Safer Motorcycling

Every year thousands of people are killed or seriously injured on our roads. Motor cyclists suffer disproportionately. They represent less than 1% of road traffic, but account for almost 26% of deaths and serious injuries on Staffordshires roads; they are 45 times more likely to be killed than a car driver.

Ride it Right

Road traffic incident statistics amongst motorcyclists have been analysed to enable the Road Safety & Sustainable Travel Unit to provide a strategy to reduce the number of casualties. The results have highlighted a number of routes in Staffordshire that have seen a high number of deaths or injuries to motorcyclists. Staffordshire Road Safety has launched the 'Ride it Right' campaign, targeted at all road users to highlight the stretches of road where motorcyclists are most vulnerable, based on recent data.

Beware! Bikers

Motorcyclists are more vulnerable than drivers and cannot avoid hazards as quickly, especially in wet or greasy conditions. An accident might not hurt a Car Driver, but you can kill or seriously injure a motorcyclist. So what can Car Drivers do?

Diesel Spillages can be a major hazard to motorcyclists, as it can be to all vehicles on the road. The Road Safety & Sustainable Travel Unit will be launcing a campaign this year to raise awareness of the problem and the potential consequences to motorcyclists.

We want to encourage the reporting of spillages on the Clarence hotline (0800 232323), so that remedial action can be taken as soon as possible. You can also report spillages to Clarence online.

Improve your skills

Motorcycling is a skill for life and skills need to be developed. If you haven't been on the bike for a while think about taking some refresher training. Learn from your experiences to improve your skills and enjoyment of motorcycling.

Does this Sound Familiar?

I'm a good rider - it's the other road users who cause the problem.
I often find that corners suddenly tighten upon me.
I sometimes find I only just get away with overtaking manouvrers.
When I ride with my mates, I seem to have to thrash my bike to keep up, although they're not going any quicker than I usually do.
People are always pulling out on me, forcing me to take avoiding action.
As soon as it rains all my confidence disappears.

They're all common complaints, and it's easy to blame most of them on outside influences. In fact they are mostly problems that can be solved with a different approach.

For example, corners don't suddenly tighten up, it may be that you didn't pick up the clues early enough to assess the bend. Similarly, when people pull out in front of you it's often not because they haven't seen you, but because you were going faster than they expected; the average car driver has no conception of the modern bike.

Putting the emphasis on yourself to avoid trouble rather than others to avoid you is the first step towards getting more out of your bike and keepingb the shiny side up. The second is to improve your riding skills.

So you need to learn.........
and there three ways to get the skills you need.

1. You can learn from your mistakes
2. You can learn from your mates
3. You can learn from an expert, someone who spends all day every day in the saddle.

Staffordshire County Council's Road Safety & Sustainable Travel Unit is actively involved in education, training and publicity. As part of our commitment to reducing motorcycle casualties we are promoting rider development through the BikeSense' Rider Development Scheme, which offers all full licence holders the opportunity to attend a full days training with advanced motorcycle trainers for a cost of only £30.

Additionally, motorcyclists have the opportunity to receive a £25 subsidy on the IAM's RideCheck motorcycling programme. The subsidy is provided following completion of the assessment.

Staffordshire Police run an annual programme of rider assessment through their Bikesafe scheme. They seek to engage motorcyclists in a conflict free environment, aimed at increasing their awareness and creating a desire to learn about safer riding.

Please contact the dealers to book ride outs. For more information on Bikesafe contact Duncan Stephenson or Geoff Martin on 01785 232778, or e-mail on:
staffordshire.police@bikesafe.co.uk

Further organisations who can help with training are:

Institute of Advanced Motorists
RoSPA

Staffordshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external links.

Equipment

If it does all go wrong proper motorcycle clothing and a correctly fitted helmet gives the rider the best chance of the least injury. Although recent studies show that over 90% of motorcyclists involved in an accident wore helmets, 9.1% of these helmets came off at some time during the accident, due to improper fastening or helmet damage.

The same study found that appropriate clothing reduced, but not completely eliminated injuries to the upper and lower extremeties. So it essential to wear the correct protective clothing and equipment.

Mini-Motos

There has been a lot of controversy regarding mini-moto bikes. So check out if you're doing the right thing by looking at our mini-moto section.

Back Seat Riders

If you carry Pillion Passengers, do they think you are a good rider? Or do they think the worst and suffer in silence? Do you know your what your legal responsibilities are? What makes a good passenger-carrying rider?

Last Modified: 21/05/2008 13:44:10
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