About 2-BE-SAFE
Aims
Powered Two Wheeler (PTW) users are greatly over-involved in serious and fatal crashes. Between 2002 and 2005, PTW deaths as a proportion of the total number of road deaths in European countries increased from 11.3% to 13.4%.
The number of PTWs on European roads has more than doubled over the last two decades.
The recent MAIDS (Motorcycle Accident In-Depth Study) study of PTW crashes in Europe found that behavioural and ergonomic issues were major contributing factors to PTW crashes. The majority of PTW crashes involved a collision with a car. The primary accident cause for PTW crashes was the failure of car drivers to perceive two-wheelers. The behavioural and ergonomic factors contributing to accidents involving four wheeled vehicles have been studied for a long time through laboratory and simulator research, observational studies and more recently naturalistic driving studies, leading to countermeasures to reduce fatalities. There is no comparable research for powered two vehicles, and there is a lack of research tools, for example, motorcycle simulators to study motorcycle rider behaviour.
2 BE SAFE designs and implements a broad-ranging research program that produces fundamental knowledge on PTW rider behaviour and on interaction between PTW riders and other road users. The produced knowledge will be used to propose relevant countermeasures to mitigate fatalities and injuries.
Objectives
The innovative program of research targeting on the behavioural and ergonomic factors contributing to motorcycle crashes focuses on the following scientific issues:
- to analyse the crash causes and human error;
- to realise the world’s first naturalistic riding study involving instrumented PTWs;
- to examine PTW riders’ perception and acceptance of risk;
- to develop new research tools to support the research program, in-depth research on the factors that underlie driver failures to see PTWs and their riders;
- to develop recommendations for practical countermeasures for enhancing PTW rider safety.