "offed" and then decided not to ride again, you know what they say about assumptions don't you, that isn't even including South Africa having some of the worse drivers/riders in the world, and getting older.
Considering this, your delusional and most likely stuck in your own pocket dimension if you don't view our roads a significant and inevitable risk. But considering not a single person has provided contrary evidence that suggest or shows I am being overly cautious or paranoid you can all fk right off a clifty cliff cliff along with your preconceived notions of road safety, it won't happen to me and Darwin award. If the inexperienced OP wants to "off" him self that is his prerogative.
Any vehicular transport especially in this country should be viewed with a healthy dose of negativity and defensive driving. I mean there isn't a single instance where you can tell me our roads, in general is safe and aren't a significant higher risk
To be fair this article does skew the result for their own narrative, 43% of roads deaths are attributed to pedestrians
South Africans the world's worst drivers? — Here's where SA's ranked
South Africa topped the list of worst drivers in the world causing fatal crashes compared with 19 other countries, according to an Australian insurance company report.
BTW FYI Since you brought up the subject of "driving"..... Drive implies being the one who is responsible for steering, accelerating, and operating the vehicle Ride, on the other hand, generally refers to being a passenger in a vehicle or traveling in a vehicle without being in control of its movement, it also depends in the context it used whether it is a noun or verb. You wouldn't say you drove your bike, you would say you rode your bike. Driving a motorcycle or speaking of the activity in general driving/riding can be used interchangeably. It isn't necessarily incorrect to use either, but it does depend on the context and how it is used. Saying using a motorcycle as daily driver is perfectly acceptable, you wouldn't say my daily rider, but if you want to sound pompous you could always say my daily mode of transport is a motorcycle.
Driving a motorcycle in some instances would be a perfectly acceptable use case. So meh, nice try though.
Final thoughts and good riddance.
But as I said previously, he might be perfectly fine, or he might not be perfectly fine, questioning his general safety and readiness might be unpopular, and given the people who would vehemently defend him and not question his choice, I at least know who to avoid riding with period, but given that people here are quick to nitpick ex riders, without reasonably questioning their reasoning behind or circumstances behind their choice, it doesn't mean the automatically they are the antichrist either given that there is always the crowd that are quick to jump to conclusions and what not, after all you are safely behind your online anonymity having a dig at someone is part of the course. This notion of viewing something with negativity garners the automatic relegation to the depths of hell as someone that is against it on this forum is a joke, and the opposite is true as well, you are not allowed to view anything with majority negativity in a positive light without getting lambasted for it. So meh......
This is huge.
My personal opinion is that the bulk of the commuting guys are lane splitting to fast. At the speed they are going they leave themselves no chance to react.
