There is no way to reduce the high accident rate of motorcycles on Catalan roads. The latest edition of the Eurorap report, prepared each year by the RACC in collaboration with the Servei Català de Trànsit, the Department of Territory of the Generalitat and the Provincial Council of Barcelona and which in this case refers to the 2020-2022 triennium, indicates that the Motorcycles and mopeds are involved in 44% of the most damaging accidents (those that result in deaths or serious injuries). And if only mortals are considered, they participate in 30%. These data contrast with the weight that these vehicles have in mobility as a whole, only 2.3%.
The BP-1417 that connects Barcelona with Sant Cugat del Vallès through Collserola, better known as Arrabassada, is once again the one with the highest risk of suffering a serious or fatal accident. And it so happens that even though it is not a road with high traffic intensity (6,709 vehicles – of all types – on average daily), it is among the ten roads that concentrate the most highly harmful motorcycle accidents. It should be taken into account that at least one motorcycle is involved in 91% of the extreme mishaps it suffers (in the previous edition it was 88%).
And it does not seem that there is much left to do in Arrabassada in terms of improving the infrastructure since in recent years there has already been work on the accesses and separation of traffic directions with significant investments. One possibility pointed out yesterday during the presentation of the Eurorap report is to act on the paint… or, of course, to reinforce police controls to prevent reckless driving.
Half of serious or fatal motorcycle accidents are concentrated in only 13.6% of the kilometers studied by Eurorap. Eight of the ten stretches with the most accidents were already on the list from last year. They are all in the metropolitan region of Barcelona and except for the aforementioned BP-1417, they support the circulation of more than 20,000 vehicles daily. In eight, accidents involving motorcycles and mopeds represent more than 80% of the total.
This high accident rate of motorcycles that is difficult to reduce worries administrations. The figures for 2023 do not invite optimism. Everything on the contrary. Until yesterday, 52 motorcyclists lost their lives on Catalan roads (15.6% more than last year and 8.3% more than pre-pandemic 2019). This evolution goes in the opposite direction than that of the total number of deaths in accidents on the interurban network, which is 146 (6.4% less than in 2022 and 15.1% less than in 2019).
If the serious injuries are added, the figure so far this year is 340 people who were riding motorcycles, of which 155 occurred in accidents on the weekend, especially in the mornings. For these motorists, those who take to the road to make curves, the Servei Català de Trànsit advocates marking the appropriate route on the road to avoid falls, going off the road and collisions, just as has been done in the road test. of the Foix reservoir (BV-2115).
The Eurorap report has analyzed 6,373 kilometers of interurban roads and crossings, 53% of the total Catalan road network and which accounts for 92% of traffic and 74% of accidents with deaths or serious injuries. In the 2020-2022 three-year period, these accidents decreased by 7% compared to the 2019-2021 three-year period, while global road mobility increased by 0.4%. This means that the risk of suffering this type of mishap has been reduced by 7.4%. High or very high risk kilometers are 24% of the network, one percentage point less than in the previous edition of the study.
Conventional roads (those with only one lane in each direction) are those that accumulate all the sections with high or very high risk and almost all of the sections with medium risk. On the other hand, on divided roads (highways and motorways) practically all sections are low or very low risk. The risk of suffering a serious accident on the first roads is four times greater than on the second.
