Motorcycle crashes are a longstanding road safety issue nationally in Australia and worldwide. A better understanding of the factors that contribute to motorcyclist safety is required.
MotoSafe is a free mobile app that provides motorcyclists with a simple and quick way of reporting road safety incidents (e.g., crashes and near miss incidents). Motorcyclists can report important information about the incidents (e.g., time and location, incident description) and the factors that contributed to the incidents.
Information collected in MotoSafe is analysed and used to identify trends in incidents and incident causation, and to inform the development of strategies designed to improve motorcyclist safety. MotoSafe presents a summary of the incidents reported to its users, assisting motorcyclists to understand the potential hazards involved when they are riding.
MotoSafe is funded through the ACT Road Safety Fund Grants Program, a scheme by the ACT Government that supports road safety research and the development of new, innovative road safety technologies and products.
A summary report containing the analysis of the first 6 months of data collected is available to download soon.
What do I do if I am in immediate danger associated with an incident? If you are in immediate danger, please contact 000.
What defines a ‘crash’? A crash is an incident that results in an injury or property damage. A crash can include collisions (e.g., with other motorcyclists, vehicles, or infrastructure), falls from the motorcycle, or animal attacks.
What defines a ‘near miss incidents’? A near miss incident is an incident that the road users perceived could have resulted in an injury, fatality, or property damage, but did not due to chance or intervention.
What is the ‘National Incident Dataset’? The National Incident Dataset is a repository of de-identified data used by the MotoSafe research group to analyse incidents, contributory factors and participation data from a national perspective to inform research and the industry and to support system-level changes.
How will my incident reports be used? The MotoSafe research team will aggregate all users' incident reports to identify trends in crash and near miss incidents and the contributory factors involved. This information will be used to inform the development of interventions to improve motorcyclist safety.
Do I have to report the incident at the time of the incident? Can I report the incident after? You can report the incident at the time of the incident, or after the incident. You will have the option to indicate when the incident occurred. If you are in immediate danger, please contact 000. We strongly encourage you to report all motorcycling incidents, irrespective of how major or minor the incident was.
Do I need to enter the hours motorcycled into the MotoSafe app? The MotoSafe app calculates incident rates based on the total number of hours and kilometres motorcycled across all MotoSafe users. To enable the calculation of accurate incident rates, all users are required to enter the total number of hours and kilometres motorcycled each week. Weekly submissions of hours and kilometres motorcycled are required from all users regardless of whether they have been involved in any incidents or not.
Will my personal data be displayed anywhere? No, all submitted data will not be identifiable in the MotoSafe app.
Can I use the app if I am under 18 years old? No, you must be 18 years old or older to be eligible to use the MotoSafe app.
How much does it cost to use the MotoSafe app? The MotoSafe app is free to download and use.
Can I delete the MotoSafe app? Yes, you can delete the MotoSafe app from your mobile phone. However, deleting the MotoSafe app from your mobile phone will not mean that your MotoSafe account is deleted.
Can I delete the account I created in the MotoSafe app? Yes, you can delete the account you created in the MotoSafe app by clicking on the ‘Settings’ tab and then on the ‘Delete Account’ button. If you wish to withdraw already submitted data (including your account details, demographic data and incident reports), you can email the Chief Investigator (
motosafe@usc.edu.au) who will arrange deletion of all information linked to your account from the host server. Please be aware that data submitted to the National Incident Dataset that has been de-identified and / or aggregated for analysis may not be able to be withdrawn.
What kind of mobile phone do I need to use the MotoSafe app? The MotoSafe app can be used on Apple (operating system 10.0 and above) or Android (operating system 12.0 and above) phones.
What happens if I do not activate my location services? You will be able to use the MotoSafe app without the location services activated. When reporting an incident, you can type an address for the location of the incident into the relevant text box.
What happens if I do not agree to provide consent or agree to the Terms of Use and End User Licence Agreement? If you do not agree to provide consent or agree to the Terms of Use and End User Licence agreement, you will not be able to use the MotoSafe app. You can view the MotoSafe app’s Terms of Use and End User Licence Agreement
here.
Where can I find the Terms of Use and End User Licence Agreement for using the MotoSafe app? You can view the MotoSafe app’s Terms of Use and End User Licence Agreement
here.
How can I provide feedback on the MotoSafe app? You can provide feedback on the MotoSafe app by emailing the research group at
motosafe@usc.edu.au and/or rating the app on the Apple or Google Play store.
