Despite the high fatality rate of motorcyclists, little is known about the current population of motorcyclists in the UK. There is a general feeling that the very nature of motorcycling is changing. Some have purported that, whilst riding a motorcycle used to be an alternative, cheap method of transport, nowadays it has become more of a leisure activity, with the large majority of new machines sold being of large capacity and sold to a more mature rider. This mature rider is the focus of this research. There is little research that investigates specifically the role of age in motorcycling accidents; there is less still that looks at whether taking a break from motorcycling adversely affects accident liability. Previous research on motorcycle accident severity has concentrated heavily on issues relating to head injuries and fatalities, and has predominantly emanated from the USA. Until recently, little work conducted in the motorcycling safety domain has provided multivariate examination of the determinants of accident severity. This has been addressed in the UK, in part due to the formation of the DfT Motorcycle Research Taskforce, which has been able to identify and suggest topics to be included in the government research funding strategy. This section is not an exhaustive review of motorcycling research; the reader is directed to the Elliot et al., (2003a) scoping study and to the full review for the Older Motorcyclist project (Jamson and Chorlton, 2001). (Author/publisher)
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