IAM Motorcycling Facts

See also: KSI Info & SRSP for an explanation of why the data in this latest report from IAM is not as recent as you may expect plus details of my local Road Safety Partnership.

IAM Motorcycling Facts…well worth a read!!

Motorcycling can be the riskiest way to travel. For every kilometre travelled, a motorcyclist is ???fty times more likely to become a casualty than a car driver.
This latest IAM study reviews and reappraises the risk. It analyses 150,000 motorcycle casualties over seven years, highlights where and when motorcyclists are most at risk and explains why they become casualties.

Bike size, road layout, junctions and bends, weather, time of day and seasons are
some of the contributory factors. But most signi???cant are the age of the rider and inexperience. Fewer than 20 per cent of motorcyclists are under 30 but they represent half of all rider casualties. As many people take the motorcycle test after they
are 30, the casualty ???gures include inexperienced riders in their 30s and 40s

Here’s the latest motorcyclists report from IAM (Nov2009):
IAM Motorcycling Facts (4.99mb PDF)
See below for the report’s contents listing and a few extracts.

‘Headline’ 26 November 2009
IAM Motorcycling Facts: no escape for fair weather riders
Most motorbike crashes happen in good conditions, says IAM

Most motorcycle crashes occur in daylight in fine weather, according to an IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists) study.

Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research, said today: “The fact that most crashes happen in good conditions may come as a surprise, but is due to the fact that many riders simply avoid riding in bad weather or in the dark. The message is clear – even if the conditions seem good for riding, accidents can still happen.”

“Sundays are the most dangerous day of the week, with 20% more accidents happening than on any other day of the week. Sundays have mostly leisure riders on the roads, who travel much longer distances than the average weekday rider.”

The research also shows that half of rider fatalities happen when the rider leaves the road and hits a roadside object, such as a crash barrier, road sign or tree.

According to the report most fatal crashes occur on bigger bikes with over 60% of bikes involved being over 500cc. Mr Greig added: “Over the years bikes have got bigger and bigger, so this may be down to there being more of them on the road.” [more]

Extracts from the November 2009 IAM Motorcyclists Facts Report:

Here’s a few extracts from the report, in isolation these statistics have some impact but you do need to read the accompanying comments for the full picture 😉 (download/view the report in PDF format)