Biker Safety
The Message
A Day Out in Devon
This video was shot for two reasons. Firstly, was to appeal to motorcyclists and encourage riders to complete the biker consultation that was launched a few years ago.
The video has also been used to highlight the SMIDSY type crash, which causes a reasonable proportion of crashes in Devon.
The video has received international recognition and proved to be a Youtube hit. Under a number of different threads that have opened, it has received around 200,000 hits.
For information about avoiding SMIDSY crashes, click here
Secret Life of Bikers
Secret Life of Bikers was produced to improve safety by encouraging motorcyclists to keep riding skills warm by encouraging the use of bikes during the winter months. ‘Hibernating’ bikes in the garage over the winter months means that riding skills will lapse over this period meaning riders are more vulnerable when the ‘riding season’ starts again.
The video provides some winter riding tips and directs riders to a website for more information.
A central part of addressing rider casualties in Devon is our publicity work, generating press notices for stories that we think need to be brought to public attention and producing advertising across all possible media to ensure that the message reaches as many people as possible - riders and drivers alike.
Here you will find examples of our work, including press notices, bus back advertising, car stickers, radio commercials (see below!) beer mats, fuel cap stickers etc. Anything to help drivers understand that bikers are vulnerable and need to be looked out for - and for bikers to understand that improving their own awareness and skill levels, and modify high risk behaviour, is going to be a crucial part of their survival.
Radio commercials: we have received some criticism from riders for producing radio adverts aimed at them. Not many bikes have radios after all! We do however stand by the decision to use that media for three reasons. Firstly, riders have lives beyond their bikes and will pick up radio commercials at times when they are not riding; secondly, as you can see from the rider surveys we undertook (see our Views from Devon Riders page) many riders also have cars and use those cars on the commuter run which makes our use of drive-time advertising ideal. Thirdly, whether aimed principally at drivers or riders, car drivers benefit from hearing the same advertisements - we need to have it settled in everyone's mind that rider casualties are a serious problem in Devon and that we should all be serious about helping to improve their lot.
If you have ideas that you think can help us to work towards riders enjoying a lifetime of safer riding let us know at bikers@devon.gov.uk.
Here is some of our mass advertising work to date. Some of these files may be large so we have provided a general description for you also to avoid having to download if you don't want to.
| Advertisement | Media type | Message description |
|---|---|---|
What does it take to get your attention?  (362KB - pdf help) |
Newspaper and magazine ad | Graphic of rider pyramid in driver's rear view mirror - riders trying to get themselves noticed. |
| BlindSpot Bus Backs (1.51MB - pdf help) |
Bus back ads | 3 different designs following the same theme - what does a rider need to do to get the attention of drivers / drivers must make more effort to look out for riders. |
| What does it take to get your attention / driver sleepiness (284KB - pdf help) |
Beer mat | Joint message for car drivers - to notice bikes and not to drive tired. |
| Blindspot (157KB - pdf help) |
Car rear view windscreen/bumper sticker | Encourages car drivers to look out for riders. |
| Blindspot posters (818KB - pdf help) |
A4 posters | Encourages car drivers to look out for riders |
| Blindspot tax disc holders (176KB - pdf help) |
Tax Disc Holders | Encourages car drivers to look out for riders |
| Spiller Killer (16KB - pdf help) |
Keyring Fob | Diesel Spills helpline number - available to individuals and fleets. |
| Spiller Killer (120KB - pdf help) |
Fuel Cap sticker | Caution - don't overfill your tank! and diesel spills helping number. Available to individuals and fleets. |
| Spiller Killer (217KB - pdf help) |
Poster | General awareness poster - available to individuals and fleets. |
| Spiller Killer (253KB - pdf help) |
Leaflet | Description of the problem, why it's an issue, how to spot and report spills in Devon. Available to individuals and fleets. |
| Bike Trailer | Mobile Display Unit | An initiative of Devon and Cornwall Police and the Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership. The Bike Trailer is designed to show how easy it is for a rider to lose his or her life in a crash that has relatively little effect on the bike itself. The bike used is presented with the kind permission of a local family who lost a family member to a fatal crash. |
Display Boards Consultation boards |
Designed for use at Devon County Show, 2004 | The boards describe the progress of the Blindspot programme, the results of the rider consultations we carried out and what actions we were taking to respond to rider requests. |
| Local Radio Adverts | Three advertisements using recordings of people closely involved in biker crashes in Devon. Two of the recordings are of riders involved in crashes in which they sustained serious injury. One of the recordings is of a Devon Police Road Safety Officer who has attended the scenes of many incidents. | |
2145_think_devon_297x210_ads_page_1-2.pdf 2145_think_devon_297x210_ads_page_2.pdf 2145_think_devon_297x210_ads_page_3.pdf |
Devon Instructional Advertisements | Adverts to help Devon bikers think about road layout issues. |
| Dft Think Bike Think Biker Campaign | Dft Campaign | Link to Dft website. |
