A few years ago our regular Saturday or Sunday morning rides would involve me mounting my then STeed, "kitted out" in short pants, short sleeve or sleeveless shirts, open face helmets and fingerless gloves, but with feet suitably protected with lace-up shoes.
We would ride mostly in small groups of three or four and travel on suburban roads for around 40km or 50km for a coffee, turn around and head for home. Some of the rides would take a full day on country roads and freeways, and we would cover more than 200km and involve a few thousand or more riders ('twas a bit scary at times riding in big groups). On some rides my top speed was around 80km/h, some of my friends would get into the mid 80's.
If I was "kitted out" like this today (like some of the scooter riders in the news article), riding my Piaggio 250 scooter (with much better brakes, tyres and suspension than my above mentioned STeed) to work and lucky if my top speed reached 60km/h, I would be labelled a ignorant, foolish or an idiot.
In reality my earlier riding gear was, and still is, expected for the type of riding involved - riding a road bicycle.
Which rider is exposing themselves to the higher risk at 80km/h? Would that be the scantily clad scooter rider (at least with good brakes, wider tyres and suspension), or a bicycle rider (with crap brakes, skinny [23mm] tyres and no suspension)?
Just saying ............