I once saw a motorbike with two people and a cow in western Kenya. It wasn't a /big/ cow, but still.

In general, HN tries to be a place where only informative comments are prized, specifically excluding jokes. There are lots of funny jokes around here (and I don't usually downvote them myself), but the fear is that HN will turn into Reddit, where every post has dozens of joke comments attached.

That's fun! I love Reddit. But it's not what HN tries to be.

Helmets work but after working in automotive safety, motorcycles are death traps.

I can't emphasize this enough.

They are no automobile, and are not comparable.

That's why so many people like them.

It's a pleasant distraction from sitting in a fluorescently-lit cubicle getting diabetes, and facing the dread of going home to another night's existential crisis.

Twist that throttle and there's a gentle tap on the shoulder and a whisper, 'hey buddy, just wanted to remind you that you're actually alive'.

What other precautionary methods could help reduce mortality rates of motorcycles?

Build a car around them?

In India TATA tried that. Built $2000 car (tata nano). Target audience were the bike going families.

First , the motor bikes are cheap. So you need car matching that cost and you end up compromising a lot.

https://thewire.in/business/tata-nano-why-did-the-people-not...

Keeping your speed under 40km/h would do a lot. And removing cars from streets.

Yeah, the average speed of traffic in Pakistan, at least in the areas I visited, was much lower that I'd expect to see in the USA.

When you look at the curve of chance of death vs speed, it very very rapidly rises. You have very little risk of serious injury at 40km/h and almost certain death at 60km/h

I was in Ukraine in the mid-00s. Saw a five person motorcycle. No helmets, but they had an open side-car so a bit more space. Youngest kid was in a bucket held by big sister.

Add to that a wooden box with a small metal bars through which I could glance a couple of chickens that were being transported by the family, in Vietnam. Amazing.

The rate of children deaths or severe injuries caused by motorbike accidents must have been over the roof in these countries.

Must have been? Large parts of Southeast Asia still get around with the whole family on one motorbike today. Not so much in the large cities but once you get outside them, absolutely.

The road deaths are also very large in those countries (though a fair amount of that is also people going high speeds on roads that would not be rated for that speed in a developed country)

>> the vast majority of cars today simply don't work for a family of five

My wife and I had the minivan discussion. They are amazingly practical when you need to carry vast amounts of crap. Neither of us was particularly interested in driving around in one though, so we optimized by carrying less crap around.

I'd say about 99% of our usage of our 4 door sedan or small SUV requires no additional cargo capacity for our family. For the other 1% of the time, we're able to optimize by carrying less stuff. I think there has been 1 or 2 times in 13 years where cargo capacity was insufficient. For us, it was a tradeoff worth making.

We totally respect those who make different choices, though. Everyone has their own preferences and needs.

Saw much of that in Hyderabad 2008.

It's one way the lethality of poverty is visible.

I saw the same thing in India.