@Spaceship, you are going to drive a motorcycle on 101 or 280 because your friends live in San Jose?
I am going to go now. Good luck to you.
@dstark After taking a bicycle down San Tomas in the shoulder, going on 101 or 280 on a vehicle powerful enough to keep up with traffic doesn’t faze me too much (IE not a Vespa, as much as I would LOVE to own one of those). 101 hasn’t been Blood Alley since before I was born.
Before you were born, my college b/f was riding his cycle into SF medical school, when he was hit by a car. He was an experienced rider, but he still lost several inches of his colon. I’ve hated cycles ever since.
I used to work in the large county trauma hospital, in the ICU. The docs there had a saying “Get your kid a motorcycle for his last birthday.” But the scariest things I ever saw were the guys (and it was ALWAYS guys) who were in accidents on their motorcycles but survived, just barely. Severely brain damaged, but young and healthy, we’d send them off to live their long lives in nursing homes in diapers and trachs.
OP, the logic you are using is pretty weak. The fact is you want what you want and you want to ignore the danger here. “Less stressed” is still physically exposed and “caged” is still significantly protected in comparison.
Do what you want and tell grandma you simply don’t care enough about her worries to take her feelings into consideration. That’s the truth of the situation.
I’m organizing my HS reunion and have gotten in touch with 180 former classmates. Two of them were in motorcycle crashes and are no longer functioning normally.
I’ve told my sons that they are welcome to buy a motorcycle – after I die.
Listen to what people here are telling you. We didn’t tell you what you wanted to hear, but what we told you is valid.
I’m with your grandmother. Motorcycles are extremely dangerous. OP, since money is a concern, what will your insurance be? Motorcycles are also expensive because insurance companies know that they are high-risk, especially when the riders are in your demographic category.
You might be more focused when you are exposed but that doesn’t mean that the other drivers on the road are going to be any more focused. At 70 mph bumper to bumper like Bay Area drivers do (on freeways that have seen better days), I would take the added protection of a real car.
Listen to your grandmother. My husband had a motorcycle as a broke young adult in CA, crashed it within 3 months, and still suffers pain to this day.
California traffic is not motorcycle friendly. Don’t do it.
I love how the OP is asking a bunch of parents what to do in this situation… lol.
That’s like asking your cardiologist if its really a good idea to eat McDonalds for every meal of your life.
Yep, not gonna get the answer you want to hear! Try High School Life board lol.
Nooooooo don’t ask HSL
Wah. I know 4 people who died on a motorcycle. Two of them were stopped on the side of a road at night and got hit by a truck. 
It isn’t YOUR driving that puts you at risk or lessens it, it’s everyone else’s driving. If someone hits YOU, you have no fighting chance. Please be very careful.
There is no way to “set the concern at ease.” The concern is real, and it’s based on facts about the deadliness of motorcycles. Your grandmother loves you, and will always be concerned if she sees you putting yourself needlessly in danger. Instead of “looking at living far enough away from school and work that relying on transit may not be practical,” you should change your plans and start looking at living where public transit IS practical.
I just attended the funeral of my D’s 20 year old friend who was riding a motorcycle and was killed by an elderly driver making a crazy U turn in the middle of a 6 lane road. This 72 year old man used poor judgment and the girl died instantly.
You can be the safest driver around and still not be able to protect yourself from the danger of those you share the road with. Granted, you can die in a car, plane, or city bus, so safety is always relative. But you won’t be able to say or do anything to change your grandmother’s heart.
I agree that you should continue looking for alternate solutions.
My wife and her medical colleagues refer to them as “donorcycles.”
There have been studies that show that when people are driving cars, their brain is scanning for the most likely danger (other cars) and can completely overlook a motorcycle in their field of vision.
Most people who ride motorcycles do so knowing perfectly well that it’s dangerous. They know that it doesn’t make logical sense to ride one… It’s an adrenaline thing, and at the risk of sounding sexist, it’s also a masculine thing in our culture.
It’s one of those things you do knowing that your risk of getting seriously injured or killed is much higher, and knowing that your parents/family are unlikely to support your decision.
I have also heard that Emergency Rooms/Departments commonly refer to motorcycles as Donor-Cycles (get the Organ Recovery team ready and mobilized!)
ETA: Just google “uncensored pictures of motorcycle accident victims” if you need more convincing.
You are a fool if you go ahead and buy a motorcycle. Listen to your grandmother (and us!).
It is important to be honest with yourself. You can rationalize about how green this is, and statistics don’t matter, and how cheap it will be… but you want it because you want it, isn’t that what it comes down to?
You know it will terribly worry your family (rightfully so). You know it’s very dangerous. You know it’s really not going to be cheaper than public transportation. But you want it.
I can’t imagine riding a bike on California highways. You’d have to have a death wish. Aggressive, crowded, high speed, and people just don’t see motorcycles. I’m a very cautious driver, and I’ve pulled in front of so many motorcycles. They just are invisible, I can’t see them.
Do ask yourself, as a student, why would I put myself in this situation? Why will I commute to school? Why not commute to see my friends and live where I will spend most of my time? Why not rent a dirt bike here and there, and get my thrills on some back road every now and then? Doesn’t my life have more value than this?