Particularly on account of their vulnerability, two-wheelers run a relatively high risk of being involved in a road accident. Within the context of SWOV research concerning Vehicle Safety, the 'Safety of two-wheelers' project has therefore been defined. This report gives an account of the first phase of this project. The data is analysed simultaneously for the three two-wheeler groups: cyclists, moped riders and motorcyclists. Available accident data from recent years is used to get detailed information about the scope and severity of the lack of safety of two-wheelers. Emphasis is placed on analysis of accident manoeuvres, and accident mechanisms. Some older data is used to detect changes over the years. Apart from the usual criteria to assess priority (extent of the problem, casualty risk, and injury severity), other criteria, such as relevancy for policy makers, feasibility of in-depth research, and probability of discovering new measures, are applied to decide which two-wheeler group, or which problem area should be selected for the next phases of the project. It appears that each of the three two-wheeler groups has high scores on different criteria: cyclists are by far the greatest group of casualties; moped riders have by far the highest casualty risk; and motorcyclists have by far the highest injury severity. Of all two-sided two-wheeler accidents, a major part involves confrontation with (the front of) cars. It was concluded to further focus the project on the confrontation of bicyclists with car fronts.
Samenvatting