Texas Drivers and Riders Must "Share the Road" to Increase Safety
As the weather warms up, so do the number of motorcycles on our roadways. Rising gas prices are also adding to the number of bikes on the roads and travel experts predict that this trend will continue to increase. Unfortunately, as the number of motorcyclists rise, so will the number of motorcycle accidents.
The slogan "Start Seeing Motorcycles" is well known and gets to the heart of the issue. In many cases, vehicles fail to see motorcycles on the roads and inadvertently cut motorcycles off or swerve into them. This causes accidents and severe injuries simply because cyclists lack the same outer protection as vehicles. In many cases, motorcycle accidents prove fatal. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 14 percent of all fatal accidents involve motorcycles. This number is high when you consider that only 1 percent of the vehicles on our roads are motorcycles.
In an effort to increase traffic safety and reduce the number of motorcycle accidents, the Texas Department of Transportation is commencing a new "Share the Road" campaign. The campaign is intended to get drivers to pay more attention to motorcyclists on the roadways. "Seeing them is saving them," is the new slogan. Due to the number of distractions in vehicles today combined with more and more cyclists on the roads, Texas is encouraging drivers to really pay attention.
The statewide program will be initially launched in Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley.