Be afraid. Be very afraid.
This is the time of year for motorcycle toy runs. What’s a toy run? Typically, bikers gather in a park to donate toys, followed by a parade-like ride through town, led by Santa on a motorcycle. What I like about toy runs is the directness of the charity; there’s no middleman between the riders and the needy children. What I don’t like about toy runs is . . . well, here goes (warning – motorcycle-related whingeing ahead):
Tucson’s annual toy run is this Sunday, December 12th. If past years are any indication, the event will draw more than a thousand motorcyclists. I’ve ridden in every Tucson toy run since moving here in 1997, but this year I think I’ll just putt over to the start, donate some toys, look at the bikes and schmooze with my buddies, then leave.
The Tucson toy run has gotten too big, too fast, and too dangerous.When you have this many bikers riding in a pack, even with policemen blocking intersections and ride leaders maintaining a slow pace, large gaps develop and before you know it riders are accelerating to 60 mph or more to close those gaps. Many of these riders have no business being on motorcycles in the first place – the poseur factor is always high at large rides – and riders who should know better are lulled into complacency by the police escort.
Last year I saw one motorcyclist rear-end another, throwing both riders and both passengers to the ground. They were racing to catch up with the pack ahead, and locked their rear brakes – a trademark poseur maneuver – when the pack ahead accordioned to a stop. I heard later there was more than one such incident.
Most participants ride two up, and the passengers throw candy to the kids who line the route. This works fine at 20 mph, but not at all at 60 mph. I can’t help wondering if this is the year some speeding biker, trying to close the gap, will plow into a kid darting out into the street for candy. It’s going to happen, sooner or later.
It takes a hell of a long time for a thousand motorcycles to get through an intersection. Not all cagers think they should have to sit and wait – some get enraged and charge into the gaps, in spite of police blocking intersections.
Two years ago the police escort fizzled out at the last minute, so the toy run organizers, the Sunriders MC, used its own members to block intersections. That was downright scary – these guys were screaming past the pack on the right and the left, trying to get to intersections before the pack did – and with all the inexperienced riders in the pack, oblivious to rear view mirrors, it was a miracle no one got hurt. I decided that would be my last toy run, but then next year we got our police escort back, so I went – but now, even with the police escort, the whole thing is just an accident – or several accidents – waiting to happen.
There’s got to be a better way. Normal traffic doesn’t just go away for events like this, and we need to figure out a way to co-exist with cagers. Maybe several, separate poker runs, each restricted to 200-300 riders, all converging on the same place? Maybe a big party in a park, with everyone riding there on their own, donating toys at the end? Or (no way this’ll ever happen) just doing it without the police escort, obeying traffic lights, and accepting the fact that the pack will get broken up into clumps?
I don’t know. But there has to be a better way. One kid gets hurt and the city’ll outlaw the event, and that’ll be a damn shame – a lot of Tucson area kids wouldn’t have any Christmas presents at all if it weren’t for the Sunriders MC and the bikers who participate in the toy run.