A PILOT STUDY EVALUATION OF THE MOTORCYCLE SAFETY FOUNDATION'S MOTORCYCLE RIDER COURSE

The survey indicated some differences in demographic variables among the three groups (on-campus, off-campus, and control group). In terms of relevance to this study, concerned with evaluating the effectiveness of the motorcycle rider course in affecting safety of operation of motorcycles, the major findings were: (1) persons who had taken the motorcycle rider course tended to make significantly more frequent use of: helmets, goggles, face shields, or eyeglasses; long pants; and long sleeved shirts or jackets when riding their motorcycle, than persons in the control group; (2) there were no differences in the frequencies of violations reported by members of the three groups that reached statistical significance, although the control group had almost twice the number of violations per person. But their violation rate per million miles was about the same as the on-campus group, and about 30% greater than the off-campus group; (3) there was no significant difference in the frequency of accidents among the three groups with about 22% of the experimental groups and 16% of the control group reporting one or more accidents; and the accident rate per million miles for the control group was about 45% of that of the groups who had taken the course; (4) the costs of damage to the motorcycles in the accidents, per million miles, were about the same for the control group than the on-campus group, while those in the off-campus group incurred costs to the motorcycle which were 271% greater than those in the control group; (5) the estimated medical costs of the injuries per million miles, received by the on-campus group were 59% of those incurred by persons in the control group, while those of the off-campus group were 7% greater than those in the control group. (Author)