Highways Agency

• Great Roads Great Rides II Questionnaire

"Great Roads, Great Rides"

England’s motorways and major A roads are among the safest in the world, but still far too many riders are coming to grief on the roads.

Biking is a great pastime and becoming increasingly popular.  We want riders to enjoy using the strategic road network, and to do it safely.

A new DVD called "Great Roads, Great Rides" takes riders step by step through everything they need to know; from basic maintenance checks at the start of the season to riding out with a group. It looks at how to overtake and ride through bends safely so you don’t get caught out and what to do if you’re first on the scene of an accident involving another rider. (This DVD cannot be made available online for various reasons)

"Great Roads, Great Rides" is backed by the Academy and DSA, and features contributions by Cleveland Police, the Virgin Mobile Race Team and many other partners all named in the "Behind the Scenes" section of the DVD.

The unique nature of the DVD is that is has been written by bikers, for bikers and as such, is pro rider. It's like having your best mate alongside you every step of the way - and because it’s a DVD, riders can go back and refer to it again and again. (This DVD cannot be made available online for various reasons)

Handle It or Lose It

We are members of the 'Handle It or Lose It' partnership, supporting greater dialogue with bikers. The website has recently been updated to tie in with "Great Roads Great Rides" format and to mimic the look and feel of it.

On the website www.handleitorloseit.com you will see a chapter called 'Report a Road', where you can feed back to the relevant authority on issues you see on the roads. The system detects who manages the roads you pinpoint and so the relevant local authority or Highways Agency team can react and respond to the message.

Shiny Side Up

We are also a partner on the Shiny Side Up campaign, supporting the 2-way respect between biker and other vehicles; each looking out for the other. You may see yellow posters, encouraging extra thought of other road users when out on rural roads.

Bike Guard

We are continuing to look at other safety measures for bikers and are actively promoting the use of BikeGuard (the metal panel attached to upright posts on the central reservation) to reduce serious injuries to bikers. We are also encouraging our engineers to think of 2-wheelers and not just 4-wheelers when making adjustments on our roads.

Police accident database figures for 2006

• 4.3 % of all casualties, motorcyclists are 35  times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than car occupants
• There were 46 adult fatalities
• There were 328 adults seriously injured
• One in four accidents involved no other vehicle
• Almost half of accidents involving a motorcyclist occurred at a junction
• 16% of all males killed or seriously injured (2004-2006) were power two-wheeler users

Key things for motorcyclists to think about:

• Kit
• Group riding
• Crash Scene management
• Foreign drivers
• Bike preparation at the start of the season
• Science behind the bike (comparing road bikes to track bikes)
• Security of your bike and kit
• Planning your ride
• Reading the road
• Keeping your licence

For more information please contact our HAIL line (08457 50 40 30).

Artwork

• DVD Wrap (421KB PDF)
• DVD Cover (119KB PDF)
• DVD Label (271KB PDF)
• Poster (2.3MB PDF)
• Report Card Front (26KB PDF)
• Report Card Back (75KB PDF)
• T Shirt (48KB PDF)