Illogical bias against superbikes on Indian Roads.

 

The last ten years has seen a massive improvement in the Road infrastructure in India. Hundreds of kilometers of highways have been added to the network and considering the better quality of vehicles being sold nowadays, highway travel is a real pleasure nowadays.

Except if you are in a super bike. A superbike which is legally purchased in India through authorized dealers and for which the road tax is far greater than the cost of many small cars!

If you own a superbike and have paid the exorbitant road tax, you cannot travel in any of the newly built expressways, and in many cities like Bombay, cannot use the elevated corridors, because accordingly to some “experts” who have never travelled in a two wheeler, these vehicles are unsafe.

While talking about the safety of these vehicles we need a comparative chart with the other “safe” vehicles that are allowed to use these elitist roads. 

From this chart it is obvious that this prejudice is preventing law abiding superbike users from using the infrastructure of this country.

There is no legal or scientific basis to this ban. It is usually on the whim of the local administrators who may not even know what defines a superbike, or that it is much much safer than most of the killer buses and trucks which are allowed to ply the same roads.

Another problem with this ban is that where ever there

is an expressway between two cities, the older highway gets abandoned and not properly maintained. Taking a superbike on such routes is even more dangerous and difficult.

Major examples are

These are only some examples of unscientific prejudice against superbikers. There would be many more in various other parts of our country which my super biker friends can attest to. No science, no logic, just random decisions made by persons in power.

Not only that, due to this ban, like the ring road of Hyderabad, superbike users passing through the town must necessarily navigate the traffic of the town instead of using the ring road to bypass the town. This also increases the pressure of the roads and the danger to slower moving local traffic. 

A simple solution for this issue would be to start tolling the superbikes also at par with cars. That way the superbikes can get to use this country’s great infrastructure and the governing bodies can get more income from tolls. This will be better than risking accidents in the city routes due to the more powerful vehicles mixing with slow moving city traffic.