People First

Eric Teoh, director of statistical services, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Motorcyclist fatalities are at a record high for the fourth year in a row; we’re clearly going in the wrong direction. These aren’t just trends and numbers, either. They’re people—our friends and neighbors and fellow humans.

Ultimately, there’s no perfect way to reduce fatalities. Unlike passenger vehicles, you can’t just constantly put in more airbags and things like that to make motorcycles safer in crashes. Reducing these fatalities requires a lot of steps that apply to motorcycles and to comprehensive roadway safety.

And I do wish that the motorcycle safety community would broaden itself a little bit to exploring more solutions. A lot of times, the community focuses on rider training, but there are so many other steps it can support that would benefit riders.

For starters, helmet laws that cover all riders are a very important countermeasure. I conducted a study this past year showing that if every state had universal helmet laws, we’d have about 10% fewer rider fatalities. Is it perfect? No, but let’s take those gains.

It’s important to prioritize effectiveness: Look at efforts that research has proven to work.

And we need to do other things, including improving motorcycle technology. We know anti-lock braking systems (ABS) are effective, but we failed to mandate them, despite two petitions from our organization. Technology on other vehicles also plays a role. Our organization is running tests to make sure that automatic emergency braking on cars detects motorcycles.

There are a lot of efforts that apply to all road users, too, including measures as simple as reducing speed limits. States have been raising their maximum speed limits since the mid-1990s, and an additional 45,000 people have died simply due to those increases. Speed limits and enforcement, red light safety cameras, more alcohol enforcement, prioritized infrastructure improvements—all these things can help reduce rider fatalities without specifically targeting motorcycles. It’s important to prioritize effectiveness: Look at efforts that research has proven to work.

I presented these ideas recently at the State Motorcycle Safety Association’s conference, and I put up one slide that had pictures of 10 people who were lost in crashes. I made the point at the conference that, if you’ve made slides like this—arranged and aligned people’s pictures, read their stories—once you go through these exercises, fatality stats and graphs suddenly look much bigger. Let’s never forget that we’re talking about people, even when it comes to a subject like universal helmet laws.

My company has introduced an initiative called “30×30” to reduce traffic fatalities 30% by 2030. We want to create a sense of urgency that leads to prioritizing actions that can have a broad impact quickly. I would like to see more people sharing that vision overall and applying that thinking directly to motorcycle safety.

Collaborating to Fix Behaviors

Sunshine Beer, director, Idaho STAR Motorcycle Safety Program

To make a significant impact on motorcycle safety, we must focus on changing attitudes and behaviors. We can teach people motor skills and control in rider training. We can legislate helmets, speed limits—all sorts of countermeasures. But until people start actually changing their behaviors and making smarter choices, we’re really not going to see much of a decline in motorcyclist fatalities. It’s not happy kittens and rainbows, but that, to me, is the reality right now.

Many programs and state administrators are seeing commonalities with fatalities, typically involving untrained riders. Historically, in our state, it’s been men older than 40 on cruisers who are overrepresented in our crash statistics. That has continued to trend for the last two decades. However, what I’m starting to see is more young people involved in fatal crashes.

We’re beginning to look at other target audiences that we need to capture, hopefully influencing behaviors at a younger age. If you try to reach someone after they’ve been riding for 40 years, they might have a mindset of, “You’re not going to teach me anything.” So I think the best chance we have at influencing behaviors is capturing entry-level riders as they come into the sport.

We’re fortunate in Idaho because we have a lot of interagency cooperation, which is not always the case in every state. But I still see a lot of room for growth in making sure motorcycle riders, whether they’re administrators or just the general riding public, are represented on different task forces and groups. There needs to be a voice that asks, “Have you considered the motorcyclist?” Whether you’re designing a roadway structure or doing road safety audits, you should be getting input from motorcycle riders.

Historically, in our state, it’s been men older than 40 on cruisers who are overrepresented in our crash statistics. … However, what I’m starting to see is more young people involved in fatal crashes.

In Idaho, we collaborate and try to put all of our ideas on the table and set aside those things that we’re not going to agree on. The state motorcyclists’ rights organizations don’t want legislation for helmets. The safety people would like to see helmets legislated. But those two are never going to agree. We’ve got to set those things aside and start working on initiatives and countermeasures that we can agree on. That’s one of my biggest takeaways from the last several years.

Another tool that I’d recommend, at a minimum, is to do a state program self-assessment using the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Highway Safety Program Guideline No. 3, building and maintaining a comprehensive motorcycle safety program covering 11 different focus areas. Has your state and your team taken a close look to identify your gaps? Where can you make improvements in incorporating motorcycle safety into all 11 focus areas?

I’m also really looking forward to the reinstatement of the Motorcyclist Advisory Council to the U.S. Department of Transportation. This is going to be a great thing for motorcycle safety. It’s going to feature some of the smartest people in the industry, and getting them all together, collaborating and seeing what recommendations they have is critical over the next couple of years.