Unendorsed Riders - What We Can Learn From The Michigan Initiative

Today, my motorcycle accident law firm in Cumming wants to talk about what the state of Michigan did several years ago to combat the unendorsed motorcycle rider issue in that state. I also want to discuss the takeaways of this and how they relate to bikers in the state of Georgia and how we can remain as safe as possible when we’re out there riding our motorcycles.

What Was The Initiative In The State Of Michigan?

First, let me explain this initiative a bit more. What Michigan found was they had a motorcycle population, roughly 20%, that were unendorsed. This means that they didn’t have the proper certifications of training and safety courses and skills required by their licensing to fully drive a motorcycle.

The correlation they found was while only 20% of the population were unendorsed, 85% of all motorcycle fatalities involved an unendorsed motorcycle rider. Obviously, the state of Michigan saw a correlation in this data and wanted to address it.

What Did The State Of Michigan Do To Address Their Population Of Unendorsed Riders?

What they started doing was a mail campaign where they sent out fliers to all of the registered motorcycle riders that were unendorsed and tried to get them to get their licensing and their certifications. They also made sure this program was cost-effective in an effort to get everybody endorsed.

What Can Bikers In Georgia Learn From This?

For bikers in the state of Georgia, I think the takeaway is that riders need to get the proper training. The bigger takeaway for riders in Georgia is that no matter how long you’ve been riding a motorcycle, every so often, you’re going to want to get recertified or take an advanced training course, in an effort to learn safety skills that you haven’t learned before.

What I have seen is that every five to six years, bikers need to be retrained or learn further training. There are new tactics all the time in the realm of safety, with different features for bikes, and also new techniques for riding.

Often, it is relatively cheap to get further training, and it’s clear that there is some sort of correlation to this. Now, we know from other statistics that a large percentage of motorcycle wrecks are caused by another driver, not the motorcycle rider, but there’s got to be some correlation between trying to avoid those wrecks and motorcycle riders with these certifications having a better chance of avoiding a wreck.

Again, I think the takeaway from this Michigan initiative if you haven’t had training in the last six years or more, get out there and take a course. It’s very minimal on your time and a little bit of a hit to your pocketbook, but it is well worth it.

Get out there, get retrained, get trained for the first time, take some advanced courses, and stay safe out there. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.