Ride on, be safe
CHICAGO — When Ron Havens takes a road trip on his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle, he sees a lot of riders like himself — guys 60 and older who rode when they were young and are back at it now that they’re retired.
And some are not as skilled as they imagine.
“People our age think we’re really good riders and we don’t take (safety) courses,” said Havens, 73, of Springfield, Illinois. “And the bikes are bigger now than what I rode in the ’70s — bigger, faster, with more acceleration.”
National statistics on motorcycle fatalities show a curious trend: In 1975, 80 percent of motorcycle fatalities involved riders 29 years old or younger, but now the age group with the most fatalities is 50 and older, at 35 percent, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit highway safety research group funded by auto insurance companies. Ninety-one percent of those killed in 2015 were male.
The total number of motorcycle fatalities also has been rising — it accounted for 14 percent of all deaths on U.S. roads in 2016, with 5,286 fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA. This was 5 percent higher than 2015 and more than double the number from 20 years ago.
Why is the death toll growing among older people, baby boomers in particular? There are a couple of possible reasons, according to transportation and safety experts.
One reason is that they’re a big part of the population — there were 76 million U.S. residents born between 1946 and 1964, and they are going to make up a large share of deaths whether it is 1975 or 2015, said Insurance Institute spokesman Russ Rader. People who once had Steppenwolf ’s “Born to be Wild” on vinyl have more time and disposable income now, and still like to ride motorcycles.
Rader said the improved economy has meant more overall traffic on the roads, which has meant more crashes for all vehicle types.
Another factor could be that some people who stopped riding when they were in their 20s to start families started riding again in their 50s or 60s, not realizing that their skills had eroded, safety experts say.
“We have older operators getting on these huge motorcycles and not being able to handle them. They’re getting themselves killed,” said Terry Redman, manager of the Cycle Rider Safety Training Program, a unit of the Illinois Department of Transportation. In 2015, the age range with the most motorcycle fatalities in Illinois was 50-54, with 23 deaths.
Operating a two-wheeled motorcycle is generally more hazardous than operating a car, and one way to measure this is to compare actual time on the road.
The Federal Highway Administration collects information about the number of miles traveled by different vehicle types from the states.
That number can be compared with fatality numbers to see which vehicle types see the most crashes. Per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, about 25 motorcyclists die and 451 are injured, compared with less than one death and 97 injured among those riding in passenger cars, according to the NHTSA. A motorcyclist is less protected than a car driver, and minor errors can lead to bad wrecks.
Mark Barnes, 57, a Knoxville, Tennessee, clinical psychologist, motorcyclist and author of the new book “Why We Ride,” said older riders have slower reaction times, among other worries.
“They’re going to be more vulnerable to things that affect all motorcyclists, like getting overheated, getting dehydrated, blood sugar fluctuations,” said Barnes, who writes the column “Cycle Analysis” for Motorcycle Consumer News magazine. “They’re also going to be less resilient to injuries.”
Barnes said riding skills can atrophy even if you just put your motorcycle away for the winter.
Barnes said one problem he sees is that older motorcyclists who realize their skills are lower will not ride as often, which ironically makes them less safe.
“When you’re riding occasionally, you’re always rusty,” Barnes said.
Another problem is alcohol. In 2016, 25 percent of motorcycle operators killed had alcohol levels of .08 or higher, compared with 21 percent of passenger car drivers, according to the NHTSA.
Unfortunately, drinking is part of the culture of some motorcycle groups. “These group rides go from bar to bar, or from winery to winery, or whatever it is they’re doing, and then they go home,” Havens said.
What can help riders? Transportation experts recommend taking safety classes to get your skills up. Illinois is one of only two states in the nation that offer motorcycle training for free, other than a $20 refundable registration fee.
The program is paid through a portion of motorcycle license plate fees. Redman said about 18,000 people go through the program in a typical year.
Despite the risks, riding a motorcycle can be a beautiful thing, which is why people want to keep doing it, no matter their age, riders say.
“It’s exhilarating, it’s fun and kind of Zen-like — you’re focused,” said Havens, who owns four bikes. “It’s like a trance.”