‘Powered Two Wheelers’ (PTWs) is the generic term for motorbikes, mopeds and other motorised two wheel vehicles. In 2006 they represented 16% of all road deaths for only 2% of the Kms driven on the road network (ETSC, PIN 2nd annual report 2008). For the same distance travelled, the risk for riders being killed in road collisions is on average 18 times the risk of car drivers (ETSC, 2009). Alarmingly, PTWs are the only type of vehicles for which the number of road deaths is not decreasing. While the number of road deaths has declined considerably in the past decade in Europe, the number of killed PTW riders rose in 13 out of 27 countries (ETSC, 2009). Understandably this is because the use of PTWs is on the rise (as they are often a mean to avoid congestion, or an environmentally friendly alternative to the passenger car) but also because of the intrinsically vulnerable nature of the users of PTWs. AIDS, the “Motorcycle Accidents In Depth Study”, is the most comprehensive in-depth data currently available for Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) accidents in Europe. The investigation was conducted during 3 years on 921 accidents from 5 countries using the OECD common research methodology. The study indicates human factors as the primary accident contributing factor in approximately 87.9% of all cases. To understand the human causal factors better, a set of human failure response codes was developed (perception failure, comprehension failure, decision failure, and reaction failure). The study identifies a perception failure on the part of another vehicle driver as the primary contributing factor for collisions (36.6% of cases), which means the inability of the other vehicle’s driver to perceive the PTW or the PTW rider. This emphasises the need for information campaigns to target all road users (ie: not only PTWs users), as is the case for example in the latest Belgian Road Safety Institute campaign called “Ne vous laissez pas surprendre par les motards” (“Don’t let bikers take you by surprise”) calling for drivers of all vehicles to look out for PTWs at all times. However it also importantly emphasises the need for PTWs users to be aware of the principles of defensive driving, which includes of course watching one’s speed. MAIDS also lists other major human factors including “Decision failure” on the part of the PTW rider (13% of all cases) and “Perception failure” on the part of the PTW rider (12% of all cases). When it comes to speed management, PTWs are a type of vehicles for which much work is needed, as many ‘traditional’ speed management measures need to be tailored to their special needs. Speed detection and measurement devices for example are not in all cases optimised for the detection of the speed of PTWs. PTWs are also typically capable to reach high speeds very quickly thanks to their capacity to accelerate faster than other vehicles, and it is of paramount importance that a difference in speed compared to the surrounding traffic is kept to a minimum. In MAIDs, a difference in speed compared to the surrounding traffic was identified as a contributing factor for PTWs in 18.0% of all cases and a contributing factor for the other vehicle in 4.8% of all cases. The following sections of this Fact Sheet put forward what can be done to foster PTWs’ safety, with a particular link to speed management. There is a range of actions that can be taken in the fields of training, enforcement, vehicle technology (including the development/deployment of ABS and ISA systems for PTWs), anti-tampering and gradual access to PTWs. (Author/publisher)
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