Motorcycle Nation Podcast

The bombings in Jaipur, India yesterday are believed to have been executed by a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle. As I reflected on this news, I began to recall many other instances in recent history where a motorcyclist was believed to have been responsible for the act of terror. Where are the bombs? Is the motorcycle laden with the bombs or does the rider actually carry them on his person? Can people not identify these terrorists and take them out before they hit the target area?

There are numerous instances recently where the motorcycle was used to carry out such bombings. A quick search led me to articles on bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Phillipines, and more in India. I did learn that not all motorcycle bombings occur by riding into the area and detonating or running the motorcycle into an obstruction to force detonation. In March of ‘08, a motorcycle with a rider and passenger rode by a mosque in Nepal and the passenger threw the bomb in as they passed killing two and injuring many more.

And bombings are not the only thing that motorcyclists are being blamed for. Throughout the world they are being used for quick escapes after political assassinations, robberies, and also for drive by purse snatchings. We have not experienced this in the US that I know of and hope we do not. Besides the senseless killings there are other repercussions that will become of this problem. We will begin to see many countries outlawing two wheeled transportation. This causes many problems. Many countries use the two wheeler as a main mode of transportation due to the number of people trying to move within the cities at one time. Traffic congestion is cut remarkably by using a motorcycle or scooter and the environmental impact of a motorcycle is far less than that of four wheeled vehicles. Fuel consumption is another factor.

Perhaps the largest impact from a ban on two wheelers would be felt in those countries that have remote regions that are medically serviced by motorcycle doctors. Four wheelers can not access the places that the motorcycle does and the need that these doctors fill is important. So, you can see that it would be a shame for these terrorist activities to continue because these countries will look at banning two wheeled transportation. If it ever became prevalent in the United States, congress would have no problem placing that ban.

But, what can we do about it? I really have no solution. You have to stop the terrorists. My only solution is to train police, military, and specially trained civilians to identify and take out these people before they can do damage. Anyone else have anything?

Ride Safe

Steve and the MC Nation

Tags: bans, bombings, motorcycle terrorism

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Blog Entries, Motorcycle Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.