Users of motorised two-wheeled vehicles are, along with pedestrians and cyclists, the most vulnerable category of road users in an injury accident. In France, contrary to pedestrians, they have not derived any great benefit from recent improvements in safety. Furthermore, accidents involving two-wheelers, particularly significant in France, concern specific socio-demographic categories. The aim of this paper is to present the current state of knowledge on the risk of motorised two-wheelers in FRANCE. In order to assess this risk, a comparison has been made between mobility data (vehicle fleets, driving licences, results of surveys and namely results of a recent survey on two-wheeler use) and data on accidents (national statistics, complemented by multidimensional analyses of the INRETS file of police reports on accidents). A strong decline in the use of two-wheelers over the past ten years has been observed. This is due essentially to a decrease in moped use (without licence). The population groups representing the highest risk differ according to the category of two-wheeler concerned: teenagers for mopeds and young adults for motorcycles. The characteristics of the accident also differ according to the category: the motorcyclist is often the only person involved in the accident, whereas other motor vehicles are frequently involved in moped accidents (namely in manoeuvres at intersections).
Abstract