May is motorcycle awareness month

May is the month for promoting greater awareness of motorcycles and their riders to other road users in the US. Maybe this is something we should adopt in the UK? The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) urges all road users to look around, check their mirrors, and consciously watch for motorcycles during Motorcycle Awareness Month in May 2012. Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month is an initiative aimed at getting motorists and motorcyclists to “share the road” with each other.

So far we have Hampshire County Council promoting May as motorcycle awareness month. It has launched a five month awareness campaign to tackle the over-representation in motorbike rider casualty figures. Drivers will be urged to take care to look for motorcyclists by using an image from the Department for Transport’s (DfT) national television motorcycle campaign – ‘Think! Named Rider’ – on the back of buses across Hampshire. The image shows a biker with a flashing neon sign attached with the rider’s name and ‘shy retiring type’ with a reminder to ‘Think Bike, Think Biker’. Councillor Mel Kendal, Executive Member for Environment and Transport, said: “This campaign aims to get drivers to think about the person riding the bike, and start to take more notice of people riding their motorcycles.” This campaign is something that should be adopted throughout the UK to raise awareness of motorcycles and their riders to other road users.