Toad talks: How COVID-19 could help motorcycling
With COVID-19 lockdown restrictions looking like they are going to begin lifting, here’s how motorcycles will be more important than ever
WITH the global and national pain and grief the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the human race, there are a few knock on factors that could make motorcycling stronger than ever.
To start with, one of the most easily noticeable after-effects of the Coronavirus lockdown for many is the lifting of pollution levels, both in big cities and rural areas. Colleagues of min living on the outskirts of London are able to see landmarks in the city that would otherwise be shrouded in smog and pollution.
Even in more rural areas of the UK, the benefit of less cars, vans and trucks on the roads has reduced the already lower levels of air pollution new record lows. This has meant those living on the north west coast of England have been able to see the imposing silhouette of the Isle of Man TT course in the distance.
With the drop in the levels of airborne pollutants dropping to record modern-day lows, it’s natural for the governments to want to try and grasp this reduction in smog and hold onto it. All councils measure air pollution and being able to keep it at the level it is now post-lockdown will be high on many agendas.
There will also be another after shock that the COVID-19 pandemic leaves and it’s a slightly more complicated and fragile one. It relates to the human mind and how we perceive risk. The London Underground can carry five million people across the capital in a single day, with over 500 trains running at any one time.
That’s a lot of contact with people, objects, seats, door handles and banisters. With the current social distancing measures being as they are, the public is growing increasingly aware of human contact, for the last few weeks or so, we’ve actually been re-training our brains to reduce our amount on non-essential contact with those outside our home.
And the human brain doesn’t like giving up on its hard-earned learnings that easily. For many people, the thought of standing cheek by jowl with 300 people on a crammed tube train carriage is not appealing at all. So, when looking for the ultimate method of post-lockdown, isolation-friendly, environmentally friendly transport, enter from stage right the clean, quick, cost effective and convenient motorcycle.
