based on an article by the author published in Motorcycle Consumer News, April 2015

Changes in the California Motorcyclist Training Program

By David L. Hough

Effective January 1, 2015, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) is no longer administering the California Motorcycle Safety Program (CMSP). The California Highway Patrol (CHP) has awarded the contract for statewide rider training to Total Control Training, Inc. (www.totalcontroltraining.net) Total Control is run by Lee Parks--yes, the same Lee Parks who was editor of Motorcycle Consumer News from 1995 to 2000.

Riders from states other than California should not ignore this change. Rider training affects the crash and fatality numbers nationwide, and the statistics have an effect on our motorcycling, including insurance rates, restrictive laws, and enforcement. To understand what has happened in California, let’s briefly review how rider training is managed.

The MSF, funded by the major motorcycle manufacturers, provides curricula and instructor certification to state motorcycle safety programs. In addition, the MSF contracts with some states to manage their rider training programs, as it did for the CMSP. State motorcycle safety administrators appreciate the “one stop” approach, where an outside organization provides the training materials, certifies the instructors, manages the training sites, and gives the skills test needed for a motorcycle license. So, what’s wrong with that approach?

What’s wrong is that cheap, easy, quick “training” leads to an increase in motorcycle crashes. It’s not so much a case of training being inadequate, but that newbies aren’t made aware of how dangerous motorcycling can be. Further, an easy licensing process doesn’t filter out those who shouldn’t be on bikes at all. It’s a case of the fox contracting to manage the henhouse. He can’t help himself from helping himself to some tasty snacks. The motorcycle industry can’t help itself from fostering a system that attracts more riders into the sport, even if that causes “collateral damage” in the form of an increasing fatality rate.

The MSF curricula are standardized across the country, and the MSF is in full control of the content. States who want to modify the curricula to meet regional needs are not allowed to do that. It should be obvious that traffic in the Los Angeles basin is much different from that in Weed or Alturas, and certainly the riding environment is different in Maine than in Florida, but MSF contracts don’t permit anything to be altered. When a state signs over training administration to the MSF, the contract gives the MSF the upper hand. Basically, it’s “the MSF way or the highway.”

MSF president Tim Buche is proud that they “…trained more than 600,000 California motorcyclists during the course of the program contract…” Curriculum changes are not allowed, because “The MSF’s curricula are developed in compliance with the MSF’s curriculum standards, which are the only comprehensive curriculum standards available. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has coordinated a curriculum content standard for entry-level motorcycle training, which is a framework of what content a curriculum should contain...”

CHP Questions the System

Backroom staff at CHP had been quietly comparing the spin control to the facts. According to an insider, CHP had noticed that the motorcyclist fatality rate in California had been rising on the MSF’s watch, in spite of their claims. The MSF prefers to measure “success” based on numbers of students trained and licensed. That diverts attention from the results of training, such as the fatality rate. In spite of what the MSF claims, since the introduction of the Basic RiderCourse™, the fatality rate has increased substantially. According to data at www.nmcti.org, the fatality rate in California was 63% higher in 2011 than in the 1993-1997 time frame.

Second, curricula other than MSF are available. Oregon’s motorcycle safety program, “TEAM Oregon”, had split from the MSF years ago, developing their own training courses. Idaho’s training program “STAR” had adapted Team Oregon’s novice course and then further developed a tiered system of courses.

MSF’s claim that “NHTSA made us do it” rings a little hollow, considering that the curriculum content standard from NHTSA was written by an MSF staffer. In any case, the MSF refused to budge to accommodate the CMSP. On November 3, 2014, with only two months to go before the 2015 training year, MSF president Tim Buche served the CHP with a letter explaining that MSF was not going to submit a bid under the new rules. Even as he bragged that “The MSF is flexible and nimble…” Buche couldn’t help himself from warning that MSF would prohibit the use of any MSF curricula anywhere in California,

The CHP had not been napping while the MSF was posturing, thumping its chest, and threatening. With a new three-year contract to administer training in California up for bids, CHP decided to change the game. For instance, they specified that the CMSP would own the curriculum, and be able to revise it to meet different needs in different parts of the state. Bids to administer the CMSP Motorcyclist Training Course were already being advertised, with the new requirements. The three-year bid was awarded to Total Control Training, Inc.

The CMSP MTC

Fortunately Total Control had been working on a learn-to-ride course for over two years. It was a combination of The Total Control Intermediate Riding Clinic, the Second Edition of the book Total Control, range exercises from Idaho STAR’s “Basic I” novice course, and Total Control’s new classroom instruction. The result is what CMSP calls the “Motorcyclist Training Course,” which will be known as the Total Control Beginner Riding Clinic (TC BRC) in other states. To help things along, Stacey “Ax” Axmaker, Idaho STAR’s program manager, was hired for a year by Total Control to help CMSP through the transition.

Total Control quickly rounded up experts in the field. Bobby Carlson, former Pennsylvania training coordinator, and later MSF staffer, was hired as CMSP Program Manager. Tom Edgar, a recognized expert in rider training for decades, is supervising training ranges. Steven Zarbetany has responsibility for training system software.

Changes in Philosophy

Although the most obvious change in the CA program is the different curriculum, the change in philosophy is perhaps more important. The stated goal of the CMSP is now to prevent crashes and fatalities, not to rush more newbies into getting motorcycle licenses. One big change is being open and honest about the dangers of riding. Motorcycles are a small minority of passenger vehicles on the road, but we rack up a disproportionate share of fatalities. That’s not explained in the MSF’s curricula. CMSP’s new course will start with an explanation that riding a motorcycle is 27 times more dangerous than driving a car, mile-for-mile!

The changes in philosophy will require considerable readjustment in attitude. Training has been designed to attract more people into motorcycling as quickly and as economically as possible. Including the licensing test at the end of the training course makes new riders happy, because the naïve newbie typically wants a shortcut to a license, not a lecture about the grim reaper. RiderCoaches™ are happy because hardly anyone ever fails the easy novice-level skills tests, and the students treat them as heroes. State bureaucrats are happy because they can show more riders trained this year than last year. Motorcycle dealers are happy when more new riders walk in the door. The old paradigm is, “motorcycling is fun and it can be safe if you get a license and wear a helmet.”

The flip side—unhappiness--comes from the realities of the crash and fatality statistics. Smart course site operators and instructors are unhappy when they realize they have been complicit in getting people seriously maimed or killed. The knowledgeable state administrator is unhappy when fatality rates are going up, because that means the training program is not saving lives. New riders need to be able to drop out without embarrassment, and if they continue they need to be prepared for riding in traffic with skills such as situational awareness. The “new” paradigm is that “motorcycling is very dangerous, but it can be fun.”

States are gradually “getting it” that government should be in the business of protecting citizens, not increasing motorcycle sales. And more than a few state motorcycle safety programs are watching California with interest, to see if they want to risk following in that direction. If you’re interested in how your state’s rider training system is doing, the fatality data is posted at www.nmcti.org in several different forms. Look for “Data.”

What’s Next?

In my opinion, what needs to happen next is to make training a scientifically-tiered system, and for states to get back in the business of giving licensing exams--which should be tough enough to evaluate intermediate knowledge and skills, not just beginner stuff.

“Tiered” training means a newbie should go through different levels (tiers) of learning, to better comprehend what’s happening and have time to absorb the lessons. One key to reducing fatalities is to give newbies more introductory information about motorcycling up front, before they commit to a full course. That helps filter out those people who are temporarily smitten by the thrill of riding a bike but aren’t really committed to becoming serious motorcyclists.

The Motorcycle Institute (nmcti.org) has promoted a tiered system for many years, starting off with an introduction to motorcycling called “Begin2Ride.” Begin2Ride can give newbies a heads-up about motorcycling, explaining the danger and the effort involved in getting proficient, and offering a graceful way to opt out before getting too involved. The Idaho STAR program has a nicely tiered sequence of courses, starting with a three-hour “Introduction to Riding.” www.idahostar.org/courses

Now that industry pressure on the CMSP has been reduced, it is possible for a training site or an individual instructor to offer an introductory course such as Begin2Ride as a filter for “wanna-be” riders. If the Begin2Ride course becomes more common in California, it will present a unique opportunity to measure the results scientifically. Will the crash/fatality statistics support the advantage of an “introduction to motorcycling” class prior to the MTC, or not?

Whatever the scientific conclusions, it’s a very interesting time in rider training. Total Control is working night and day to get California’s (approximately 600) instructors up to speed, and practice ranges painted down. Training of MTC students began January 16, 2015. By April of 2015, virtually all of the approximately 130 CMSP training sites were fully operational.