Motorcycle Awareness Month 2024
September is Motorcycle Awareness Month (MAM). Find out what it's about and how you can be part of it.
About MAM
Motorcycle Awareness Month (MAM) was launched when some of the riders at Ride Forever were looking at the crash statistics from 2017. Many of us hurt ourselves when we ride our bike for the first time, after a long winter break.
Every year from September, we see a spike on the graphs, motorcycle crashes, injuries, ACC claims, and fatalities – they all take off. Part of it can be explained just by the numbers. The volume of bikes on the road suddenly doubles, so for drivers it must seem like we’re coming from every direction.
What can we do about this? Create awareness. Awareness among riders about risks, awareness of how best to prepare for a ride and, making other road users aware that the number of bikes on the roads increases from September.
Motorcycle Awareness Month aims to emphasise the bonds we share as riders. It’s about looking out for each other, on the road and off the road – it's about standing together to celebrate our shared passion, whilst having safety at the forefront.
Who is behind MAM?
Motorcycle Awareness Month is promoted by ACC, the Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council (MSAC), NZ Police, local councils, and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi. We all share the common interest and drive to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities among our bike-loving brethren. What's great is that along the journey, we have gathered the support of gear retailers, dealerships, and bike clubs.
What we’ve always wanted, though, is for riders themselves to really take up the baton. Because when loads of us help to spread the awareness message it’s ten times as effective. And why wouldn’t we want to? It’s about helping each other shake off the rust if we’ve been riding less (or not at all) over winter, getting ourselves and our bikes in proper shape for the riding season while making drivers more alert to our presence on the road.
How can you be part of MAM?
- Wear some yellow when you ride, or even something under your riding gear so people can see it when you stop for a coffee. Bright yellow has always been associated with MAM. The added bonus is that it is an excellent way of increasing your visibility to other road users. Don’t have anything yellow to wear? Add some yellow tape to your bike.
- Download the Motorcycle Awareness marketing pack, which includes printable posters, social media assets, Zoom meeting backgrounds, and more. The more we are visible off the road, the more visible we will be on the road.
- Attend an event or initiative in your area.
- Follow Ride Forever on Facebook or Instagram and watch out for competitions throughout September.
Promote MAM in your community
There are other ways you can support Motorcycle Awareness Month and help spread the word.
Download our marketing pack to help promote MAM in your community. There are posters you can print and images for social media.
Why motorcycle awareness is important
Motorbikes make up 4.5% of the vehicles on the road (and cover even fewer of the kilometres travelled) yet we account for 20% of all the deaths and serious injuries.
On average just over 50 riders and pillions are involved in fatal crashes each year.
Get $200 of your motorcycle rego
The Motorcycle Rego Cashback programme offers experienced riders, who are eligible, $200 Cashback on their motorcycle rego.
Asking drivers to 'look again'
During Motorcycle Awareness Month, we run a series of ‘look again’ radio and digital advertisements. This is one of the ways the Motorcycle Safety Levy gets used to help improve our safety.
This advertising campaign is aimed at other road users, reminding them that motorcycles are hard to spot and to simply look again.
