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"Education...can be risky" - Should Motorcyclist
Safety Training Be Prohibited or Promoted?

Submitted to the Transportation Research Board, February 2002

Problem Statement:

In January 2001, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation and member-State Motorcyclists' Rights Organizations (SMROs) began lobbying the 107th Congress on traffic safety, among other issues. The mainstay of the MRF-SMRO joint safety agenda is built on three elements: 1) the transformation of crash barriers and road maintenance practices to render them more "motorcycle-friendly;" 2) a first-ever national program to enhance motorist awareness of motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians; and 3) a federal resource injection to re-build the infrastructure of state-managed motorcycle rider training.

Soon after this legislative agenda gained prominence on Capitol Hill, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), speaking on behalf of the nation's leading insurance firms, criticized the effectiveness of rider skill training in a special report. "Education...can be risky," IIHS asserted. Interestingly, the insurance firms that sponsor IIHS provide discounts to insured riders who enroll in and successfully complete rider safety training courses. For their part, motorcycle safety instructors -- notably the National Association of State Motorcycle Safety Administrators (SMSA) -- believe that essential, life-saving skills are imparted in the controlled, disciplined training environment of their classes.

That said, state-based rider training in the U.S.A. suffers from severe infrastructure problems. Even when new motorcycle sales hovered around 400,000 units a year through much of the 1990s, riders faced upwards of a one-year waiting period for safety training. In 2000, however, new motorcycle sales soared to 710,000 units. In 2001, Illinois trained to capacity, yet turned away over 50,000 riders. States differ in program funding. Many states now charge a fee on motorcycle registration and license application. Some states provide the funds strictly on appropriation. In a few others (i.e., Arizona), training is offered strictly through private entities, with course fees many times that of state-based training. State administrators spend the money on facilities (for lectures and closed-course skill training), practice bikes and a stipend for instructors.

This is a critical U.S. surface transportation question -- this year and for the coming decade -- as state and federal transportation budgets have been stretched beyond the breaking point. Motivated perhaps by budget constraints or their support of the dictum that education can be risky, some state governors have already acted to usurp rider training funds -- even "fee-based" monies purportedly "earmarked" for rider training. In 2001, Governor John Engler of Michigan diverted some $200,000 from rider training to a general fund. Also that year, the Wisconsin Governor Scott McCallum vetoed that state's rider training appropriation -- tantamount to the denial of training to 3,000 new riders.

Proposed Research:

The task is to compare accident involvement rates between graduates of rider training and non-graduates.

NOTE: In the wake of increasing motorcycle sales in the late 1990s, the industry-funded Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) altered its basic rider safety course. The altered course graduated its first students in 2001. Not all states have adopted the new MSF curriculum. It would be prudent to bifurcate the study of rider training "graduates" into two groups -- those who were trained in the older, longer curriculum, and those who received the new training.

Expected Benefit:

Identify and quantify the relationship between rider training programs and safety. While we expect this relationship to show that rider training means safer riding, we also expect identification of this relationship will help transportation agencies understand the implications of cutting or reducing rider training programs, if not the importance of adequately funding them.

Origin of the Statement:

Motorcycle Riders Foundation
Mr. Tom Wyld, VP-Government Relations
P.O. Box 1808
Washington, DC 20013-1808
Phone: 202/546-0983
Fax: 202/546-0986
E-Mail: wyld@mrf.org

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