What's the deal with ridding with one hand on your hip?

You know you're allowed to run a red-light if the system "skips" you and cycles thru. Some places the law is 3 minutes, but who's counting ??

 

Good to know but I'm not sure how you would prove that to a cop. Anywho, these junctions I'm talking about aren't skipping, they just stay red for a very very long time.

There are a couple of junctions near me where there are 4 roads coming to one set of lights - each of these has a left turn lane and it's own left turn green arrow... this is what a round-about ( or traffic circle / magical unicorn for you Americans) is designed for, but you guys just refuse to use them - I don't understand it...

 

I prefer to be able to make an emergency launch if needed.

I was stopped at a red light and a girl blew through the red light while texting of course I was in 1st and was able to see behind me that she wasnt slowing down and get out of her way.

Had I been in neutral I would be hamburger.

 

I'd rather be hamburger than keep holding the clutch for 5 mins with my RSI

In all seriousness, don't get me wrong - I've always got one eye on the mirror, my ears open, hands on the bars covering the clutch and my foot on the shifter and the bike positioned with enough room in front to move it quickly.

The amount of people I see stopping 1 foot away from the car infront amazes me. I don't want to be the meat in a car sandwich if someone 3 cars back forgets to stop. I leave just shy of a cars length and point it at the gap to the side a little. That way you don't get other cars trying to sneak in - plus I look really mean so no one f***s with me, even though I'm really a loveable puppy dog..

 

Just trying to break that bad habit myself (not leaving a big enough gap), after doing in while driving car for years. Still working on the looking mean part

 

Everything is situational for me; there are no absolutes (see what I did there?). Normally when stopped I stay in first. If there's a car stopped behind me and it's a long light, I may go into Neutral.

 

They are putting some in near me - subdivision entrances.
Clearwater has an awful 4-laner "T" intersection,
I think it has to do with "reversing" right-of-way.
We're expected to yield to everything to our LEFT while trying to fight our way onto the circle, then, we magically and temporarily have right-of-way when we want to leave the circle. 37% of drivers think they have right-of-way getting on, 19% suddenly slam their brakes thinking somebody might jump out, 14% miss their desired exit, clogging the circle, 23% have to stop texting while in the circle, and 4% negotiate the meelee by laying on the horn and driving real fast.

These stats vary by State. 8)

 

These percentages drop rapidly in the first 3 months and during which time we get rid of a whole lot of idiots and generate revenue for the city. I would just avoid any new one in my area for 3 months and let the learning commence..

 

Just to jump in...

We have plenty of the "Selfie" riders (they look like they are getting ready to take one)...but we also have the yawners, phone-in-pocket-checkers, the let-me-fix-my-clothes crowd, and my favorite...the I-need-to-skip-this-song ones. I saw a guy riding a bagger nearly become roadkill because he was looking down at his phone/mp3 player while the lady driving an SUV next to him was look down at her phone.

Part of me hoped they were texting each other...

We have tons of the round-about type intersections...they're not horrible, but they can be treacherous if you're around someone who just got a text from their BFF. Oy.

 

when I feel like stretching my quads while on the highway ill flip down the passenger foot pegs with my feet and use them. only for short periods of course.

i do the hand on the hip/ tank/knee whenever i need to just relax and slow down (mainly in town) cause i have a bad habit of getting overly aggressive when around slow vehicles, or people driving like idiots.....I do the hip thing alot

 

When it's hot - hand on hip can help cool down the underarm area. I do it sometimes.

 

My skeleton is not exactly symetric, and after more than two hours on the bike, it's a relief for my left shoulder and my upper back when I put my left hand on my hip.

 

I also often find myself singing "I'm a little teapot" when riding..