Also in this section

• Road Traffic Injury
• China Seatbelt Intervention
• Development, Implementation & Evaluation of an Intervention to Increase the Use of Seatbelts in Abu-Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Driver Distraction and Road Crashes
• The GEAR Study
• Heavy Vehicle Study
• Mobile Phone Use and Road Crashes
• Motorcycle Crashes in Sydney, Australia
• Motorcycle Helmet Use and Risk Factors for Helmet Non-use Among Motorcyclists in China
• Motorcycle Helmet Use in Vietnam: Prevalence, Barriers to Use and Policy Implications
• Novice Rider Survey
• Passenger Carriage and Road Crashes
• Policy Pathways: a stakeholder analysis of the Australian road safety research-to-policy process
• Systematic Reviews of Interventions in Motorcycle Safety
• Young Driver Cohort Study - DRIVE

Novice Rider Survey

Young riders are substantially over represented in motorcycle crashes. In NSW, riders aged less than 26 years are involved in 29% of crashes, although they are the registered owners of only 9% motorcycles.

Protective clothing has great potential in reducing rider injury in crashes, however:

• there are no enforceable protective clothing standards in Australia
• research currently available was conducted on older generations of protective wear
• usage patterns suggest that many riders are not aware or are not convinced of the potential benefits of protective clothing

The Novice Rider Survey aims to identify factors associated with the use and non-use of protective clothing by novice motorcycle riders to understand how and why motorcyclists make decisions about usage of protective clothing.

The study will also establish the actual riding exposure of young riders to validate their crash risk rate. The long-term objective is to develop an educational intervention program to increase the use of protective clothing.

Method

The Novice Rider Survey is a study of over 900 riders at the pre-provisional licensing stage. It is a cross sectional study of novice motorcycle riders recruited when they attend the pre-provisional rider training course, which is a part of the NSW rider licensing process.

They are surveyed at the pre-provisional rather than learner training stage, because enrolment in the pre-provisional training course is taken to indicate a level of commitment to becoming a motorcyclist. There is a substantial drop out between the numbers who obtain a learner licence (22,000 approx pa) and those who progress to the provisional stage (9,000 per year). We will be aiming to obtain a 10% sample that is representative by age, gender and location of training centre. The location of the training centres (Sydney South, West and North, Illawarra and Hunter Valley) will provide an indication of the distribution by region.

Status

The survey commenced in March 2008 and closed at the end of July 2008.

Institute Investigators

• Liz de Rome
• Rebecca Ivers

Collaborators

• Stay Upright
• Ride it Right
• HART
• Roads and Traffic Authority of New South Wales

Funding Agencies

• NRMA Motoring and Services