My Motorcycle Rides

The Dominican Republic is one of (that I know of) three countries with the Peace Corps that allows their volunteers to ride motorcycles. Volunteers are not allowed to drive motorcycles, but are aloud to ride on them with our big protective helmets and not in the capital. The ability to ride motorcycles in the DR is nearly a necessity. It would be very difficult for me to get to my site without being able to take motorcycles for example. It would be very expensive and often cars to take you up the mountain are hard to come by.

During my first three months at my site I was taking a motorcycle ride every morning at 7:30 and every evening, hopefully before the sun went down. I am not the biggest fan of cars or motorcycles, but always have felt safe riding motorcycles in country and have gotten very used to it. Before coming to country I had probably only ridden a motorcycle twice before and now have probably ridden one hundreds of times. When I first hopped on the back of a moto, being careful to avoid the piping hot exhaust pipe with my leg, I was horrified, gripping onto my motorcycle driver’s coat as we lurch off down the unpaved mountain road. Now I can ride with both of my hands free with a not a care in the world, waving at neighbors as I fly down the hills.

I have seen six people on one motorcycle here. I have seen 10 foot wires dragging behind motorcycles, I have seen tools, containers, sacks, fattened pigs, and more put on the back of motorcycles here. It is incredible what people can fit on a motorcycle. Recently I was allotted money from Peace Corps to buy a bike in site, which will make my meeting commutes so much easier and less sweaty. I took this bike up to site on the back of a motorcycle for 40 minutes. This task was actually surprisingly much easier than trying to sit on a motorcycle squished with a driver and a overweight doña.

I have seen boys no older than 9 driving motorcycles down the roads. Flying by, these young people (mostly young boys) make me so nervous and scared for their lives. Nearly no one wears a helmet when driving a motorcycle even though it is the law for the driver to wear a helmet. Lately in San Juan, the city closest to my site, the policy have been cracking down on enforcing this helmet law in the city, handing out tickets to drivers who are not wearing their helmets. I hope that this encourages people to start wearing helmets and protect themselves of these crazy congested streets, but change might be slow. For example, the minute that my motorcycle driver leaves the city limits, he removes his helmet to hand on his handlebars as we continue our journey to my campo. People often have accidents on motorcycles and drinking and driving a motorcycle never end well. I have met many young men who have broken legs or amputations because of motorcycle accidents. This is a sad reality that people die and get hurt in the Dominican Republic because of motorcycles every day. According to WHO, the Dominican Republic was the most dangerous country for road safety with 41.7 traffic deaths per 100,000 population in 2013. I would really like to do an initiative in my community concerning the importance of wearing motorcycle helmets, limiting the ability of small children to drive motorcycles, and road safety. I am still planning how I could work this into my community in a sustainable way. In the meantime I am wearing my helmet religiously and staying safe on the roads, planning on biking my way around my community to avoid my fear of motorcycles and with any luck shape my legs into muscular machines.