Bikers are tired of dying for America's right to drive badly.
"I didn't see the motorcycle" OK, lose your license forever. Not legal to drive blind.
How can you not see a motorcycle? They are much bigger than people. Or do you run down pedestrians also?
Yeah, you have to ride like you're invisible.
Unfortunately, at least here, we actually DO run down pedestrians as well as motorcycles. The size differences seem destined to cause bad interactions - especially since our traffic is often heavy. Most of our thoroughfares are 6 lanes wide (one way and two way as well.) A pedestrian crossing this "shooting gallery" experiences danger to the extreme. Scooters and motorcycles don't fare much better.
Rightly/wrongly or what have you, motorists really do NOT see them. I'm sure there are studies on this. (Here is just one:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180105082243.htm )
Thank God, I've never hit a pedestrian or scooter, but I HAVE failed to see them. Maybe I SHOULD turn in my DL. I really DO try to be careful. Negotiating traffic does take a lot of mental and visual acuity. It leaves less ability to see objects (like humans on foot or scooters) in the mix of traffic.
Only slightly off topic: Now that we have dedicated bike lanes, EVERYONE has to learn a new way of driving. The only reason we don't kill dozens of people on bikes IN bike lanes is that the bike lanes are not actually used much.
Imagine traveling on a one way street. You wish to turn left. To do so, you must first cross a bike lane. Cars are parked on the street, blocking your view of the bike lane which is NOT one way. So, as you turn left (into a business or access road) bikes could be coming your way from either direction at over 15 mph or more. You can NOT see because of the parked cars. When you stop to look for bikes, you stand a good chance of being rear ended - I've seen it happen. At the very least, you get honked at for taking so long to make a "simple" left turn (and I ALWAYS use my turn signals - unlike most folks here.)
I mention "bikes" because bike lanes are yet one more distraction that takes ones attention from looking for pedestrians and scooters on 6 lane surface streets, etc. IT IS Dangerous out there - having some extra metal around you makes you easier to see and offers more protection if you are not seen. YMMV