Press Release | July 3, 2024
The recently re-established Motorcyclist Advisory Council will provide vital information and recommendations to the U.S. DOT’s NHTSA.
This is a press release from the MIC…
(July 3, 2024) — Acting MIC President and CEO Scott Schloegel is among the 13 members named to a newly re-established Motorcyclist Advisory Council, which will provide vital information and recommendations to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Areas of concern to the MAC include motorcyclist safety, construction, maintenance practices, barrier and road design, and the architecture and implementation of intelligent transportation system technologies.
“Your work representing the views of a national motorcycle manufacturing association will greatly benefit MAC and the Department’s efforts to prevent injuries and fatalities involving motorcyclists on the nation’s highways,” stated a letter to Schloegel from U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “Your experience and leadership will add valuable insights and perspectives that will help further MAC’s mission.”
“We are committed to reducing motorcycle fatalities and making our roads safer for riders, and these 13 individuals will guide us in crafting new policies and strategies to save lives,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman, speaking about the two-year appointments for: Sunshine Beer and Jay Jackson, representing motorcyclist associations; Roberta Carlson, Manjunathan Kumar, James Andrew Landini, Rita Jean Lybek, and Ray Pierce, representing state governments; Roy Fair and Chanyoung Lee, representing road safety data and engineering professionals; Kevin Marshia, representing state transportation officials; Eric Perry, representing traffic safety systems professionals; and Jason Tolleson, representing motorcycle manufacturers and distributors, along with Schloegel.
A DOT news release stated that safer people and safer roads are two of the key objectives of its National Roadway Safety Strategy, which “recognizes that motorcyclists have an equal right to the roads and that all drivers should safely share the roads with motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians, and other road users.”
“The MIC and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation held many meetings last year with NHTSA staff and urged members of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to call on the DOT to reconstitute the MAC,” Schloegel said. “I raised this issue during our meeting with Secretary Buttigieg in 2022 and reiterated the need during a meeting with NHTSA’s Shulman and Associate Administrator Nanda Srinivasan at the Governor’s Highway Safety Association meeting last fall. GRO staff also met with NHTSA’s Michelle Atwell, Chief of the Safety Countermeasures Division, and her lead motorcycle safety staff LaCheryl Jones and Aleigh Jerome, to discuss motorcycle safety coordination and the critical need for the MAC over the past couple years.”
While projections show an eighth consecutive quarterly decline in overall traffic deaths in the U.S., NHTSA estimates that motorcyclist fatalities increased 2 percent last year, up from the 6,218 in 2022.
