We are told that pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists are the three most vulnerable modes of transport on our roads, and that motorcyclists are the Grim Reaper's favourite. In Oxfordshire only one vehicle in 20 is a motorcycle, but motorcyclists are one in five of our county's road deaths and serious injuries.

But does being "vulnerable" make us "dangerous"? Most modern motorcycles have excellent handling, roadholding and braking, and now even some pedal cycles have disc brakes. I suggest that no modern two wheeler is "dangerous" unless the "nut on the controls" goes and does something silly.

A minority of motorcyclists mimic the soldiers in Wilfred Owen's The Next War: "Oh, Death was never enemy of ours! / We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum". However, the rest of us in motorcycling hope to ride into a ripe old age and then die peacefully in our beds.

Some car drivers complain that motorcycles and pedal cycles are hard to see. It is true that some pedal cyclists ride without lights as if they expect a Klingon invisibility cloak to protect them. But apart from suicidal "psychlists", the only factor that makes two wheels harder to see is that our vehicles are so much tinier than cars.

Nearly half of all motorcycle accidents are not the rider's fault. In most of these cases the biker had right of way, the car driver did look, but they looked straight past the bike without seeing it.

A quick glance is just not enough for you to spot the tiny and irregular shape of a distant approaching bike. In daylight even its headlight may not stand out against some backgrounds.

Recently Government adverts have been reminding us that a car driver at a give way line who looks that bit longer in each direction will be much better at seeing an approaching motorcycle.

The same goes for changing lanes: you may not like bikes filtering through traffic, but if you check your mirrors and your blind spot before manoeuvring you should avoid hitting one. This means turning your head to look behind you! It would help to protect pedal cyclists too.

Casualty data suggest that car drivers tend, I'm afraid, to make more lapses of road observation than motorcyclists. Detailed analysis by Gloucestershire County Council revealed that 50 per cent of car-motorcycle collisions involved a car driver who looked but did not see, 27 per cent involved a car driver who failed to look at all, 17 per cent a motorcyclist who failed to look at all and just 15 per cent a motorcyclist who looked but did not see. But motorcyclists have no cause to be smug. Even the largest motorcycle is so small that it easily fits into another vehicle's blind spot so don't linger there! When overtaking, especially on a dual carriageway, get your manoeuvre over with and get back into the other driver's field of view.

Even when we can see another vehicle's wing mirrors we have no guarantee that the driver has spotted us.

One instructor told me to check my mirrors every 11 seconds or so, but all of us have lapses when a 38-tonner could creep up behind us without our noticing.

Tertullian wrote that whenever a victorious Roman commander was allowed to parade his triumph (pun intended) through the eternal streets, a slave riding behind him would constantly whisper "look behind you, and remember you are mortal". Not bad advice on two or four wheels today!