The National Young Rider Forum (NYRF) is a group of road safety professionals, joining their expertise to specifically look at young motorcyclists. This vulnerable group are aged between 16 to 24 years and ride powered two wheelers of up to 125cc.
The forum members bring a wealth of expertise from all corners of road casualty reduction and include representatives from local authority road safety teams, safer roads partnerships, Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA), Motorcycle Action Group (MAG), police forces, fire & rescue and the DVSA.
Why Young Riders?
Young riders are amongst our road users of the future and at 16 years old, a motorcycle will potentially be the first motorised vehicle they have taken onto the busy road network. Young riders are vulnerable due to their lack of road experience, can take risks because of reduced brain development and can be influenced by many internal and external factors.
In February 2019 the forum had its inaugural meeting where the enthusiasm, expertise and passion of the group were brought together. This began our work to reduce young rider collisions and casualties which were high and rising. It was soon realised that we needed to improve our knowledge of young riders, how to communicate with them, how best to support them as a new rider on two wheels and how to improve their safety whilst riding.
What we did know about young riders was that many were becoming involved in road collisions and that the figures, each representing a young person, were on the increase.
The total number of young riders injured in the UK in the last five years is 30,862.
Of those,
• 314 young riders died
• 7,762 young riders were seriously injured
• 22,786 young riders were slightly injured
Considering motorcyclists of all ages account for only 1% of the road users on our roads today, those figures are truly staggering and that is why the NYRF has formed to make young riders a priority.
The first decision the NYRF made was to commission a piece of research which would help us to know and understand much more about our young rider. We are now working with the Department for Transport and Agilysis Ltd on a 5-part young rider research project which should be delivered by the end of 2020.
For more details please visit our website (below).
Contacts
Heidi Duffy MBE
NYRF Facilitator