Chapter One Introduction
Background
1.1 Road safety targets for the period to 2010 together with a strategy for achieving them were published jointly by the Scottish Executive, the UK Government and the National Assembly for Wales in March 2000 ('Tomorrow's Roads - Safer for Everyone'). The targets are to achieve a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured; a 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured and a 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate on the 1994-1998 baseline average ( DETR, 2000).
1.2 In general, progress towards these targets in Scotland has been excellent; however, motorcyclists are one group of road users where casualties have increased over the 1994-1998 average. In 2004, there were 986 motorcyclist casualties on Scottish roads of which 389 were either killed or seriously injured (Scottish Executive, 2006).
1.3 Increasing numbers of people are using motorcycles for travel and recreation. Per mile travelled, motorcyclists are 25 times more at risk of being killed in a road traffic accident than car users and 5 times more likely to be killed than cyclists (DfT, 2005, p27).
1.4 The risk of a motorcyclist being involved in an accident depends on factors such as the rider's age, sex, experience, type of road, characteristics of the motorcycle and exposure. The assessment of risk is complicated by interactions between these and other factors (Sexton et al, 2004).
1.5 Recent research into motorcycle accidents in Scotland confirmed that the number of motorcycle accidents in Scotland has increased in recent years (Sexton et al, 2004a). The rate of increase in motorcycle casualties from 1996 to 2002 approached 9% per year for killed and serious casualties ( KSI) and just over 6% per year for all casualties.
1.6 Sexton et al (2004a) also found that the majority of fatal and serious casualties occurred on non built-up roads. Non built-up roads are faster roads and a motorcycle accident is more likely to result in a fatal or serious rider casualty. There has been a higher growth in non built-up road KSI casualties than in built-up road KSI casualties. In 2002, the percentage growth over the 1994 to 1998 baseline for built-up and for non built-up road KSI casualties was 24% and 32% respectively. However there has been a drop in Scottish motorcycle KSI casualties from 2002 to 2003, and a further drop in 2004, such that in 2004 KSIs were for built-up and non build-up roads respectively 2% below and 18% above the baseline figures ( SE, 2006).
1.7 Sexton et al (2004a) also examined a sample of fatal and serious accidents and found that accidents on built-up roads tended to be the fault of the motorist rather than the motorcyclist. A significant number of these accidents were caused by cars turning right or doing a 'u' turn in front of the motorcyclist. However, motorcyclists were also at fault on some built-up road accidents because riders lost control due to excessive speed, slippery roads, inexperience etc. Accidents on non built-up roads were found to be mostly the fault of the motorcyclist and were often due to 'loss of control'. Over two-thirds of the accidents on non-built-up roads involved larger engined 'sports' bikes ( i.e. over 500cc).
1.8 Sexton et al (2004a) suggested that it would be valuable to conduct some further research into the risk acceptance of motorcyclists. They argued that it would be helpful to road safety campaigns if an understanding of the perceived risks and why motorcyclists accept such risks could be determined.
1.9 In research for the DfT, Sexton et al (2004b) stated that
"Given the very striking facts about the risks faced by motorcyclists, it would seem desirable to make sure that riders are actually aware of these risks. This might encourage riders to modify their riding behaviour or to take up further training. Ways of communicating the risks of motorcycling should be explored and riders' current understanding of these risks assessed."
1.10 In order to obtain further understanding of risk assessment and attitudes towards risk amongst different groups of motorcyclists in Scotland a new study has been conducted and is the subject of this report.
Project objectives
1.11 The specific objectives of the project were:
- To study variations in attitudes to risk taking and understanding of risks across different social and demographic groupings of motorcyclists
- To study the extent to which attitudes influence behaviour
- To investigate variations between statistical risk assessments and motorcyclists' assessment of risk
- To identify those motorcyclists whose attitudes towards risk place them at risk
- To provide recommendations on how future road safety campaigns could be better targeted towards high risk groups
1.12 These objectives address the concern that KSI accidents in Scotland involving motorcyclists constitute nearly 13% of all KSI accidents (in 2004), and that per mile travelled motorcyclists are estimated to have 25 times higher risk than car users of being killed in an accident (DfT, 2005).
Report structure
1.13 The remainder of this report consists of an overview of the methodology in Chapter 2, a summary of the main results in Chapter 3 and conclusions and recommendations in Chapter 4. Details of the methodology are given in Annex A, some more detailed data analyses in Annex B, copies of the interview and self-completion questionnaires in Annexes C and D respectively and, finally, copies of the pictures used in the interviews are given in Annex E.