We have decided to inform ourselves and our peers about the dangers we face when riding a motorcycle. Besides our peers, we wanted to tell other vehicles' drivers that motorcyclists are on the roads and the importance of following safety regulations and rules to make us all safe.
The ideas
We decided to have motorbike riders as the focus of our campaign because, as commuters, we already ride smaller bikes, or we are going to ride them soon. We are going to be heavy machines' operators and mechanics and we have been taught that safety has to be our number one concern. Yet, many of our peers don’t behave safely while riding their bikes. Even without official data, we are aware that this topic is very important; reading newspapers and talking to people who have had an accident was enough to prompt us to start this campaign. We think that even one person injured in a traffic accident is too much and we would like to make our friends aware that protective equipment can save our lives, along with respecting traffic rules and regulations, of course.
We visited a local driving school where we could get all necessary information. The driving school coordinator was happy to welcome us and gave us a short lesson about road safety and showed us the protective equipment, let us take photos of the equipment and explained us in details why it is important to wear jacket, belt, gloves and hamlet. We also visited a local MOT test Centre to have more information and we learned there that motorbikes have to be tested each year and that correct functioning of any vehicle, let alone motorbikes, is crucially important for drivers'/riders’ safety.
The initiatives
We have decided to inform ourselves and our peers about the dangers we face when riding a motorcycle. Besides our peers, we wanted to tell other people who drive various vehicles that we, motorcyclists, are on the roads, and to follow safety regulations and rules to make us safe.
We did several activities:
- We designed and exhibited a billboard in the school’s hall. The main message of our billboard is “Life is priceless”. We presented the main protective equipment that riders must wear and described them. Also, we explained which part of our body is protected by each particular item of equipment and why it is important to wear them.
- We designed and handed out leaflets. The main message of our leaflets was also “Life is priceless”. We handed them out to other students and to teachers at our school; we left them on the windshields of the cars parked at the parking lots around our school and in our neighbourhood.
- We designed and exhibited posters in the local community. We all go to school together but live in different towns and villages, some of us live more than 30 kilometres away. In our local communities, there are informative spots, usually near the church or in the centre of a settlement, where local authorities or other interested parties can leave their posters or advertisements of various kinds. So we used those spots to spread our initiative.
The entire project was done by us, and we are happy that our initiative has been successful. We have learned a lot and we would like to continue this initiative at our school. We asked our school’s headmistress to let us continue this initiative next year in the form of extra curriculum activities. She has accepted our proposal, so “see you” next year with a new initiative about road safety, with another topic!
