The weather is warming up, and with it motorcyclists are dusting off their bikes and heading out on the roads. In Motorcycle Awareness Month, Z Energy is appealing to all road users to help keep motorcyclists safe.
Gus Bezerra has been riding motorbikes since he was 16. “It’s nice to feel the wind,” he says. “It’s a stress reliever, it’s a hobby.”
He doesn’t own a car, using his bike for his work commute, errands and weekend trips, and despite the odd day getting caught in the rain, he wouldn’t want it any other way. “[Motorbiking] is so much better. It takes me 20 minutes to get pretty much anywhere.”
But despite accounting for only 4.5% of the vehicles on the road, motorcyclists account for 20% of all the deaths and serious injuries, according to data from the ACC. It’s one of the worst rates of motorcycle-related death and serious injury in the OECD.
James Whitaker, ACC injury prevention leader, doesn’t want this statistic to stop people doing what they love. While motorbike owners need to follow road rules and ride defensively, he says all of us have a responsibility to be more mindful of the motorcyclists on our roads.
That’s why ACC has partnered with a range of its community partners, like Z Energy, to promote Motorcycle Awareness Month this September. Ministry of Transport numbers show that in 90% of crashes between cars and motorbikes at urban intersections, it’s the car drivers who are at fault. But in a car vs motorcycle collision, it’s easy to take a guess at who usually comes off worse.
“Each winter, around half of the people who have motorbikes put those motorbikes away because it’s cold and the weather’s not as nice and predictable and safe,” says Whitaker. Then in September, as the weather starts looking more promising, they come out of hibernation.
“We want car drivers to be looking out for motorbike riders a lot more; triple checking at intersections to make sure that you know there isn’t a motorcyclist in the blind spot,” says Whitaker.
But it’s not just about car drivers, he says. “We want motorcycle riders to check their bikes over to make sure they’re in good condition, make sure their motorcycle gear is in good condition, and that they’re brushing up on skills before they get out there.”
South Island Z Energy retailer Jonathan Usher got involved with motorcycle safety through Z’s partnership with NZ Police, supporting joint efforts to promote road safety for Invercargill’s annual Burt Munro Challenge.
The Challenge – a four-day rally named after one of New Zealand’s most famous motorbike riders – is a glorious time for motorcyclists from all over the south to hit the open road, meet friends new and old, and gather over a shared love for bikes. “There’s just hundreds and hundreds of bikes on the road over that week,” Usher says. To support the event, the Z team partnered with Police to share road safety messages with customers in store, reminding drivers and riders to keep off their phones, slow down, and buckle up right before getting back on the road.
Since the event in February, Z have continued their efforts to promote road safety, rolling out similar activities nationwide for the Easter holiday period, Road Safety Week and King’s Birthday. They’re now throwing their support behind Motorcycle Awareness Month, with Z stations sharing messages in stores, urging car users and motorcyclists to stay alert and aware of each other on the roads.
Supporting road safety is something Z takes seriously. With the team interacting with around one million customers every week, they’re often the last people drivers speak to before getting back behind the wheel.
“All of us retailers are really committed to our communities,” says Usher. “And if we care about our communities, road safety has to be a pillar of that, because any harm on the road doesn’t just impact the person in the accident itself, but everyone around them.”
His own advice for motorcyclists and car drivers is simple: ride to the conditions. “If you’re riding a motorbike, even if you’re wearing hi-viz, people can just pull out in front of you, so you’ve got to always be aware of your surroundings.”
Road safety courses like the ones put on by ACC’s Ride Forever are a good way for motorcyclists to brush up on their skills, and are proven to keep riders safer too, says Whitaker. “Our research shows that people are about 50% less likely to be involved in a motorcycle related claim if they do a Ride Forever course.”
Even people who have been riding for years benefit from these courses. “You forget things and you might, over the years, reinforce a behaviour that’s not ideal,” says Whitaker. “If you go along to a course like this, you’ll learn new ways to think about things from other people’s perspectives and their learning and research too.”
For Gus Bezerra, the Ride Forever courses helped to correct some mistakes he’d picked up over his 16 years of riding. “I did my first course when I was 28 and the guy that was running the course said that I was riding OK, but I made a lot of silly mistakes where I wasn’t looking properly. I didn’t check my blind spots correctly,” he says. “It’s really useful to get someone looking at your riding and tell you if you’re doing dangerous stuff.”
For everyone else using the roads, checking blind spots, indicating correctly and, as Usher says, “just slowing down” can make all the difference. “Sometimes in life we’re in way too much of a rush. If we just slow down, take the time to make sure our surroundings are safe, whether in a car, truck, bus or motorbike, it’ll be better for all of us.”
And as much as Motorcycle Awareness Month is a campaign to help motorcyclists stay safe, Whitaker says it’s also a celebration of a passion for riding shared by tens of thousands of New Zealanders. “If people are doing things that they love to do, they’ll be happier, right? That makes them more productive, better to be around, and great contributing members of our community.
“We want people to keep on doing the things they love to do. We just don’t want them to get harmed.”
