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Chapter Four Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions

4.1 Most riders in this study said they were aware of, or willing to believe, objective estimates of motorcycling risk. Furthermore, they were willing to accept these levels of risk and few would consider giving up motorcycling because of them. It does not appear that, as a group, motorcyclists base their behaviour on grossly under-estimating the risks of motorcycling as an activity.

• Three rider groups, identified on the basis of responses to a series of questions about the relative risk of motorcycling and car driving, give some insight into patterns of perception, and possible remedial actions:
• "Risk Deniers" might be susceptible to improved information on the real risks of motorcycling, provided it is presented in a convincing way - though educational measures designed to show that they themselves are not immune from this risk would also be needed.
• "Optimistic Accepters" might be influenced by educational ( e.g. media) campaigns designed to bring home to them the true impact of motorcycle accidents on victims and their families. Measures designed to improve awareness of personal limitations and to reduce the belief that skill provides immunity from risk should also be useful. However, this group has a pattern of riding motives that also needs to be considered. One way to do this is by emphasising the link between such motives/goals and safety, so that riders are more able to take these into account. Another might be to find ways of promoting other riding goals that would reduce risk (see Sexton et al (2004b)). It may also be the case that, for some riders at least, it is unrealistic to expect educational and training measures to be very effective in reducing risk; and that, if the government wishes to reduce their risk substantially, attention will also need to be given to engineering and enforcement-based measures.
• "Realistic Accepters" may be the group most susceptible to educational and training interventions. Their self-assessment of their own risk is two-to-three times higher than the self-assessed risk of the other groups, they worry more about the risks than the other groups, and they are more aware that their own skills do not protect them from this risk.

4.2 It is probably not feasible or even desirable, to target each group with a different safety intervention. However, identifying the groups does give an indication of the types of content that need to be considered, and their potential effectiveness.

Suggestions for road safety campaigns

4.3 Following the above discussion, a campaign based on using 'risk' as the lever of influence would thus consider the following:

• Present convincing information on the objective risk of motorcycling, while recognising that many riders will not need convincing.
• Show that riders tend to be unrealistically optimistic about whether or not these risks apply to them personally, and about the extent to which their skills protect them from the risks.
• Demonstrate the true impact of motorcycle accidents on victims and their families.

4.4 However, the surveys demonstrated that riders in the samples did not, in general, seem to grossly under-estimate the risk of motorcycling. It was also apparent that most riders in the surveys were dedicated to riding and would not consider giving it up because of the risk. It must be recognised, therefore, that measures like the above, focussing on giving riders a better appreciation of the risks they run, may well not be very effective in reducing motorcycle accidents. Therefore, a potential strategy should also consider the following:

• Promotion of 'safe' goals for motorcycling - for example, smoothness and safety rather than speed and 'progress'. In effect, this would recognise the importance of riding for pleasure as a goal, but seek to encourage people to obtain this pleasure from other facets of riding.
• Making available and promoting training and educational measures to improve riders' safe-riding skills but ensure that they also promote safe goals rather than unsafe ones, give attention to the influence of attitudes and goals on riding behaviour, and improve people's self evaluation skills and their awareness of risk-increasing factors.
• Encouraging being a smoother rider, a rider with good perception & planning skills
• Suggesting the goal of completing all rides with no 'surprises' and making the point that 'being a good rider is not enough' or, rather, redefining what is seen as a good rider.
• Creating an attitude that riding is a continuous learning process and improvement activity, from 'cradle to grave', thus encouraging the view that, by continuing to learn, riding will become better and more enjoyable.
• Developing an increased skill level without a corresponding increase in risk - possibly by using highly-respected expert riders to promote safe riding, so that riders aspire to ride as well as these experts, rather than trying to emulate 'racing riders' on the road
• Encouragement of more pre and post-test training, (a view which is endorsed by motorcycle training organisations). An equivalent of the Pass Plus scheme for bikers could be considered, as could an extended BikeSafe scheme, an NVQ qualification or training via IAM or RoSPA. In any training, attention needs to be given, as discussed above, to ensuring that safe, rather than unsafe, goals are promoted, and that attention is given to the influence of attitudes and goals on riding behaviour, and to improving people's self evaluation skills and their awareness of risk-increasing factors.

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