Maybe the problem is all those cars...

While Japan fumbles with piecemeal half-measures toward allowing bikers to carry passengers on major expressways, Britain has learned that it makes sense to actually encourage bikes on major roads, with passengers or not.

Motorcycles are now allowed to use the "high-occupancy vehicle" (i.e., carpool) lanes on Britain's M1 motorway during rush hours, regardless of whether the rider is carrying a passenger. And a recently-enacted £5 "congestion" charge applies to cars, but not to motorcycles, entering central London.

The result so far? More bikes on the road -- and fewer traffic accidents.

Makes sense to me. We bikers are more attentive to what's going on around us (even if some of us occasionally stick cell phones in our helmets.) We have to be, or we'll get killed.

When I was in Vietnam, where many people can't afford cars, I saw dozens of scooters and small bikes jostling and swarming along the main streets like schools of fish -- but I never saw any of them in a traffic accident.

Car drivers sit back in a comfy seat, crank up the radio (or, God forbid, in more and more cars these days, the television), and zone out in climate-controlled bliss while their massive vehicles hurtle down the road. With a plethora of airbags surrounding them and three-point seatbelts holding them in place, they can afford to be careless.

Cheers to the Brits for recognizing who the real safe motorists are.