 Enforcement to reduce risky behaviours
Enforcement can reduce risky behaviours by both riders and other road users. Police enforcement campaigns traditionally target key crash risk factors or common illegal behaviours, for example, unlicensed riding, and speeding by riders and drivers.
Enforcement targeting unlicensed riders
Many riders involved in on-road crashes are unlicensed or riding an unregistered motorcycle. In many cases, unlicensed riding is associated with an illegal blood alcohol concentration and not wearing a helmet. Calculations by the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for the years 1992 and 1994 showed that the fatality rate for “responsible motorcyclists” (sober and licensed riders) was less than half of that for all motorcyclists (5.25 versus 11.24 fatalities per 100 million km ridden). In more recent US research, in 25% of all fatal motorcycle crashes, the rider was unlicenced. A study examining motorcycle crashes in Thailand sampling primarily from the roadside after a police call out included 17% of riders in Bangkok who were unlicenced and 50% in the Upcountry (see Joint OECD/ITF Transport Research Committee — Workshop on Motorcycle Safety, 2008).
Further, official crash databases are likely to underestimate the number of unlicensed riders in non-fatal crashes because of the unwillingness of these riders to report crashes to Police where it is possible to avoid doing so. An Australian study has shown that 45% of riders under the age of 21 hospitalised following crashes coded on the hospital file as “on-road” were unlicensed or unregistered (Haworth et al., 1994). There were three times as many riders under the licensing age of 18 years on the Victorian Inpatient Minimum Dataset (VIMD) and coded as “on-road” than on the Police reported accident database.
The minimum consequence of such a percentage of riders being unlicensed means that many riders have circumvented the skill and knowledge tests that are a major component of those economies' motorcycle safety programs. Therefore, more effective enforcement of licensing and registration for motorcycles could serve as a deterrent to unsafe practices and thus have potential as a measure to reduce crashes.
Speed enforcement
Speed enforcement of both riders and car drivers has the potential to reduce both the incidence and severity of crashes involving motorcycles.
In 2006, a contributing factor to 37% of fatal motorcycle crashes was speed. Speed enforcement helps to make lower speed limits effective. Evaluations of 50 km/h urban speed limits have shown larger reductions for unprotected road users than for car occupants in Australia (RTA, 2000; Hoareau, Newstead & Cameron, 2005). While most of the analyses have focused on the improvements in pedestrian safety, these benefits are likely to extend to motorcycle riders.
There is however difficulty related to enforcement of speed limit restrictions on motorcyclists with regard to enforcement using speed cameras. The front vehicle registration plate is used in many jurisdictions as a means of identifying road users who speed and enforcing fines. However, these are not always required to be fitted on a motorcycle. Motorcyclists have argued that a metal plate on the front of their motorcycle poses a safety risk to themselves and others should they be involved in a crash. Proponents of requiring front number plates to be fitted argue motorcyclists can (and often do) ride at unsafe and illegal speeds past cameras with impunity. Therefore, the argument follows, requiring a front number plate should improve motorcycle safety.
Alternatives to front metal plates are under investigation. For example, a speeding vehicle can be is photographed from the front, which activates a second lens to photograph the rear of the vehicle. Replacing current front photographing speed cameras with dual-lens models is perhaps cheaper and politically and practically easier than fitting front number plates.
Lane splitting
A practice considered unsafe by most road users except many motorcyclists is “lane splitting”, where a motorcyclist will share a lane with another vehicle travelling in the same direction in order to pass it. The term “lane filtering” refers to the act of using the space in a lane to pass a line of vehicles halted at a set of traffic lights (or equivalent) in order to be at the front of the queue when the traffic can move off. Crashes involving a motorcycle lane filtering (or lane splitting) are not counted separately from other crashes. Rather they are generally included in a “manoeuvring” category of crashes, which also includes u-turn crashes and parking-related crashes. No published research was found specifically considering the degree of safety or danger associated with lane splitting or lane filtering.
BAC enforcement
There are a considerable number of alcohol-related motorcycle fatalities and as such many jurisdictions legislate a maximum blood alcohol content (BAC). To enforce such a maximum BAC, random breath testing (RBT) is among the most effective countermeasures. While a number of factors have contributed to the reduction in alcohol-related crashes in Australia, RBT is generally acknowledged to be the most successful countermeasure in the area (Henstridge, Homel, Mackay, 1997). A review of RBT in Queensland, Australia found that the introduction of RBTs was associated with an 18% reduction in alcohol-related driver and rider fatalities (Watson, Fraine & Mitchell, 1994).
Enforcement of other illegal behaviours by other drivers
Enforcement of illegal behaviours by all road users, including car drivers contributes to improving the safety of motorcycle riders. For example, a clear benefit to random breath testing is to reduce the number of drinking drivers who collide with riders. Additional bans and enforcement of other illegal behaviours such as the use of hand-held mobile phones and cameras to detect violations of a red light are likely to have safety benefits for motorcyclists by reducing driver distraction and preventing crashes in which drivers continue through signalised intersections and collide with motorcycles on intersecting roads.
Information sourced from A review of potential countermeasures for motorcycle and scooter safety across APEC (Full report and References [PDF, 304KB]). |
