Abstract Manager

Many provinces and municipalities actively promote motorcycle tourism and Canada has over 800,000 registered motorcycles, approximately 750,000 riders and a $2B motorcycle industry. Almost 10% of Canadians own a motorcycle and motorcycles are a significant proportion of road users, especially in some areas and seasons. Clearly motorcycles are important to many people and groups, yet how well do we meet the needs of motorcyclists on our roads and highways?

Motorcyclists are vulnerable road users, and this is reflected in collision, injury and fatality data. Despite this, motorcyclists seem largely missing from the policy, planning and design process in Canada. For example, the TAC Geometric Design Guide specifically mentions motorcycles only four times and not at all regarding design controls, design vehicles or roadside safety. This presentation will provide some observations about the missing motorcyclist in Canada’s policies, planning and design guidelines and present innovations for these from other jurisdictions.

I am a rider with over 50 years experience including international travel and have also led the design of many transportation facilities. In this presentation I will show examples of safety issues for motorcyclists that I’ve encountered in Canada which arise from motorcycles not being part of our policy and guideline framework or the designer’s consideration. These include poor pavement conditions, drainage and utility location, unforgiving roadsides, inadequate signage and maintenance and hazardous construction zones.

The presentation will highlight the unique characteristics of motorcycles and riders and how these could be better accommodated in our designs. This encompasses policy and regulation, design guidelines and also opportunities for improvement during construction and maintenance.

I will also present examples of innovative alternatives from other jurisdictions and how these could be considered within the Canadian context. These will include Motorcycle Safety Audits, Motorcycle Strategic Safety Plans, Motorcycle Advisory Committees and also specific design guidelines, policies and regulations. I will also highlight specific suggestions that could readily be incorporated into our designs and networks, including innovative barrier retrofits, high friction surface treatment (HFST) paving, signage, roadside treatments, etc. Traffic regulation of motorcycle filtering, lane-splitting and queue jumping may also be touched upon.

My hope is that this presentation could be the start of discussions and initiatives to better incorporate the missing motorcyclist into the Safe System Approach and provide effective leadership that improves safety for motorcyclists in Canada.