Cable Barriers - A Menace to Motorcyclists

A recent article in the Seattle Times had this to say about cable barriers on our highways:

“The jury on cable barriers is still out,” said Jeff Hennie, vice president for government relations at the Motorcycle Riders Foundation in Washington, D.C. “The cable barriers allow the rider and passenger to pass through in more pieces than they started. We often call them ‘baloney slicers’ or ‘egg slicers,’ for obvious reasons.”

Such stories amount to “road rumor,” because there has never been quantitative research on motorcyclists and cable barriers, which are fairly recent additions to U.S. highways, he said.

It’s one issue that a new motorcyclists’ advisory council will take up with the Federal Highway Administration, he said. One possible improvement would be a “base board” at the bottom of a cable fence, so a biker can drop to the ground and hit the board instead of wires, he said.

Umm, yeah; cuz bikers have so much control in a crash that they can just “drop to the ground”.

Research or not, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that these things are a hazard to motorcyclists. Simply consider what happened to Robert Barnes; 500 stitches, missing teeth and titanium plates in his head. And that from a rope pulled across the road.