The Blog

Liz Luce, Director, Department of Licensing

05/06/09

The month of May is typically one of the deadliest months for motorcyclists because many riders hit the road again after taking a long break during the winter. In an effort to make May safer for motorcycle riders and to acknowledge the start of the riding season, Governor Gregoire has proclaimed this month Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month.

If you are a rider, please remember to ride with extra caution until your skills are sharp again. Last year, a record-setting 20,000 riders took a motorcycle rider training course. There are now more than 300,000 properly endorsed riders in our state. It’s encouraging to see more and more riders doing their part to keep themselves safe.

If you aren’t a rider, please help out by making sure to increase your awareness of motorcycle riders as the nice weather lures more and more of them back on the road. A motorcycle can easily be hidden in a vehicle’s blind spots, and it’s easy for a driver to misjudge how fast a motorcycle is traveling. When you see a motorcycle on the road, please give it some extra space.

To help raise awareness of motorcycle training and endorsement skill requirements, my agency created a four-part educational video series you can see on YouTube. This is an exciting way for us to explain the skills test and show motorcyclists how training skills translate into riding on the open road. You can see the videos on DOL’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/walicensing.

For more information on motorcycle training and endorsements in general, please visit www.endorseyoursport.com.