Connecting with Vulnerable road users – a public health inspired approach to motorcycle safety

Steve Bucksey – Motorcycle Casualty Reduction Officer at Surrey Police & Sussex Police, shares his experience of designing an in-house motorcycle harm reduction campaign by considering the principles of public health.

As a motorcycle casualty reduction police officer, my role has two parts: operations – ensuring responsible policing, equipping officers with the right tools and knowledge for motorcycles, and engagement – reaching our motorcycle community to help keep them safe.

Motorcyclists make up 1% of road users, but account for almost 20% of fatalities. Reaching this vulnerable group has been historically challenging, and certain demographics remain hard to reach.

This article explores how an approach designed with public health principles in mind, can lead to impactful engagement and behaviour change for riders. Working with my colleagues, Alex and Hannah, in the Surrey Police Corporate Communications department, we designed ‘One Extra Look’; a behaviour change campaign which was delivered as part of our wider engagement activities in 2024 and saw positive success. We are in the process of rolling this out again this Summer.

System-wide Approach

When addressing motorcycle safety, we look beyond enforcement to consider the entire ecosystem. To do so, we evaluated how road campaigns impact rider perception and the impact on their safety.

We focused on understanding motorcyclists’ perspectives while being mindful of confirmation bias (simply seeking to confirm our own preconceived beliefs). For motorcycle fatality and injury reduction campaign, you could be forgiven for believing that motorcyclists would naturally be our target audience. But exploring a wider approach led to a different angle: riders are the beneficiary but, are they necessarily the target?

Through our planning we found:

1. Locally, three in four motorcycle collisions involved another vehicle. Using locally held collision data to identify demographics of our target audience, we saw a unique point of difference which led to a switching of gears on our primary target – we would need to consider all parties involved, not just the riders.
2. We also acknowledged the sometimes-strained relationship between police and motorcyclists. We wanted a conscious move away from any perceived victim blaming and, instead, sought to motivate riders to spread the campaign themselves.
3. Finally, we considered the impact of a motorcycle fatality on every family and friend of the rider and emphasised how other road users contribute to collisions, harnessing these emotions to fuel the campaign

Addressing Root Causes

To drive impact, we had to go upstream and address fundamental issues:

• Recognise the complexity of motorcycle safety and the role played by all road users
• Acknowledge that traditional enforcement approaches alone weren’t sufficient
• Create engagement messaging which resonated with both motorcyclists and other drivers

Forming Partnerships

Collaboration proved essential to our campaign’s success. We partnered with our local road safety partnerships to expand reach and acknowledge that to achieve our ambition of communicating to all types of rider, it is sometimes better coming from a different messenger. These partnerships were critical in enabling us to access wider audiences, share resources and combine expertise.

One Extra Look

The result of our insight and planning was the development of ‘One Extra Look’; a campaign focused on making motorcycle safety relatable to everyone. Through an emotive video, we highlighted the impact on riders’ families, showing the consequences of dangerous driving. We included statistics about collisions involving other vehicles. And we shared stories from motorcyclists and their families who had been affected by a motorcycle collision, with messages like “take one extra look for my daddy” or “take one extra look for my son” to make One Extra Look relatable to the wideset possible audience. You can watch the video here.

The campaign was launched to coincide with the national two-wheel campaign led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) with the aim of prompting a change in road users’ behaviour by encouraging them to take time for that extra look, and check for the presence of a motorcycle.

What we wanted to do with this campaign was create a sense of empathy and a commitment so that road users could understand all perspectives. However, focusing the visuals from the view of the saddle we found to be the best option to instil the required behaviour change. It led us to a campaign approach which differs from some of the safety tone used in the public sector, but embracing that difference has made the difference.

Evidence and Evaluation

Our approach was data-driven but also measured engagement. We evaluated the campaign’s success using a number of signals online – shares on social media platforms from various authorities including local policing neighbourhood social media channels, main police force internal and external channels across the UK, to press releases, TV pick-up and local motorcycle group engagement.

This showed a reach of almost half a million views of the main campaign video. Further shares by other sector authorities and national partners increased impact further, with up to 2 million annual users reached. ‘Users’ mentioned here had just taken part in a speed awareness or other educational course, providing a powerful context for the campaign to land. A continuing cycle of engagement allows the campaign to live on well beyond launch.

This approach to measurement helped us understand both outcomes and engagement and the ongoing impact on behaviour change for road users on two wheels or more. In 2024, we saw a 10% reduction in road traffic collisions at junctions involving motorcycles across Surrey & Sussex compared with the 3-year average.

I believe that effective communication in the public sector requires not only data and informed strategy but also genuine, authentic connection with the audience. My advice to others looking to develop an impactive campaign which gets the required outcome is to prioritise empathy, seek to understand the root causes of issues, and build strong partnerships within the community. This holistic approach demonstrates how public health principles can be effectively applied to road safety initiatives, leading to more meaningful engagement and ultimately, safer roads for everyone.