MOTORCYCLE safety and the need for better training among riders to reduce the number of rider deaths, including those among business riders, is the focus of a major new Government strategy.

Launched last week, it aims to ensure that motorcycling is recognised as a mainstream mode of transport, that transport planners take motorcycling into account and that bike design continues to improve.

In a foreword to The Government’s Motorcycling Strategy, Transport Minister David Jamieson said: ‘This strategy is a beginning.

‘It encompasses important initiatives including better training to take skills to a higher level, improving rider and driver attitudes and behaviour, improved motorbike design, better designed infrastructure and smarter traffic management.’

Jamieson added: ‘Together we can take forward this sensible, practical and deliverable package of measures to make a positive difference for motorcycling, and make sure that motorcycling takes its proper place in the transport mainstream as a safe, affordable means of transport’.

The strategy is based on recommendations put forward by the Advisory Group on Motorcycling, which includes the AA, RAC, British Motorcyclists Federation, Motorcycle Rider Training Association and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Commenting on the strategy, Frank Finch, motorcycle director at the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI), said: ‘These measures will help improve rider safety, and contribute towards safeguarding the future of the market by making this efficient, cheap and environmentally friendly mode of transport more accessible and attractive to the wider public.’

Jamieson was also due to be a key speaker at a meeting held this week which was attended by more than 250 road safety experts.

Organised by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), it aimed to tackle the task of reducing the number of deaths on Britain’s roads.

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA head of road safety, said: ‘Despite superb progress in road safety generally in recent years, the number of deaths has stopped falling and we don’t want to see last year’s rise becoming a trend.

‘We need to redouble our efforts to improve driver behaviour and motorcycle safety.’