London Motorcycle Safety Action Plan

The city's first blueprint is designed to directly reduce the number of collisions involving motorcyclists and scooter riders, and will involve a number of action plans

The Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) have jointly released the city’s first Motorcycle Safety Action Plan, with a key goal to reduce by 40 per cent the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on London’s roads by 2020.

The plan includes more enforcement, safety trials, new design guidance for junctions to help reduce collisions, and hard-hitting road safety campaigns to help reduce right-hand collisions and speeding.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "This plan clearly sets out our commitment to make London's roads as safe as possible for motorcyclists, many of whom play a key role in keeping businesses across our city moving.

“It’s a very wide-ranging package of measures that looks at motorcycle safety in the round, from education and awareness, to better enforcement and innovations in technology and design too.

“We've made some great strides in improving road safety in recent years and this plan gives us the toolbox we need to fine-tune our efforts and deliver an even better experience for motorcyclists in the capital."

London has a long history of initiatives to increase the safety of motorcyclists, with the number of riders killed in London halved during the last decade. However, in 2012 there were 629 motorcyclist KSIs on London's roads; which equated to 21 per cent of all KSIs in London that year.

The new plan was compiled by TfL working with representatives from the motorcycle industry and is based on detailed analysis of the risks and challenges faced by riders in London. It outlines 29 key actions which will directly target the key factors in collisions, which will help to reduce motorcyclist casualties across London. The actions include:

The TfL-funded Metropolitan Police Motorcycle Tasking Team increasing enforcement activity by 40 per cent, which will allow the team to further clamp down on dangerous behaviour such as speeding, careless riding and actions by other road users such as turning across motorcyclists at junctions. Monthly high-visibility operations will also take place across London to target motorcycle, as well as cyclists and pedestrian safety;
The Mayor and TfL will work with London’s police to make better use of offender retraining for motorcyclists as an alternative to prosecutions. They will also lobby the Department for Transport (DfT) for further safety and training elements, such as additional guidance on riding in a busy city environment;
Working with the motorcycle industry, TfL will promote the use of personal protection equipment by motorcyclists;
A new motorcycle courier and delivery code will be launched by TfL and representatives from the motorcycling industry. This would look to ensure companies provide better training and safety equipment to riders while helping companies to improve riding behaviour among their employees;
TfL will produce new design guidance for motorcyclists specifically tailored for London’s roads, building on the forthcoming design guidance by the Institute of Highway Engineers. Motorcycle safety and best practice across Europe will also be investigated to see whether any further lessons could be learnt to reduce motorcycle injuries.
To support the publication of the Motorcycle Safety Action Plan, TfL has also published a new independent report which provides, for the first time, detailed analysis of fatal motorcycle collisions in London.

This research looked at police investigation reports for all fatal collisions between 2006 and 2009 and showed that most fatal collisions during this period (45 per cent) involved a “loss of control”, with half of these being recorded as exceeding the speed limit. A further 22 per cent involved vehicles turning across the path of the motorcyclist.

London Motorcycle Safety Action Plan

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