The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News.
By Lennox Lamb: The idea for this article did not come from an academic, a road-safety expert or anybody carrying around a thick government report.
It came from an ordinary Belizean man during a casual conversation.
He said something simple: “Plenty women di ride motorcycle now, but when you watch the news and somebody dead in a motorcycle accident, most of the time da man.”
I had never really stopped to examine it. But once he said it, I could not stop seeing it.
Women are riding motorcycles all across Belize. They ride to work. They ride to conduct business. They carry groceries, school bags and sometimes children. They are teachers, vendors, office workers, mothers and entrepreneurs trying to stretch a dollar and complete ten different responsibilities before the day ends.
For many Belizean women, the motorcycle is not a toy. It is not a performance. It is an economic tool.
Then there are some of our men.
The helmet is hanging from the elbow as decoration. The motorcycle is weaving through traffic. The throttle is announcing their arrival from two streets away. Every straight stretch of highway becomes a racetrack, and everybody else must move because somebody wants to prove that his machine – and perhaps something else – is powerful.
Some ah we men noh just ride. We perform.
Not every man rides recklessly, of course. Many responsible men use motorcycles every day and reach home safely. Women can also be careless. This is not an attempt to place halos over women’s helmets and blame every accident on men.
It is an observation – and a fair question.
Why does it appear that women ride to reach somewhere, while too many men ride as though they have something to prove?
The official figures make that question difficult to ignore. In 2024, 110 of the 130 people killed on Belize’s roads were men. Motorcycles were involved in 58 of the country’s 112 fatal road accidents. Men between 20 and 24 years old formed the largest group of male fatalities.
The statistics do not tell us how many of those motorcyclists were men or women. They also do not tell us how many male and female riders are on the roads. Therefore, nobody can honestly declare from the available figures that Belizean women are scientifically safer riders.
But Belizeans do not experience road accidents only through statistics.
We experience them through the evening news.
Another damaged motorcycle on the highway. Another name. Another photograph. Another mother crying. Another young man who left home and never returned.
At some point, we must examine not only our roads, helmets and traffic laws, but also our ideas about manhood.
Too many men are raised to believe that caution is cowardice. Speed becomes confidence. Risk becomes courage. Following the rules makes you look soft. The motorcycle becomes an extension of the ego, and the public road becomes a stage for demonstrating fearlessness.
But what exactly are we proving?
There is nothing brave about leaving your family to bury you. There is nothing masculine about creating another fatherless child, another grieving mother or another household suddenly deprived of an income.
Maybe women approach the road differently because life has trained many of them to calculate consequences. When people are depending on you – when children must be collected, bills must be paid, groceries must be bought and work must be reached – the purpose of the journey is not excitement.
The purpose is to arrive.
That is not a scientific conclusion. It is a social observation. And sometimes an ordinary man standing on the street can notice something that the experts have not yet bothered to measure.
Belize certainly needs better enforcement, properly certified helmets, trained riders and safer roads. But no law can completely protect a person who believes that danger is something to display rather than avoid.
Maybe our men do not need another lecture about motorcycles.
Maybe we simply need to learn what so many women already appear to understand:
The road is not impressed by noise. It does not care how brave you feel or how fast your motorcycle can move.
At the end of the day, the real victory is not passing everybody else.
Da reaching home.
The post Women ride to arrive. What are the men trying to prove? appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Breaking Belize News. By Lennox Lamb: The idea for this article did not come from an academic, a road-safety expert or anybody carrying around a thick government report. It came from an ordinary Belizean man during a casual conversation.
The post Women ride to arrive. What are the men trying to prove? appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.