A £1.2 million THINK! campaign urging drivers to see the person behind the motorcycle helmet was launched today by Road Safety Minister Mike Penning.
The TV adverts will show bikers with flashing neon signs attached to their bikes. The signs show the rider’s name and information about them such as ‘shy retiring type’ or ‘new dad’. The voiceover at the end asks drivers to look out for motorcyclists next time they are out driving.
The campaign was informed by research showing that drivers are more likely to notice motorcyclists on the roads if they know a biker themselves.
The adverts put motorcyclists at the centre of the campaign in a bid to tackle the huge over-representation of motorcyclists in road casualty figures. Despite only accounting for 1% of traffic motorcyclists make up 22% of deaths on Britain’s roads.
Mike Penning said:
“As a biker myself I know how great motorcycling can be but as Road Safety Minister I know that the statistics show bikers are tragically over-represented in road casualties and I want to see this number come down.”
“The campaign I am launching today aims to get drivers to think again about how they look at bikers when they’re out on the road. I hope this will help to reduce the number of bikers killed and injured in crashes with cars.”
The new ‘Named Riders’ TV campaign starts on Friday 2 March with radio and petrol station advertising running from Saturday 10 March.
Looks like the campaign is being recycled from a couple of years ago as said above, still, it is a good thing to raise the motorcyclists profile and get dozy drivers looking with both eyes on the road and not texting, talking, licking or sucking.
I got the email from the DSA today calling this a ‘new’ campaign, it clearly is being re-used… I think it makes people stop and think when they watch the advert, but all forgotten when they get back in their cars…
I see people who come to me, their mirrors are not up to scratch, they cannot fix it… it takes hours of training to fix it, I believe that people should be retested every 10 yrs along with photocard renewal, and that ADI’s like myself should be actively teaching about bikes, sadly i know most dont place enough emphasis on helping to keep bikers safe…
OK, so I’ll accept I didn’t know everything about being a biker when I passed the CBT, but doesn’t every little bit help? I don’t think putting them through a full test and forcing them onto motorbikes is an option, so what’s the solution? This thread started talking about making people think more carefully about bikers, which is why undertaking the CBT was suggested.
You’re suggesting that people will behave as though they “know it all” after the CBT, and therefore be more dangerous to bikers than if they hadn’t of done it at all, but I don’t agree with that statement, as it wasn’t my experience, I’ve done the full test and still don’t feel or behave like that.
do you get taught about the acceleration of bikes/deaacelartion of bikes on a cbt
at how responsive they are
you get taught the basics to go out on the road on a bike
Would you say that all bike and car drivers should sit a hgv pre test to see how driving one of those are in vision and manouverability
if it was incorporated into driving assessment to involve these vehicles as part of learning then yes
to have a off road demonstration of how a bike reacts in traffic and how it appears in your feild of vision etc as well as how an artic needs to negotiate its way as a practical demonstration how their view from the cab is
to give you that insight of their world
i dont disagree that bikers dont make better judgements when dealing with bikes but we are all human and if you can safely and honestly say that you have never had a bike sneak up on you whilst driving then fair do’s
but to arm everyone with this whole concept of they have passed a training test that gives them to right to see how a bikers world is for them to never use it but believe they know everything then no
There are scientific studies funded by the Governemtn that demonstrate that there are two things that have a significant affect in making you see bikes earlier. One is to be a motorcyclist, the other is to have a member of your family that is a motorcyclist. Therefore don’t force drivers to take the CBT, force their wife/husband to take it.
To the point on HGVs…are a lot of them dying in accidents caused by other drivers? Generally the other drivers are the worse off in those situations…and surely the vision of the HGV driver is something that a HGV driver needs to learn to understand.
The point of getting car drivers to take a small bike test first is for them to understand the vulnerability of being on a bike on the road…because yes a part of the CBT is going out on the road, to learn what it is like to be around cars and how dangerous it can be to negotiate a roundabout when car drivers are not paying attention, and to understand about the speed at which a motorcycle accelerates away from lights, junctions etc and how deceptive that can be for a car driver who doesn’t realise that we are not shifting a ton of metal when we accelerate.
Does the CBT teach you everything? No, that isn’t the point, it teaches you SOMETHING about being on a bike though, and surely that is advantageous.
Making all car drivers experience being on a bike, even for a single day, can only help to highlight the issues of being on a bike.
As to the comment about making people feel like they know what it means, I didn’t feel like that after my first CBT back in 98 so I don’t think many car drivers will feel like they know it all either.
kaos a hgv driver is fully aware of their vision but when they need to hold a right hand line to turn left you inveriabble see cars bikes cyclist go up the left of them even though they are indicatiing left
how many people overshoot a stop line but this then reduces the swing room required for an artic to complete its turn because the jnction has been worked out on these dimensions and that motorist who does not heed the stop line because of their lack of understanding
mirror on top of side window of hgv facing down is called BOB …BLOKE ON BIKE
and yes how many drivers pull in front of a 44 tonne artic and expect it to stop in that distance this includes bikers . so most accidents that include a hgv are due to other drivers lack of understanding of these vehicles
but to force it to be a test then no …awareness yes … to give that person a certificate no …
I am more hardcore, I have always said you should be required to pass the full bike test before you can take a driving test. This requires a lot more time spent riding a motorcycle and would give people a much better understanding of what it is like on a motorcycle.
the only thing driver should ever been asked to do is to LOOK OUT for bikers and cyclist, not understanding what they can or cannot do. not interested in that.
i would appreciate if they spend just a day out on the road on a bike just to see what it feels like.
so its definitively a good idea.
and they’re more than welcome to use a ‘recycled’ ad if they want to, whats the problem with it???
I don’t think it is necessary for drivers to take either the CBT or the full bike test. What i feel is necessary is for driving instruction to have a large component of morotcycle awareness built into the training, which is tested in both the hazard perception, theory and practical side of the test. This might mean that driving instructors may also need to have refresher training if they have not factored this into their driving school courses. There could also be a follow up training requirement, built into the driving test, so that within one year of passing his / her test the new driver has to report to X driving test centre for a referesher two hours, which includes motorcycle awareness.
Wth regards making drivers take the test - why I am not too keen on this as an idea, is that simulation exercises are not proved to work or reduce statstics. Plus not all drivers are physically able to ride a bike so a dual test requirement can become discriminatory. I am thinking particulalrly of people with disabilities (some of whom are able to ride adapted bikes and join the NABD etc but many are not) Eg a disabled trainer with cerebral palsy I worked with who had a specially adapted car - he would actually not have been able to ride a bike. Plus a pregnant friend who passed her test - who would have been excluded from riding a bike on the grounds of greater risk to the unborn child. If we have a dual test requirement - then we have to have exemptions written into it.
