Motorcycle Safety and Motorcycle Education: Past Research and Survey Results

Abstract

RALPH B. WELLER is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Lumpkin College of Business, Eastern Illinois University. E. WAYNE CHANDLER is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Lumpkin College of Business, Eastern Illinois University. The principles of social marketing, in general, and the techniques of marketing research in particular, have been applied to a variety of social causes. That marketing thought should not be restricted to commercial enterprises has gained widespread acceptance [Kotler and Levy 1969; Levy and Kotler 1979]. Social issues, for example, have been the focus of numerous marketing studies [Yavas and Riecken 1985; Reid and Timmerman 1987; Sachs, Blair and Richter 1987; Varandarjan and Menon 1988]. A social issue which may be appropriately analyzed by using marketing techniques is the question of highway safety and, more specifically, the issue of safety. Since 1966, forty-seven states have enacted helmet usage laws for two reasons: (1) in hopes that the number of fatalities and/or injuries in accidents involving motorcycles would decrease; and (2) in response to the passage of the U.S. Highway Safety Act of 1966. During the same period several states have issued legislation mandating that riders (drivers) must successfully pass a safety education course prior to being licensed to operate a motorcycle. Since the passage of these laws, numerous studies have been conducted in an attempt to determine if the laws have had the desired effect, i.e., has their enactment and enforcement reduced the number of related fatalities and injuries. Unfortunately, the results of these studies have been both conflicting and inconclusive. According to Goldstein [1985; 1986; 1988a; 1988b], studies that explored these issues have suffered from the lack of accurate and detailed data or at minimum, from the failure to integrate causal models into their analysis. Nevertheless, from 1976 to 1983, thirty-one states repealed or weakened mandatory helmet laws [Status of Laws Pertaining to Motorcycle Riding 1989]. The enactment of safety legislation and the subsequent repeal of many of the laws reflect the problems that occur as society attempts to deal with complex issues such as product safety. The operation of a may be appropriately considered under the rubric of product safety. Moreover, product safety is no longer just the province of the legal scholar. Rather, marketing scholars now recognize that the issue of product safety, which includes how and under what conditions the product is used, is an important facet of the developing public policy pertaining to the practice of marketing [Adams and Browning 1986; Moss and Evans 1986]. As such, they are increasingly concerned with identifying issues that need resolution and, through the use of the tools of analysis, aid in resolving them. This study is a contribution to that growing body of knowledge. This research attempts to organize the various studies which have been conducted by stressing the themes that have been developed. Furthermore, the knowledge and attitudes of the public at large, legislators, and members of a enthusiasts club (hereafter motorcycle enthusiasts.) relative to the safety and consequent product liability issues are assessed. These data are useful to those charged with the responsibility for developing public policy, since they indicate how much education must take place and to whom it must be directed. The purpose of this assessment is to determine, in part, whether three different groups were knowledgeable about the safety issues. JPP&M, Vol. 8 (1989), 93-108