Motorcycle Safety: A Good Answer to ‘Why Not?’
We all know those signs over the highways that alert you to problems, scheduled closures, and such. And during May, which is designated Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, those signs typically carry the message for drivers to be aware and watch out for motorcycles on the road with them.
This past May, my wife Judy asked the question, “Why do they only have that message during May? Why don’t they put that up there all year?”
I can now answer that question, and it’s actually a good answer.
Last week I attended a meeting at the Colorado Department of Transportation and one of the people there was Heather Halpape, who works in public relations with CDOT. At one point in the meeting she spoke about messages on those signs so afterward I asked her Judy’s question. Here’s what she said.
First, they do put up that message more often than just in May. They also put it up in August during the time around the Sturgis rally because there are a lot of bikes moving through the state to or from Sturgis. She said there is one other time when they use it as well, though she couldn’t remember off hand when that is.
Second, although the message is an attempt to promote safe driving, it can actually create less-safe conditions. Those signs don’t always have messages on them, but when they do, people make a point to read them. This can lead slowdowns and congestion. We saw that just this past weekend as we were coming down I-25 past the Yale exit. The sign there was alerting people to a closure at Belleview, and we hit congestion approaching that sign. After the sign, traffic sped up and the congestion cleared.
Third, people have been trained that messages are only put on the signs if the matter is important. So they make a point to read them. If there was always a message of some kind, that would just become routine and people would start to ignore the signs. And of course, that would defeat the purpose.
So there you go. Judy had a good question but Heather had a good answer that shows the people working for the state have given real thought to the matter. Kudos to CDOT.
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December 15th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
That is both interesting and informative. Good question and a very sensible answer.