Passes & Canyons Blog

Research study seeks women riders.

I announced this on Examiner but I figure I ought to go ahead and announce it here, too. Ginger Bucher, a Ph. D. candidate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (I’ve never heard of that school, have you? That’s a little odd, isn’t it?) is conducting a study on women motorcyclists, both riders and passengers, and if you are a woman, she is looking for your input.

Here’s the letter she sent me:

Currently, I am collecting data as part of a dissertation through Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I am a rider, former MSF-certified RiderCoach and Assistant Coordinator of the PA Motorcycle Safety Program. In my role as an independent motorcyclist researcher, I am focusing on women motorcyclists both passengers and riders.

The online project began in October and continues through December, 2012. You can view the details at:
www.research.womenmotorcycling.org

To date, over 530 women motorcyclists from the US and Canada have completed the questionnaire representing over 3,000 individual comments and responses to essay questions. The online community and network of motorcyclists has made the response possible. I am reaching out to UK and Australian female motorcyclists as well.

I am asking for your help to increase awareness in the motorcycling community about the study. While I have an enormous amount of data to sort through already, I am interested in gaining the most complete picture that is possible in a short time with limited resources. The project is purely academic (i.e. self-funded) with no commercial or industry sponsorship.

When ready, I plan to report the findings in a wide array of settings. Given the level of interest from national organizations, I foresee the possibility of follow-on research to further explore the rich experiences of women motorcyclists.

Thank you for taking time to read about the study. I hope you will consider some options to get the word out. I welcome your suggestions and input.
Ginger Bucher
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

So, if you feel like adding your voice to her data, or know any women who might be, go for it. And hopefully, Ginger will be back later to share her results.

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Tags: Ginger Bucher, motorcycling research

This entry was posted on Monday, November 12th, 2012 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Biker Issues, women motorcyclists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.