Motorcycling with Peace of Mind for Loved Ones

It isn't rare for a driver to arrive home late once in a while. In the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, with frequent traffic jams a commuter could be an hour later than usual arriving home and loved ones might not be too worried.

However, when the late individual happens to be a motorcyclist, a spouse tends to get worried much earlier. While many die-hard riders insist on commuting to and from the office on two wheels, their family deals with stress and worry over the additional risks associated with riding a motorcycle in rush hour traffic.

Failing to arrive at one's destination at a reasonable time puts family members at the mercy of their fears: "Has he crashed?

Did someone run into him?

Is she in a hospital or ambulance?

Worse, is he unconscious in a ditch?"

All those horrible questions flood the macabre human imagination when a rider is too late getting home.

Great news! There's affordable peace of mind available. As a matter of fact, it may even be free peace of mind if your favorite rider already has a mobile phone with GPS capability. Google Latitude is a free service offering from the search engine giant that allows you to publish your mobile phone's location to anyone with a web browser.

You can avoid putting loved ones through the torture of trying to find you in the event you are incapacitated. You can disarm their worries when you're running late because they can see you actually moving on a map as you make your way home.

Case in point, the story titled "A perfectly executed high-side" at 4Fraziers.com is a knee-slapping funny tale about the adventure of crashing a motorcycle and being hustled into an air ambulance while a wife frantically searches through all the metro area hospitals for her husband based on a phone message from a good samaritan who didn't know which hospital the rider was taken to.

While the story was humorous when all was said and done, the fear and concern experienced by the victim's spouse that night was very real. If only he'd had this utility up and running on the day of the crash she would have been able to see exactly where the helicopter had deposited her beloved husband. Nowadays his wife and anyone else who cares to look are able to see exactly where his phone (and presumably his person) is at any given time by browsing to his "No Worries" site.

For those who avoid the daily dangers of a metroplex commute and use their motorcycles for trips out to Talimena drive and the Winding Stair, the Davis Mountains, or any of the hundred or so canyon carving adventures within a day's ride from DFW, Google Latitude is the perfect hands-free gift for friends and family back home to know you're safe and on the move.

Of course, there's a catch. In order to use this free tool you have to give up a bit of privacy. For those who don't give a fig whether others know where they are all the time (or consider their travels to be of no interest to anyone except friends and family) it's well worth it to provide that peace of mind and the knowledge that those you love most will know exactly where to find you if catastrophe strikes.