March 14, 2003

Motorcycle and bicycle safety

With the arrival of warmer spring weather, I'd like to draw your attention to an important topic for many of us here: motorcycle and bicycle safety. Many of your coworkers regularly commute to work on motorcycles or bicycles. A few of us hardy souls commute year-round (weather permitting), though any glance at our parking areas will tell you the ranks of two-wheelers increase substantially in the spring and summer months. Two-wheel commuting is good for the environment and helps save precious parking spaces for our colleagues in automobiles. The downside is a greatly increased risk of injury or death in the event of an accident.

Safety is paramount to any bicycle/motorcycle rider and all of us who share the roads can help contribute. The majority of accidents involving cars are caused by automobile drivers who don't see the smaller profile motor- or bicyclist. Paying attention is always in good form while driving; it could be life or death if you were to collide with a two-wheeler. The most comprehensive study of motorcycle fatalities - the Hurt report, http://www.magpie.com/nycmoto/hurt.html - found that three-fourths of motorcycle fatalities involved collision with another vehicle and that the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle right-of-way and caused the accident in two-thirds of those incidents. Many agencies have proposed that automobile training programs be supplemented with issues related to motorcycle and bicycle safety. Next time you drive home, look for a motorcyclist and bicyclist on the road. Do this on every trip, and before long, you too will be helping to prevent the single greatest cause of two-wheel-rider deaths by learning to instinctively recognize small-profile riders on our streets.

I also would like to encourage the Laboratory to hasten the sweeping of our roads of winter sand. In particular, the areas around the new badge-check stations on Pajarito Road are triply-hazardous. The combination of a tortuous pathway, nearby concrete barriers and large amounts of road sand make for a hazardous situation for both motorcyclists and bicyclists.

Let's keep the roads safe for everyone.

--Joe Martz