The Highways Award-winning PRIME safety project has reduced annual average motorcycle injury collisions by 61% across all trial sites, with a 46% average reduction where riders were killed or seriously injured, according to a new report published by The Road Safety Trust.
The Transport Scotland scheme was designed to improve rider safety by using special road markings and signs to help riders ‘make better decisions' when approaching bends. Acting as gateways, the signs are designed to encourage riders to reduce speed, reduce braking and improve road position when taking bends.
Results from the second phase of this study showed that the markings ‘continue to influence riders to adopt better road positioning at corners', and also showed evidence of ‘sustained behaviour change in riders over two, three and five-year periods'.
Taking place between 2020 and 2022, the first phase saw the installation of road markings at 22 sites on the trunk road network in Scotland.
The following year, the project was awarded the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for the positive impact it had on motorcycle safety, which led to an ‘installation toolkit' being created to guide local authorities across the UK.
It has also won the Highways Awards road safety scheme of the year and the special merit award.
Further funding was provided by the Road Safety Trust to support the second phase, which extended the trial to a total of 35 locations between 2023 and 2025, providing analysis of over 47,000 motorcycle movements.
There are now six local authorities in Scotland that are considering the rollout of PRIME road markings, with authorities in Wales already having installed them at four locations.
The project was also referenced in the Department for Transport (DfT)'s Road Safety Strategy, with National Highways making a representation to the DfT to approve the markings for use on England's roads.
The scheme was originally designed by Professor Alex Stedmon in partnership with road markings supplier WJ.
Ruth Purdie OBE, chief executive at The Road Safety Trust, said: ‘This has been such an important project for The Road Safety Trust to support. PRIME markings are having real world impact and creating lasting behaviour change in riders, which is just fantastic to see.
‘They are proving to be an invaluable tool to help navigate bends as even the most experienced riders can get caught out. We can't accept the status quo of motorcyclists being prevalent in statistics relating to deaths and serious injuries on our roads in the UK.
‘It's wonderful to see PRIME markings being trialled elsewhere in the UK and I would encourage every local authority to consider their implementation in the future.'
Full details of the report can be found here.
