Allstate Wants Votes for Motorcycle Safety Initiatives
Friday, October 18th, 2013
The Allstate Good Ride Grants finalists.
I was asked to put in a plug for this and I will because it seems like a good thing.
Allstate, an insurance company that would love to have your business, is holding a competition to select five motorcycle safety initiatives to receive $5,000 to help them become reality. They got nearly 300 submissions and have narrowed it down to what they consider the top 15. Now they want you and me to vote on the ones we want to see get the money.
Of course the immediate question is, what are the proposals? I went and looked.
One is called “Support Your Local Bike Mechanic.” I’m not sure where that name came from but what the guy is proposing is to have four events, one per month during prime riding season, to bring together riders and vendors, with a safety theme and presentation for each: rider safety and awareness; safety riding apparel; basic proper motorcycle maintenance; and safe group riding. The $5,000 would be split equally between the events to cover costs including music, food, etc.
You get the picture. Others include:
- A look twice, save a life billboard campaign by the parents of a young rider who died in a crash.
- Taking cars and bikes to schools and doing presentations on safety.
- Distribute small stickers with the image of a motorcyclist to paste on your car mirror to remind you to look for motorcycles.
- Another billboard campaign also including brochures and organizing safety and awareness runs.
- Conduct a test with blue roadside delineator stickers, rather than white. The guy says white looks too much like deer eyes in the dark.
- Public service announcements and rallies to bring the biker and non-biker communities together.
- Create, implement and administer a Teen and Young Adult Safe Riding Campaign.
- Produce and distribute materials for driver’s ed courses promoting motorcycle awareness.
- Pay for schwag to be handed out that reminds drivers to watch for motorcycles.
- Help to fund an extensive motorcycle safety effort.
- Create an instructional aid that identifies the sections of helmets most likely to sustain damage during a crash.
- Produce and distribute “Look twice, save a life” yard signs for bikers to put in their yards.
- Promote a game called “Count Motorcycles, The Motorcycle Awareness Game.”
- Create a website to serve as the hub for skill-building awareness and enjoyment in the motorcycling community.
There they are. You can go vote for your favorite at the link I provided above, or if that won’t get you there for some reason the indirect route is to go to Allstate’s Facebook page (http://facebook.com/allstatemotorcycle), click on the Allstate Good Ride Grant button toward the right, and then click “View Finalists” on the next screen. And, oh yeah, this voting ends at the end of October.
Biker Quote for Today
Go soothingly on the greasy mud, for therein lies the skid demon.
