This new report by the AA Motoring Trust has pinpointed 13 of Britain's high and medium-high risk roads where the contribution to risk from motorcycle accidents is greatest – and the top six are all in the North-west of England. In addition to the 13, the study has also discovered that on another 149 British roads, at least one third of the fatal and serious accidents involve bikers. In total, 856 inter-urban roads which make up the UK's primary route network were examined. Motorcyclists are 30 times more likely to be killed than car drivers, and make up one in six of all road deaths, despite covering only one per cent of all miles travelled. Of the 3,431 people killed on British roads in 2002, 609 were on motorcycles, scooters or mopeds. Many bikers fall victim to roads they have singled out because they are 'challenging' routes, as the list of 13 illustrates – all are popular with bikers, particularly at weekends. But the study - by the AA Trust-led European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP), which rates roads for the risk they represent to their users - shows that many are innocent victims of unforgiving road design, poor road maintenance, or the failure of drivers to `think bike'. Four out of 10 bikers are killed at junctions, most in collisions with cars, and previous studies have shown that in more than half those cases the car driver was at fault. Another four in 10 are killed on bends. 60 per cent of bikers die on roads outside built-up areas, mostly on larger-engined machines. The peak age group for motorcycle deaths is 30-34, but the biggest increase in deaths between 1997 and 2002 was in the 30-49 age group. (Author/publisher)
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