Rider training campaign hits Oxfordshire

A council-backed survey has been run across Oxfordshire in the hope of encouraging a larger take up of advanced rider training in the county.

The Motorcyclist Ride Safe Survey was conducted online by the local County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service Road Safety team in a bid to improve the range and reach of safety schemes such as Biker Down, which is operated by the fire service and ‘BikeSafe’, which is run by the police.

Now the Oxfordshire team hope that by analysing survey data and adapting their advertising and activities to suit, more bikers who may have been unlikely to take part before will sign up.

“One of things we’re really keen on at the moment is evaluating what we do and the success of campaigns, advertising and advice we give out,” said Station Manager Andy Ford, who’s also in charge of the fire service’s road safety.”

The survey began on April 1 and ran until May 21. These responses will now be reviewed internally, before a final report with future recommendations is published.

“The survey really is to find out what people know about advanced riding and have they thought about it. We want to find out how we’re influencing them to go out and get further training,” Ford continued.

“In general, people that know they need training get training. The bit we’re trying to target is the hard to reach group that turn around and say ‘I don’t need it’. They’re exactly the ones we want to be speaking to.

“We’re very pleased with the response. Once this phase gets completed we’ll look at the data, see what we’ve been successful with and what we need to change then go out and try again. We’re trying to make it fun. I’m a motorcyclist myself but motorcycling still makes up by far the biggest group of casualties and we want to change that.”