Survey of Motorcyclists and their safety initiatives

In 2001 Australia ranked 9th best for road safety amongst 27 OECD nations, but 9th worst for motorcycle safety. Motorcycle fatalities were almost double the median for OECD nations (6.2 vs 3.6 per 10,000 registered vehicles). 1 By contrast Australia s fatality record for all road users was below the OECD median (1.4 vs 1.8).2 Despite this disparity, motorcyclists were not singled out by road safety authorities for targeted safety programs. There were a number of reasons for this apparent failure of policy but perhaps primarily, it was simply assumed that motorcyclists were adequately covered by general road safety campaigns directed at all motorists. There was a lack of research and therefore lack of understanding of the issues involved in motorcycle safety. There was also a view that it would be difficult to effectively deliver targeted information to such a relatively small but divergent group of road users.

A survey of 796 motorcyclists was conducted by the Motorcycle Council of NSW to inform the development of a road safety strategic plan for riders in NSW. The objectives of the survey were to obtain information relating to road safety and risk management by motorcyclists, and to identify effective channels of communications that could be used for the delivery of road safety information in the future.