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FIM Position: Motorcycle Black Spots and Network Safety Management
Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme
In general To enhance motorcycle road safety a safe road infrastructure is essential. This starts with a safe road design. However, notwithstanding this, accidents occur and infrastructure can be less safe than expected. Therefore, motorcycle black spot management (BSM) is an essential part of the site-specific traffic safety work done by the road administration authorities, and concerns short road sections (<0.5 km). Supplementary to this is network safety management (NSM) that concerns longer road sections (2-10 km). Both black spot management and network safety management concern all infrastructural aspects, but both BSM and NSM lack standardised definitions and methods. Black spot detection and registration - Regular road inspections must be done with a motorcycle focus.
- Systematic accident data collection will reveal places and stretches of roads that are particularly motorcycle accident prone, needing further investigation and follow-up measures.
Black spot safety management - As traffic collisions are rare occurrences it is not possible to identify a black spot simply by the number of collisions. Therefore, the EU should adopt the Critical Crash Rate Factor Method as this takes into account additional factors, including traffic volume, to assess risk.
- Black spot management and network safety management should be part of the safety policy of the European Union with special attention to vulnerable road users, including riders of powered two-wheelers.
- Black spot management should not be restricted to the TEN-T network.
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