Episode 59. Fewer Motorcycle Safety Coaches, More Unlicensed Riders, More Crashes: Is there a link?

Bernie Fette (host) (00:14):
Hello and welcome to Thinking Transportation — conversations about how we get ourselves and the things we need from one place to another. I’m Bernie Fette with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Motorcycle riders face a far greater risk than other roadway travelers. About 30 percent of motorcycle crashes result in death or serious injury, but that’s true for only about 3 percent of car and truck crashes. The reasons for that might seem obvious. For one, motorcycles don’t offer the same protection that cars and trucks do, and because they take up less space on the roads, they’re simply harder for us to see. One thing that motorcycles and other vehicles share in common, of course, is that both require an operator’s license. But according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 30 percent of motorcyclists involved in a fatal crash in 2019 were driving without a valid motorcycle license. In Texas, that number is more than 50 percent. It’s a complex and persistent problem. We have two guests with us today who can help us understand it a bit more clearly. Cathy Brooks is a project specialist at TTI, and Michael Strong is a program manager at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Cathy, Michael, thank you for joining us today.

Michael Strawn (guest) (01:45):
Thank you for having us.

Cathy Brooks (guest) (01:45):
Yes, thank you for having us.

Bernie Fette (01:49):
We’re going to be talking today about your efforts to increase the number of motorcycle safety instructors in Texas. But just for background, can you begin please by giving people a sense of the motorcycle safety challenge in recent years? What can you tell us about the number of crashes and fatalities and injuries?

Cathy Brooks (02:11):
So, yes, Bernie, over the last several years, the motorcycle crashes in general have been on the rise. That includes our fatalities and our suspected serious injuries. Some of the factors that are prevalent are impaired riders. Speed is another large factor. And unfortunately the number of unlicensed motorcyclists has also been on the rise. In Texas, to gain a motorcycle license for your first time, you are required to take an entry level rider course.

Bernie Fette (02:50):
And that’s simply a step that a large number of people have just chosen not to take.

Cathy Brooks (02:54):
That’s speculative. It’s hard to tell why people are not licensed, whether or not they’re taking the course and not getting their license or just not taking the course. Mm-hmm.

Bernie Fette (03:07):
You mentioned, uh, speed and alcohol impairment as two of the more prevalent causes is just the fact that motorcycles are smaller and so perhaps less easy for the rest of us to see or we’re unaccustomed to looking for them. Is there visibility, their, I think you call it conspicuity also a factor.

Cathy Brooks (03:28):
Yeah. Conspicuity is a major issue. Size and shape — we’re narrower. It’s harder for drivers to determine our speed and our distance, and if you’re not consciously looking for something, you may not see it. That inattentional blindness comes into effect.

Bernie Fette (03:51):
Okay. I have a couple of questions that you may not have data for, but I’ve been wondering about as I was preparing for our visit today. Is there anything in the way of that motorcycles have evolved over the years that makes a difference in the crash numbers? And I’m asking that because they seem to be much faster and more powerful than the ones that I remember from my teenage years. Is there anything to that or is that just something that I’m kind of imagining?

Cathy Brooks (04:20):
They’re definitely larger size engines. They’re definitely more powerful and bigger than they used to be when I first was on a motorcycle at probably two years old. But whether or not that’s a factor, no, I don’t have any data on that.

Bernie Fette (04:35):
Don’t have. Okay. And I noticed that maybe it has something to do with the size of the engines that you were talking about, but they seem to be louder too.

Cathy Brooks (04:43):
There are some brands that the loud pipes and the specific noises they make are, their trademark. There are some others that are very quiet and now we are seeing an increase also in the electric motorcycle industry. So there are no, no sounds coming from those at all.

Bernie Fette (05:04):
Quieter, still. Yeah. And I know that this may seem to be a bit of a stretch, but I was wondering if they are louder, the ones that are louder, might that make them easier to notice? Because in other words, their loudness makes them any safer because they’re more likely to see them if we hear them coming. And again, probably no data there, but is there anything to that assumption?

Bernie Fette (05:26):
I see you’re kind of shaking your head there, Michael.

Cathy Brooks (05:28):
<laugh>, I say no. Uh, loud pipes are not necessarily something that help. Personal experience. I was on my motorcycle on a freeway going speed 70 miles an hour probably, and checking my mirrors, my 360 awareness to know what’s going on, don’t see anything, and then all of a sudden there’s this loud noise to my right and it was a motorcycle passing me. I didn’t see it or didn’t hear it until it was right next to me and actually made me jump. Not something that’s the safe thing to do on a motorcycle at 70 miles an hour. So that’s, some people say loud pipes save lives. I don’t necessarily agree with that statement.

Bernie Fette (06:10):
Michael. It seemed that you might have had something to add there.

Michael Strawn (06:13):
Yeah, I mean, as Cathy said, when it comes to the loud pipes, there is always a saying that loud pipes save lives. Having ridden for many, many years now. And a proponent of loving to hear my motorcycle or car, I can tell you that you don’t hear a car or motorcycle approaching until it’s already upon you. The noise is exiting the opposite direction. It’s highly unlikely it’s going to do anything. Riders oftentimes think that they’re gonna rev versus uh, honk at somebody as well. And those are factors that a motorist is not ready for. You know, they’re used to what a horn means. They’re not used to what the sound of a revving engine behind them means. And it can cause panicking. It really doesn’t induce as much safety as individuals might think that it is. It could be a false sense of security when riding out there. And that’s something that the industry, motorcyclists out there need to be conscientious of, that you are responsible for your safety at all times. There are a lot of riders out there, according to crash statistics that come from Texas Department of Transportation, TxDOT, that 45 percent of all crashes, people are not wearing a helmet, you know, not wearing appropriate gear. Motorcycle doesn’t have a shell around it. As you said, it doesn’t have a cage around to protect the rider, the occupants. So the next best step that we have is safety gear. And that’s one thing that we try to preach through education, training, awareness is, you hear this term all the time, it’s called ATGATT — all the gear all the time. Wearing boots, uh, proper gloves, helmets. Those do go very far into saving not only your skin but your actual life in many situations. In 2021, there were over 520 motorcyclists that were killed in accidents. It is certainly something that we have to take into account how to increase the safety, how to increase the awareness, the visibility, all aspects of motorcycle safety from top to bottom. It is a challenge that we are trying to do our best to overcome.

Bernie Fette (08:17):
We’ve noted that crash numbers are going up at the same time. There’s another number that’s going down and that’s the number of motorcycle safety instructors in Texas. And those instructors, of course are very important to teaching the differences in operating a motorcycle versus a standard motor vehicle. And Texas doesn’t have enough of them. Is that right?

Michael Strawn (08:40):
Bernie — I mean, that’s what we hear from the industry. That is the need for more instructors. Several years ago, there was a new training program that came in before my agency, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation took over this industry and we saw a significant dip in the amount of instructors because of a new training program. And since then we have worked diligently to try and create and foster an environment to create new instructors. When we, we came into this, there was a decline in the number of instructors and since then we’ve gone from about 240 instructors to about 260, 265 instructors at current. What we hear from the industry is that’s not enough to serve the industry that we have out there. We see about 30,000 students coming through all of our training programs every year. That’s 30,000 interested parties that are seeking to get a motorcycle license. Now that’s great and we’d love to see 30,000, but we’d love to see every single person, 40,000, 50,000, whatever it looks like in the state of Texas. Everybody that’s seeking education should have that opportunity and should have the opportunity to get into a class quickly, as we know is individuals that may not be able to get into a class easily or quickly or near them may seek to ride unlicensed. And when they start riding unlicensed, it’s gonna be a very unlikely scenario that they all of a sudden, you know, six months later, a year later decide that they need to come back to what they see as a remedial class at that point in time. They’ve been riding for a few months and they’re managing to figure it out on their own and then getting them to come back in — that’s its own challenge. So making sure that education is available, plentiful and available in a timely manner is how we instill a safety minded mindset out there for individuals.

Bernie Fette (10:36):
Right. And there are certainly implications to the problem of having not enough instructors, but before we get into some detail on that, maybe I can ask you, Cathy. Michael was just talking about availability of the courses and also the numbers. Am I understanding right, in thinking that you may have quite a few customers, potential customers out there, if we can call ’em that for a safety course, but just because of distance or availability or convenience, that’s a big reason why they’re not taking the course?

Cathy Brooks (11:12):
That’s our understanding, yes.

Bernie Fette (11:14):
Why does that shortage exist?

Cathy Brooks (11:16):
There’s multiple factors. I believe in that over the years we’ve seen attrition with rider instructors when the core curriculum changes. For instance, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course has been a staple in Texas for many, many years and they change their curriculum every five to 10 years. And when I first became an instructor myself, I took the basic rider course to get my license to waive the riding portion of a license in Texas. And at that time they were pilot testing in Texas, the new curriculum for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation or the MSF. And the reason I took that course was with my father because a family friend of ours had mentioned to him as he was retiring for the second time, that you should find out about becoming an instructor because we’re losing instructors through this change of curriculum. And that was back in 2003. We had another change in curriculum or another update more recently. And then when the change from the Texas Department of Public Safety or DPS to TDLR caused another attrition, people are like, yeah, don’t like change. It’s time for me to stop doing this. So that’s one major factor. I think that’s when we have our biggest loss of instructors.

Bernie Fette (12:43):
So you’ve got changes in the curriculum that happen and the instructors that you already have that are qualified choose to not become re-certified because it’s just too onerous or burdensome for them to make those adjustments?

Cathy Brooks (12:58):
That or they’re comfortable where they are and they don’t like change.

Bernie Fette (13:03):
So you’re not keeping the ones that you have and at the same time you’re not recruiting the new ones. So you’ve got the problem is compounded.

Cathy Brooks (13:10):
At least not at the same rates. Correct.

Bernie Fette (13:12):
Is this a problem elsewhere in the United States or is this largely a Texas thing that the number of safety instructors is declining?

Cathy Brooks (13:21):
With my experience working with other states and being part of the State Motorcycle Safety Association, it’s a national issue. This thing is fairly common nationwide.

Michael Strawn (13:33):
Bernie, and another thing here is outside of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation certification process or total control safety certification process that we have, Texas also has its own motorcycle instructor license. So there are a few additional qualifications that that instructor must go through here in Texas to become a motorcycle instructor rather than just an endorsement from the curriculum providers that are out there.

Bernie Fette (13:59):
Meaning that it’s just a little more difficult in Texas to reach a standard of being able to give qualified instruction.

Michael Strawn (14:07):
Here in Texas, we’re not really adding additional regulations or a ton of red tape for individuals to go through. There are safety aspects and why we provide a license for instructors to teach in Texas, a lot of that deals with safety, interacting with the citizens of Texas. Instructors around minors, around students, they’re out there, uh, teaching individuals how to be a safe rider. So there’s some background checks that are there in place, right there is driver history checks that are done on them, make sure that they’re a safe rider. You know, if you don’t practice what you preach, you’re probably not going to be able to speak that safety mindset to the individuals that you’re teaching out there. There are some things such as CPR, uh, first aid requirements because if there is an accident on the range while training individuals, we wanna make sure these instructors are as best equipped to tend to that medical need while waiting on emergency services as possible.

Bernie Fette (15:08):
Anything to add, Cathy?

Cathy Brooks (15:09):
Texas is not the only state in the union that requires additional steps. In some states all they need is the curriculum provider certification, but in several states there are those additional layers to be approved in the state. My understanding in looking into some of the other state requirements, Texas is not one that is onerous. It may take a little time for the checks to go through and the reports to come back once the paperwork is submitted to TDLR.

Michael Strawn (15:38):
And those are areas, you know, when we inherited this program, everything is done on paper. It didn’t come to us in a licensing database, and it’s something here within the next few days. Actually within the next two weeks, we’re moving this program into our licensing database where applicants can then pay online, renew online, uh, manage their account online, upload documents. The other hurdle that we had was the current pathway into becoming an instructor in Texas created a framework where all training is given through a single entity. That’s something that there’s current legislation out there that may be changing this here very soon, but that actually could be seen as onerous for many individuals. It can be difficult to travel across the state to one location for nine days-plus of training to be away from your work, friends, family, whatever it may be. That pathway to becoming an instructor. We’ve heard some feedback that that can be very difficult at this point in time, and it is something that we’re vehemently working towards resolving and making sure that anything that we are doing as a function is not a regulatory hurdle for individuals that want to be a motorcycle safety instructor in this state. They have the opportunity and the availability to do so.

Bernie Fette (16:52):
You’re trying to make it as seamless and simple for people to reach that goal of certification within the framework or within the requirements that you have to just in the interest of, of safety and security for everybody involved. Sounds like.

Michael Strawn (17:06):
Yes, sir. Anything that we can do to facilitate a quicker, more accessible pathway for individuals to become a motorcycle instructor in the state of Texas within the confines of the laws and rules that we have for this program, that is absolutely our mission.

Cathy Brooks (17:24):
In addition to what Michael said about the legislation that may be making it easier for instructors to get training, he mentioned in one location and nine days consecutive. That’s a major hurdle for a lot of potential instructors. There are multiple ways that other states are offering this training. It is a nine-day program from the MSF, to become what they call a rider coach. So it’s a rider coach prep, and it’s typically a nine-day training that is in person nine days. And there are some states that do it over three weekends. There are some places that do it over two weekends. Texas has typically been the nine days straight. So that’s somebody taking off of work potentially. And if you aren’t having paid vacation, that’s already an obstacle to come over, plus the cost of the class, plus the cost of room and board for that nine days, et cetera.

Cathy Brooks (18:24):
But being able to have multiple providers that can do the training opens up the opportunity to have it in different regions of the state and to open it up to different schedules. There is one benefit I guess you could call it, uh, when Covid hit, it really shut down a lot of the in-person training, both for motorcycle training classes to the public as well as training new instructors or rider coaches. There is one company that worked with the MSF to come up with a hybrid of virtual training session to get you started, and then it’s a four-day in person. That’s another opportunity to make it more accessible to more people. That being said, that’s one company nationwide that does it, and they do provide it in different states, and they could offer it in Texas if they follow the rules of TDLR and apply to become approved or licensed by TDLR.

Michael Strawn (19:29):
With pending legislation if it passes. At its current, there’s a single source of training in Texas. But if legislation passes, then yes, we would seek to develop rules around the new regulatory framework that we would have.

Bernie Fette (19:43):
Let’s talk for just a minute if we can, about the implications of this instructor shortage. You’ve got a shrinking number of instructors, you’ve got a growing number of unlicensed riders and you’ve got an increase in crash injuries and deaths. I’m not a scientist, I’m not a researcher, but if we put all those things together into one collective thought, that suggests to me that there’s a connection. Am I stretching things there or is there a connection between the crash trend and the declining number of instructors?

Cathy Brooks (20:20):
Yes, Bernie. I would say that can’t make a direct causal, but there is a correlation. There would be seemingly a correlation between the number of unlicensed riders, unlicensed rider crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries stemming from the lack of instructors, which would be a lack of potential classes available or classes being canceled for lack of instructors across the state.

Michael Strawn (20:50):
I would echo much of what Cathy said. We have individuals out there much smarter than us that that look at this. And I don’t know if there’s still one consensus out there. There’s certainly correlation. You know, we see an increase in alcohol use, we’ve seen an increase in the number of distracted driving cases out there, and there’s far severely underreported in those number of crashes as well. And one minor mistake from a motorist interacting with a motorcyclist that is distracted is potentially fatal. There are a lot of factors that go into play here. Certainly education, as you heard me say earlier, is top of that list, making sure that we have safe rider that have the skillsets and the basis. You know, when you’re going to these motorcycle training courses, it’s not a punishment, it’s not remedial. It is giving you the basis and the foundation to build your necessary skills every day while you’re out there riding on the road, learning how to emergency brake, your avoidance techniques, things like that, all skill sets that you should be practicing out there. And a lot of these riders who are not going through these education aren’t able to ascertain. There’s a lot of factors out there. We certainly know the education and making the education readily available is step one into mitigating as many of these factors as possible.

Cathy Brooks (22:12):
As Michael said, having the proper knowledge and skillset does improve safety. And as he said, it’s not necessarily remedial. I’ve had students that have been riding for years that got caught without a license and come through the basic course and they start out a little salty about it, but at the end they’re like, I learned something. As Michael said earlier, we are responsible for our own safety on the roads as motorcyclists. So if we can keep safety top of mind, if we can understand that other motorists may not perceive us, they may not see us, they may not understand how quickly we are going or how far away we are, if we can ride like we’re invisible. If we can use techniques to be more conspicuous, those things help us stay safer on the roads as motorcyclists. And those are things that you learn in the motorcycle safety courses.

Bernie Fette (23:12):
You’ve mentioned specifically that the kind of people that you’re looking for have to have a hunger for this. They have to have a real desire to be an instructor, they have to have a certain mindset. In a nutshell, what does it take to become a really good motorcycle safety instructor?

Cathy Brooks (23:28):
That’s a tough nut to crack. Actually. <laugh> With some of the research that we’ve done over the last few years with this project through TDLR. There’s three themes that we came up with. One is a lifelong learner. So as a motorcyclist, if you’re always trying to self-assess, you’re trying to get better, you wanna improve your skills. Another one is sharing the passion. This is something that I love to do and I want to help others find the joy that I find in motorcycling. And the third one is a legacy of learning. So this most recent research that we did found that somebody who wants to give back to the community, somebody that is a natural mentor, somebody who finds that people come to them for advice, teachers, coaches, those people that like doing that, that like sharing their knowledge, that like helping others. Those are the kind of people that make really good instructors. Tail onto that, as Michael said earlier, ATGATT, is it somebody who’s wearing all the gear all the time? Is it somebody that has a good driving record? Is it somebody that’s already practicing safety in their own riding experiences?

Bernie Fette (24:38):
They have to model good behavior, in other words.

Cathy Brooks (24:41):
Correct. And if that’s something that you’re already doing, then that’s easier for them to be genuine when they’re teaching that in a class or on the range.

Michael Strawn (24:50):
And Bernie, I want to kind of segue off of that. As Cathy says, there’s a lot of new information we’re learning out there, and I think that’s one of the beautiful things that’s come from this partnership between Texas A&M Transportation Institute and Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. For the first time we’re really doing these surveys and they’re trying to drive down into what retains instructors, what makes people interested in this, what creates a great instructor and what values they bring, and how do we retain those individuals. And those are questions we haven’t asked in the past that I’m aware of and you know, but moving forward, we look at the rider engagement, the instructor engagement, how to obtain and retain all of those people and make lifelong learners. And that’s what makes motorcycling so passionate and so loved by so many individuals is you’re always out there and there’s always something new. There’s always a way to be better. And there’s always that excitement and that joy that comes with it. Our inherent dangers and being able to grow and learn, figuring out what encapsulates all that and how to bring that passion and that knowledge into an instructor to share with everybody and how to retain that individual. That is where our focus is now. What does that person look like? What are their interests and how do we retain them? And how do we get that individual to share that wealth of knowledge, that passion and that sense of safety and security out there to new riders that are coming in.

Bernie Fette (26:18):
You’ve both done a really nice job of painting a picture of what your ideal instructor might look like, think like, sound like. And it sounds like the work that you’re doing with the surveys and research that you’re both working on is you’re trying to maybe narrow your market a little bit and try to identify those people who might be the most receptive to taking this path. Is that right?

Cathy Brooks (26:41):
Yes, sir. That’s right. And in addition to that, I think getting people that may not have ever considered taking that path to say, okay, maybe that’s something I could look into, right. For myself, when the coach that I went through a class to get my street license, my motorcycle license in Texas suggested I become a coach. I’ve never been on the streets, why would I be a coach? Currently there is a two-year wait after you have a motorcycle license, before you can become an instructor in Texas.

Bernie Fette (27:11):
Okay.

Cathy Brooks (27:12):
But at the time that I became an instructor, that wasn’t a rule. And so I spent the next year going to different locations across the state, different training schools across the state, and worked as what they called a range aide. I would be sitting through the classroom and observing. I would be out on the range helping them place the cones and move the bikes as needed. And I watched students, people who were terrified to put their leg over a motorcycle who’d never done it before, and by the end of the first day, they’re accomplishing something. It’s something that I’ve called seeing a smile inside a full-face helmet because their eyes are twinkling with the joy and the excitement and the fun. And it’s like, it gave me a sense of awe, I guess, and inspired me to, yeah, this is something that I, I can see myself doing and I’ve been doing for almost 20 years now.

Michael Strawn (28:08):
And Bernie, as Cathy said, a big part of this endeavor is reaching new individuals out there, whether that’s a, a young individual, uh, that has a, a history of riding in their family and you know, has been dirt riding before they ever saw the street. We want to find those individuals and make them aware of this path and this opportunity exists. Uh, there’s several young instructors that have come out in the past couple years that are doing this on the weekends while they’re going through college. It’s, it may be something they retain for years while they even get into a different pathway. Some individuals do this full-time, some people do it part-time. Many individuals don’t know it even exists and that this is an opportunity for them. One of the big focuses of this survey is for us to be able to capture new riders that are interested in this and that have that skillset and that correct mindset to be an instructor and to promote safety in Texas.

Bernie Fette (29:06):
This is a really broad and deep topic, and there’s no way we could cover all of it in just in the limited time that we’ve got, but if you wanted people who are listening to remember just one really important thing that we talked about today, what would that be? Let’s call it your elevator speech.

Michael Strawn (29:24):
For me, I’m gonna say trained riders are safe riders. At the end of the day, getting that education, that awareness out there, making this an easy lifestyle, hobby, industry, whatever pathway you, you deem that you wanna come into this or, uh, whatever capacity you are into this motorcycle lifestyle, we want to make sure that individuals are trained and they’re safe. There’s a ton of great education and materials out there that give you that foundation to continually build your skills in the correct manner. We wanna make sure that education and those opportunities are available to everybody. Learning bad habits, trying to learn on your own, those are things that you’re building on bad habits and there’s a lot of things out there that can really get riders into trouble. And I still hear a lot of confusion. People confused about the complexity of, do I need a motorcycle to go take a licensing test down at Department of Public Safety? That was years and years ago. Those misnomers still exist today. This is something that the education’s so important to, to everything because riding unlicensed, riding dirty, whatever you want to call it, it’s costly. Whether that’s money in the way of tickets, crashes, motorcycles are not cheap anymore, can be extremely costly, and that the highest price you can pay is your life or the life of someone else. It is a, a brotherhood in a lot of ways. It’s a giant family, and that’s because we are all out there together on these roads. We’re sharing these roads together. I hope everybody that gets interested in this community helps everybody be smarter. It helps everybody be safer.

Bernie Fette (31:06):
Cathy, what’s your big takeaway?

Cathy Brooks (31:10):
In my experience as an instructor, it’s a lot easier to take someone that’s never ridden and build good habits than someone who has ridden and break bad ones. So having access to rider safety training, being licensed helps increase that knowledge, those skill sets that help riders be safer on the roadway and help mitigate their risk on the roads. To have those classes available, we need to have instructors, people that are passionate, caring, want to share, safe themselves, genuine to be a part of those efforts. To keep riders safe on the streets is a lot of people that don’t know they need to have a motorcycle license to ride a motorcycle. That’s one barrier. There’s a lot of people that think that when they graduate this class that, that MSB-8 that Michael mentioned, which is their Texas specific completion certificate that you take to the licensing office to get your motorcycle license.

Cathy Brooks (32:15):
That’s all they need, and it’s not, they need to go and actually get the license knowing that there’s classes available, knowing where they are. Having the instructors to fill the schedules based on the demand of those that wanna take the class are important for us to fulfill. And right now, we’re not being able to fulfill that need. The joy we feel when you’re riding a motorcycle is a joy that you can see blossom in somebody else is well worth the effort to take the training to become an instructor. Being able to grow that next generation of motorcyclists in a manner that can help them be safe riders for a very long time. It’s inherently dangerous to ride a motorcycle and over half of our fatalities, are motorcycle-only crashes. So having not just the skillset, but the mindset of being a safe rider is very, very important to help reduce those, those fatality numbers.

Bernie Fette (33:18):
Last question. What is it that makes you both want to get up and come to work every day?

Cathy Brooks (33:28):
That’s an interesting question for me, Bernie. This isn’t somewhere I would’ve seen myself, as I mentioned earlier, I took the motorcycle safety course to get a license to be able to test ride bikes and was suggested that I become a coach. Never thought I’d be. I can’t do that. I’m, I’m too new. And I spent the next year no longer being new. There was a period of time that I went and did my end-of-year taxes and I’d only taught eight classes that year. And the person that I worked with, a friend of mine said, you’re miserable. Go teach a class. Or a weekend that I taught a class, she’d come and say, you taught a class this weekend. And it wasn’t just because my red face from the sun, but my whole attitude changed. It’s something that recharges my batteries. No matter how much training we do, no matter how much we we learn, we can’t always fix what happens on the roadway. I’m a mother of four, one of three generations of motorcycle safety instructors in Texas, and I lost my husband to a motorcycle crash. I lost my husband to a motorcycle crash. In addition to being that instructor, I started getting involved with the Texas Motorcycle Safety Coalition that sponsored through TTI and the Texas Department of Transportation’s Motorcycle Safety Education and Outreach Program. What’s led me here today. My grandfather rode, my father rode, found a picture recently of me sitting on a motorcycle with my dad when I was maybe two years old. My children, all four of them have motorcycle licenses, and my daughter is also a motorcycle training instructor. This is my family. It was a motorcycle community that was a big supporter when my husband died. It’s my family. And I wanna keep my family safe and I want them to be happy and find the joy of motorcycling going forward.

Bernie Fette (35:35):
It is so admirable that you could channel your experience, your loss in this way, Cathy. Thank you for being brave enough to share your story. You’re an inspiration, Michael. That’s a tough act to follow.

Michael Strawn (35:48):
Absolutely, and I mean, I, I can’t do any amount of justice or service to this as much as Cathy has given to this community. And Cathy, I mean, my heart goes out to you that knows something that’s in every student you train. I know that passion and that love that you had for your husband is carried into that. And Bernie, you ask a really tough question and you know, I had to think about it. But at the end of the day, it really comes down to family. And it sounds parroting a little bit what Cathy said, but my mom rides. My dad used to ride. My cousins ride. I have a license. And you know, if I have kids that are out there on the roadway, I look at that. If something happened to my dad, to my cousin, to anybody out there that I know, even that I don’t know, that’s my own personal responsibility.

Michael Strawn (36:40):
I have to do what I can within my powers and then some to make this as safe as it can be. It should never be that someone was injured or killed because of a policy or the lack of training or whatever roadblock that they saw or they inherently believe was in their pathway to obtaining that education that could have saved their life. I don’t want that for my family. I don’t want that for anybody else’s family out there. I never want to hear a story like Cathy’s ever again. Luckily she’s turned out on something beautiful in helping other people and if I could emulate somebody here, I mean, that would be exactly what I would do is take my knowledge and my passion and my love and uh, responsibility for this program and channel that into all those things that can help protect all of our citizens here in Texas and anybody that’s on our roadways.

Bernie Fette (37:39):
We have been visiting with Cathy Brooks, a project specialist at TTI and Michael Strong, a program manager for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Cathy, Michael, thank you so much for sharing your time and your insight and your passion with us. Thank you for working to make roadway travel safer for all of us. We appreciate you.

Michael Strawn (38:03):
Thank you, Bernie.

Cathy Brooks (38:04):
Thank you, Bernie.

Bernie Fette (38:05):
Motorcycles make up only about 3 percent of all registered vehicles, but people who ride them account for almost 15 percent of all traffic deaths. The number of motorcycle fatalities has been on a steady increase in recent years up by about 20 percent over the past decade. Also on the rise is the percentage of unlicensed riders. An entry level rider safety course is required for anyone trying to get a license, but a shortage of qualified safety instructors makes it difficult for new riders to access that training. A statewide recruitment effort aims to change that with plans to find a lot more writing coaches with the passion, knowledge, and desire to help their fellow motorcyclists stay safe. Thanks for listening. Please take just a minute to give us a review, subscribe and share this episode, and please join us again next time for a conversation with Dennis Christensen, director emeritus of TTI and the founder of the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor. Thinking Transportation is a production of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a member of the Texas A&M University System. The show is edited and produced by Chris Pourteau. I’m your writer and host, Bernie Fette. Thanks again for listening. We’ll see you next time.