NYCS Interview: The Gear Up! project

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Posted by: Paul

9 September 2009 1,079 views No Comment

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The venn diagrams above, are just a small but insightful part of the phenomenal Gear Up! project survey results, which are a must read for every scooterist, NYC based or otherwise. The project was developed to draw scooterists’ (and motorcyclists’) attention to the importance of wearing the right safety gear out on the road and to stop making excuses not to gear up.

The Gear Up! project was started by web programmer and scooterist, Katherine C. Rhodes. NYC Scootering had an opportunity to sit down with Katherine to learn more about the project:

NYCS: What was the impetus behind starting the project?

Gear Up! was born out of the frustration of seeing so many motorcycle and scooter riders going down the road wearing little to no protection, when it is so trivially simple to protect yourself. I see these people go by and think if they fall, and many of them eventually will, they’re going to be scarred for life, or worse, dead, because they made some silly excuse not to put on the proper gear. I say “silly” because in almost all cases the excuse is something that simply doesn’t hold up to examination, like “it’s too hot” (it isn’t if you choose the right gear) or “I’m just going down the road a short way” (most of the accidents happen very close to home) or “It takes too long” (as if a lifetime of scars is somehow better than 1 minute putting on gear).

NYCS: Do you think scooterists are fully aware of the choices they’re making by not gearing up?

As I’ve gotten more into this project I’ve realized that it’s not all silly excuses. In many cases people simply don’t know that they’re making bad choices, or they haven’t thought about a particular aspect of it. A lot of people on the survey suggested that they wear extra heavy-duty jeans, honestly believing that this would actually protect them in some notable way, when the reality is that all they’ve done is bought themselves a few microseconds of abrasion resistance. And, a lot of people don’t think about their feet at all. If you have a lowside it’s not at all uncommon to get a foot trapped under your bike or scooter and then you’ve got hundreds of pounds of weight pushing your foot into the asphalt meat-grinder at 30+ miles per hour.

NYCS: Then, what IS going to influence people to gear up properly?

One day I realized that the biggest problem we face in getting people to wear good gear is the public perception of what’s cool, and normal to wear when riding. If everyone around you is wearing little to no gear then you will too. If we could just make it so that wearing gear was just “what you do”, like putting on a seat belt, or, even better, something people thought of as cool looking then we’d we’d get the most important stuff covered.

NYCS: Is that how the stickers came about?

I thought that stickers would be a good form of peer pressure; an easy, and non-obnoxious way to spread the idea that wearing gear is something that people around you are doing and is something you should think about. I pondered how much stickers cost to make, and it turns out it’s pretty cheap, so I made some up, and started spreading the word.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t considered how much the postage would end up costing, but the initial onslaught of requests has dropped to a much more manageable simmer, but each free mailing still costs me about eighty cents, which is why I ask people to pay for them when they can. But, I keep offering the stickers because I know that in the process of doing so I get people to stop and think about the gear they’re wearing. And some of them do make a change. Sooner or later one of those people will get in an accident, and the extra gear that they’ve started wearing is going to save them from needing skin grafts, or possibly even keep them from dying. And that is why I keep doing it.

NYCS: As your survey results show, scooterists are not taking gearing up as seriously as motorcyclists…

I think we’ve really got our work cut out for us with scooter riders. I’m a huge fan of scooters, and I think they’re probably the best way to get around any large city, but people think that because they don’t go fast they don’t have to worry about accidents as much.

They don’t realize that 75% of accidents happen under 31 MPH. So, all those horrible things that people have heard of happening to motorcyclists? The vast majority of them happened at speeds that even a 50cc scooter can reach. Combine that with the belief that people are somehow safer when riding short distances, and the fact that the non-scootering public does tend to scoff at the idea of the typical scooterist in full gear and we’ve got a really difficult challenge ahead of us.

On top of those problems we’ve got the fact that it’s become the style to just wear half-helmets even though nearly 35% of head impact occurs along the jawline and that most scooters that do have under-seat storage can only fit a half or three-quarter helmet. So, the vehicles we ride, and the manufacturers of those, are both actively encouraging people to wear bad head protection on top of everything else. I include the manufacturers because you never see a scooter ad with the rider wearing a full-face helmet, and companies like Vespa that do sell helmets too only sell stylish half and three-quarter helmets.

There’s no doubt that putting on full gear for a short trip down the road is annoying. But going out on the road is an inherently dangerous act, and doing so without a safety cage around you is even more so. People need to ask themselves if they’d rather have scars or serious injuries that will haunt them for the rest of their life, or spend one minute putting on good gear.

NYCS: As you say, there’s also an attitude from pedestrians, other riders and drivers about scooterists looking “over-dressed” if they are wearing adequate gear. I know I get strange glances when I’m passed on the road in a textile motorcycle jacket, gloves, boots and full-faced helmet in NYC.

Because of the public’s false perception that wearing full gear isn’t as important on a scooter, doing so does take a little more self-confidence. But, if someone makes a derisive comment or joke about wearing too much gear for a scooter, ask them if hitting a car or sliding on asphalt at thirty miles an hour hurts any less on a scooter than a motorcycle. Suggest that, “for some crazy reason”, you like your skin attached to your body. If they joke about wearing a full-face helmet you can ponder for a moment and then say “hmm, I dunno. I kinda like being able to chew.”

NYCS: And I particularly worry about female scooterists I pass in NYC who have bought into the Audrey Hepburn image of scootering, believing it’s a somewhat fashionable way to get about town…

Right now I think that the best hope for getting scooterists into proper gear is going to be the upcoming line from scooterGirls. They’ve been working really hard to make gear that is really stylish but has serious protection under the covers, and I think that focusing on making gear really fashionable is the key to getting female scooterists to wear better gear. I think there’s plenty of cool looking “motorcycle” gear that the guys will be happy to wear. With them, we just need to convince them of the importance of doing so.

In the end it boils down to the belief that the more people we can get thinking, and talking, about their gear by brandishing our stickers, and sending them to the site, the more people will ultimately be saved from serious injury or even death. Mostly though, it’s about getting people to talk. The stickers aren’t just a statement that you think wearing gear is a good idea, they’re a starting point for conversations, and talking about it with our friends is probably the most important, and simplest, thing we can do with regards to riding our motorcycles and scooters.

NYCS: Thanks Kate.

You can learn more about the Gear Up! project at the official website. At the site, please take a moment to complete the survey which ultimate leads to more accurate results. Finally of course, you can request a sticker to spread the word.