21 Ideas to Save Lives From Motorcycle Rider Training Experts
July 13, 2011 (Columbia, Maryland) — A panel of motorcycle rider training experts have contributed their expertise to in an effort to make U.S. motorcycle training more effective and more successful at reducing injuries and death.
The report they have authored, entitled The State and Future of U.S. Rider Training, presents their experienced-based ideas.
In March of 2011, The Rider School at Howard Community College (Maryland, U.S.A.) convened 15 of motorcycling’s top authors, advanced trainers, insurance experts, and noted researchers for a two-day experts’ panel on reducing motorcycle crashes and injuries.
During the two-day meeting, the group developed 21 specific recommendations for improving motorcycle training, detailed in the new report (available here in .pdf format).
The recommendations include:
- Increasing opportunities for new riders to learn on dirt before riding on pavement;
- An enhanced focus on student understanding of motorcycle handling dynamics (rather than just of operating controls);
- Plans for expanded development of alternatives to traditional licensing training;
- Strategies for better use of experts in instructional design;
- Ideas for improved marketing and promotion of safe riding messages.
The panel hopes that the report will help broaden the discussion about rider safety and to influence public awareness and public policy about riders and rider training.
Organizers were invited to present the findings at the annual 2011 State Motorcycle Safety Administrators Conference in Des Moines, Iowa.
In addition to The Rider School, underwriting sponsors included US Insurance Services, The National Association of State Motorcycle Safety Administrators, and Cape Fox Professional Services.
The Rider School at Howard Community College is a leading provider of motorcycle instruction in the Mid-Atlantic region and one of the few schools nationwide that offers a full range of classes for beginner, intermediate, and advanced rider training.
For more information about the School, visit http://riderschool.org.
For more information about the report and its creation, contact Jim Schmidt, Rider School director, at 443-518-4186; email jschmidt@howardcc.edu.