Position of the projet

The PTW research field is fairly poor compared with that dedicated to cars, which has been active for more than 25 years. However, if one takes into account the cost of PTW-related fatalities and severe injuries, the societal stake is critical.

In the past, research into PTWs has focused mainly on passive safety; topics on active safety and on riding behaviour are a more recent addition. Single-vehicle accidents (or those considered as such) account for a significant number of PTW accidents. The loss of control in bends is a major consideration in road safety. However, the way in which riders approach bends is, to a great extent, unknown. Indeed, a wide variety of operational procedures exist for trajectory control.

The VIROLO+ project aims to fill the knowledge gap on how a range of riders approach bends in real life. Based on the design of tools and methods that allow behaviours to be measured, the project’s partners propose to develop a set of products that can be used for the training and/or retraining of both experienced and novice PTW riders.

The VIROLO+ project benefits from previous work carried out by the partners within the framework of national and European projects (from SUMOTORI to 2BESAFE, including SAFERIDER and SIM2CO+ projects).