Motorcycle Safety & Driveability/Expert Profile

Expertise

I can answer questions related to motorcycle safety: knowledge, skills, technical, or theoretical. I am especially familiar with the concepts of risk management, hazard awareness, crash avoidance, and traction management as they pertain to motorcycle riders. Please do not ask me to troubleshoot your mechanical/electrical problems ("Why won't my bike start?").

Experience in the area

I'm an MSF-Certified Instructor (12 years), author of the motorcycle safety books How to Ride a Motorcycle, Ride Hard, Ride Smart, and Maximum Control; co-author of Motorcycle Track Day Handbook, and Public Information Officer for the State of Minnesota: I coordinate public information and education for the Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Center, a project of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. I am also communications director for the State Motorcycle Safety Administrators and serve on the NHTSA team that provides motorcycle safety program technical assessments to states.

Organizations

Motorcycle Safety Foundation, Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Center, State Motorcycle Safety Administrators
Check out my website at www.motorcyclesafety.state.mn.us Of particular interest is "Safety Tips"

Education/Credentials

BA Communications/Organizational Management

What do you like about this subject?

Ever since I first began riding about 16 years ago, I've wanted to give something back to the activity that's given me so much enjoyment. Combine that with my fear of dying, aversion to pain, and fascination with controlling my environment, and here I am.

What do you still hope to achieve/learn in this field?

I want riders, more than anything else, to take what they do SERIOUSLY.

Something interesting about this subject that others may not know:

There is no crash conceivable, except for the one-in-a-million "Act of God" type crashes (like the guy who died after a dog fell on him from an overhead railroad trestle) that couldn't have been prevented by the motorcyclist.

Something controversial or provocative about this subject

I would fight any type of mandatory helmet law on the principle of freedom of choice, but the typical anti-helmet-law organizations are cutting their own throats (and the rest of our throats) by trying to prove that helmets are dangerous. They're showing their elected representatives just how stupid they are by believing that helmets cause neck injuries (they don't--crashing does).