EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

With 28% of the global fatalities being riders or passengers on motorcycles, road safety for motorcyclists is an important issue. Motorcycles are used for different purposes, from commuting to leisure and in different environments.

This means that there is a large variety of motorcycles and motorcyclists, but the needs for road safety and the challenges they are confronted with are the same.

Motorcycle organisations feel that the existing road safety programs like Vision Zero, Sustainable Roads and Safe System do not fully consider the specific situation and needs of motorcyclists. Especially when it comes to the road infrastructure this means that there is not enough attention for problems with the road surface friction and road infrastructure furniture.

Road surfaces can be slippery or in bad condition with potholes. Roadsides often have obstacles that are too close to the lane or that are not shielded. Road infrastructure furniture are often obstacles on the roadsides or barriers that are unsafe for motorcyclists or installed in an unsafe manner, suited, and tested for those who travel in cars.

Solutions for these situations are available, evaluated and described. In several countries, governments, road safety organisations, researchers and motorcycle experts have cooperated to draft road safety and infrastructure guidelines. Motorcycle safety is also part of the iRAP safety Star Rating assessment methodology.

Nevertheless, more action is needed in harmonizing of standards, researching the causes of motorcycle crashes, the consequences of crashing into barriers and other obstacles as well as planning, building, and maintaining roads with vulnerable road users on motorcycles in mind.

The motorcycle community can help to pinpoint the bottlenecks and offer solutions. This paper is the outcome of a working group assembled by SMC, which included motorcycle and road safety experts from several continents. The paper collates the available information about road infrastructure in relation to motorcycle safety, identifies the key obstacles to achieving safer roads for motorcyclists, and proposes solutions and recommendations for road authorities.

THIS PAPER OFFERS THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Governments and road authorities must include motorcyclists as a road user group when planning, building, and maintaining road. Thus, motorcyclists need to be included in national laws and regulations.
2. Update the Safe System with the inclusion of motorcyclists together with other vulnerable road users.
3. Road authorities need to be using road risk assessment methodologies which consider motorcyclist safety, such as iRAP Star Ratings or similar.
4. Specifications and standards for barriers and other motorcycle protection systems need to be developed and updated to extend the usage for a safer road environment.
5. Data collection for motorcyclists’ needs to be improved and coordinated (road surface friction condition, effect of road restraint systems on motorcyclists’ safety, safe road design, general effect of road infrastructure furniture on motorcyclists’ safety (obstacles, visibility), effects of roadworks on motorcyclists’ safety, etcetera).
6. Existing knowledge about safety measures which has proven to minimize injury risk for motorcyclists needs to be highlighted and spread as good examples to governments and road authorities.
7. There are still motorcycle safety treatments and approaches that need to be developed or where there is a need of more research, for example computer simulation with barrier crashes.
8. The socio-economic cost for injuries and fatalities should be included when roads are planned and built as well as the Life Cycle Cost of different roadside measures, like choice of barrier, distance to obstacles, width of paved shoulder or forgiving roadsides.
9. The measure method for friction, which is based on cars, needs to be developed to meet the needs of single-track vehicles with two wheels that uses the entire road.
10. There is a need for policies at national and regional levels, e.g., that all new barriers are safe for motorcycles, that checklists are used to include the needs of motorcyclists when planning, constructing, and maintaining roads.
11. Audits, warnings, and alerts are important measures to reduce the risk of crashes.
12. More resources are made available to road engineers and designers which include best practice for motorcycle safety and/or update the Road Safety Toolkit with solutions presented in this document.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2. MOTORCYCLE SAFETY IN FIGURES
CHAPTER 3. GLOBAL, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL GUIDELINES ON MOTORCYCLE SAFETY
CHAPTER 4. WHERE DO MOST INCIDENTS AND CRASHES OCCUR?
CHAPTER 5. ADDRESSING MOTORCYCLE SAFETY
CHAPTER 6. ROAD SURFACE FRICTION
CHAPTER 7. THE NEED FOR ROADSIDE SAFETY ZONES
CHAPTER 8. BARRIERS AND MOTORCYCLISTS
CHAPTER 9. GUIDANCE BEFORE CURVES
CHAPTER 10. RECOMMENDATIONS
APPENDIXES
REFERENCES
TERMINOLOGY AND ACRONYMS
WORKING GROUP INFORMATION

Download the report as a pdf file.