Evaluation of California Motorcyclist Safety Program

Abstract

The California Motorcyclist Safety Program (CMSP) is a legislatively mandated, statewide program that has trained more than 100,000 motorcyclists in the 10 years since its implementation in July 1987. The program is mandatory for riders under 21 seeking a California motorcycle license. The current evaluation traces motorcycle accident trends before and after the formation of the CMSP, compares accident trends in California with those in the remainder of the United States, and analyzes the riding records of matched pairs of 2,351 trained and untrained Southern California riders. Analyses of statewide accident trends indicate that fatal motorcycle accidents have dropped 69 percent since the introduction of the CMSP, falling from 840 fatal accidents per year in 1986 to 263 in 1995. If accident trends in California had paralleled those in the rest of the United States over this period, the state would have experienced an additional 124 fatalities per year. In the case of novice riders with less than 805 km (500 mi) of prior experience, a matched-pair analysis indicates that trained riders experience fewer than half the accident rates of their untrained counterparts for at least 6 months after training. Beyond 6 months, riding experience begins to have a leveling effect on the differences between the two groups. In the case of riders with more than 805 km (500 mi) of experience prior to training or interviewing, no significant differences in accident rates were detected between the two groups, either before or after riders took the basic training course. There was no evidence that riders electing to enter a safety course voluntarily rode any more safely than their untrained counterparts before taking training.