Devon is committed to creating a road network that is sensitive the to needs of all road users - and part of this commitment has been to ensure that our safety engineers, technicians and maintenance personnel are aware of highway design and maintenance issues that affect powered two wheelers.
There are several ways in which this is currently visible:
Safety Auditing
As a highway authority Devon is conscious of the need to maintain and develop its roads network for safety as well as efficiency. A key tool in ensuring that our work contributes to road user safety is our Safety Auditing regime which checks and re-checks the design and build of our engineering works. A crucial part of any safety audit is ensuring that the design and construction of works is viewed from the perspective of all road users, and especially those most vulnerable to injury - including bikers.
Training of key staff
Looking out for the safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) can only be effective if our key personnel are trained and experienced in assessing the needs of specific types of VRU. That is why extensive training programmes for Devon County Council technical staff, and our colleagues in the Police road safety and traffic management units, includes:
Road surfacing standards and technologies
Representatives from Devon County Council’s Material’s Laboratory are playing a major role in working towards introducing changes to the legislation for skid resistance qualities of inspection (manhole) covers in the highway. As well as having an officer on the European Steering Group for this issue, Devon County Council has become involved in a major consultation to ensure improved safety in this matter.
The European Standard for manholes, EN124, has been commented on by all of the EU member states and perhaps not surprisingly there has been a mixed response to the UK’s proposal for covers to have a declared skid/slip resistance value based on their “in use” condition (which is to say the skid resistance of the covers when they are in place in the highway and subject to regular use).
The UK’s proposals were bolstered by comments by motorcycle interest groups and Highway Authorities across the UK following Devon lobbying them with its suggestions for an improvement in the standard. Devon County Council would like to thank all those who responded to our call for comment and who consequently contributed to an improved standard being agreed in the UK. When we know more about the adoption of this standard at a European level we will post that information to this site.
One of the largest manufacturers of iron covers has produced a prototype of what they hope will provide high levels of skid/slip resistance. A number of these have been installed in Devon so that we can measure how well they perform under heavy trafficking.
Devon County Council have also been assisting other UK manufacturers to develop non-skid & non-slip designs & materials for a range of end uses - from pedestrian areas through to roads. It is hoped that UK manufacturers will be in a good position to meet the safety standards that should become a mandatory requirement across Europe in the near future.
As well as the work that is concerning the changes in the European Standard, work has also been undertaken to ascertain the effectiveness of the various ''retrofit'' materials that are currently available on the market (these are normally resin based products applied to existing iron covers and dressed with aggregate to improve resistance of the surface). To date, the trials to retrofit a skid/slip resistant coating have not been wholly successful as problems of adhesion are proving to be difficult to overcome. Whilst these materials on footway covers, which are only lightly trafficked by pedestrians, generally maintain their cohesion, tests on coated covers in the road, where wear and tear is far greater, have encountered problems.
95% of iron covers in the carriageway are not in fact owned by Devon County Council. They are in fact owned and maintained by utility companies and Devon is currently talking to the utilities to determine what their proposals are to deal with those of their covers that are identified as being slippery. Our hope is to achieve appropriate and consistent action across all the owners and maintainers of ironmongery in our road network.
If you any queries regarding ironmongery in the carriageway, please email questions to bikers@devon.gov.uk
Parking provision
Riders often ask for improved parking provision and we have been engaged in detailed consultations to help guide as to the best locations, designs and facilities for motorcycle parking in the County. A trial is currently underway in northern Devon and, if successful, we would hope to be able to use the experience to ensure that the parking we provide in future is safe, secure, and delivered where it's needed. More information on our parking policies and provision will be posted to this site once this trial is complete.
Experimental signing
As a result of the high number of collision involving motorcycles, warning signs 
(30KB - pdf help) highlighting the dangers to bikers have been erected along the length of the A377 stretching from Cowley Bridge, Exeter to Bishops Tawton.
In all, there are a total of 17 signs that have been erected on the boundaries of stretches of roads where motorcycle collisions have been recorded.
The A377 has a poor history of motorcycle collisions. In the last five years, 33 riders have been killed or injured. The motorcycle crashes on this road show a range of causation factors from single vehicle collisions to crashes where there has been conflict between bikes and other vehicles. The signs are aimed at all road users to take more care, not just motorcyclists.
As part of this scheme, all roads in Devon network were analysed for motorcycle collisions to gauge whether other stretches warranted similar action. However, the A377 was the only road that suffered a consistently high problem of the most serious motorcycle injury accidents.
We are now looking at high densities of crashes and casualties along more urbanised routes and where we are able to identify stretches of carriageway with conspicuously high numbers of incidents we will seek to sign those route accordingly.
If you see these signs, take action - they mean what they say and only you, whether as a rider or a driver, can make the difference.
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