Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) undertook a nationwide ‘Honda Road Sign IQ Survey’ with an objective to understand the level of awareness of road safety signs and behavior of two-wheeler riders in India. The inaugural survey was conducted with participation from almost 1,500 two-wheeler riders across 10 key Indian cities during the National Road Safety Week.
Following are the results of the survey:
- According to the Honda Road Sign IQ survey, 78% of Indian 2Wheeler riders cannot recognize even 50% of the road signs. Within the cities, Mumbai emerged as the most aware city with 79% two-wheeler riders able to correctly identify half of the road safety signs, followed by Pune (63%) and Bengaluru (41%).
- The survey re-affirms the need for greater education within the 3Es of Road Safety (Enforcement, Engineering and Education) as nearly 80% of Indian 2Wheeler riders are still un-aware about the difference between cautionary and mandatory road signs.
- As more women are now becoming empowered riders, Indian women are more road sign literate than their male counterparts. Nationally, 26% of women interviewed were recognized half the road signs, while the corresponding figure for men was 21% (despite men being majority riders today).
- Within the age groups, 20 to 24 year old’s are most aware of the national road signs (31% aware of half the signs) while only 18% of the respondents in 25 to 44 age bracket could identify half the road signs. Interestingly, 30% those over 45 of years could also identify half the signs.
- Majority 63% of the riders interviewed said that they wear helmet for their own safety. Enforcement by state authorities (16% admitted they wear a helmet to avoid fines) and family insistence (due to family pressure another 16% wear helmet) are the other two biggest motivators for Indian riders to wear helmets.
- Most Indian riders understand importance of a helmet but only when they themselves ride a two-wheeler. 55% riders risk their lives by not wearing a helmet when they are pillions.
- 51% of riders interviewed said they have neither been fined nor did they jump a red light in 2016 but risky riding still continues as 30% riders admitted to red light jumping 1-2 times a week.
Honda’s nationwide National Road safety week campaign:
- Honda engaged over 24,000 people including children and females in 250 cities across India. Supporting Honda in this celebration were various stakeholders of the society including Defense personnel, Corporates, schools, several State police departments and NGOs etc.
- Multiple engagements for all age groups including safety rallies, walkathons, safety banner displays at central locations of cities, drawing competition and safety quiz for kids, virtual riding simulator trainings for young adults and distribution of safety leaflets among public.
- Spreading the awareness, nearly 10,000 Indians took ‘I am a Safe Rider’ pledge with Honda.
- Honda spreads its Wings beyond the obvious metros to include 250+ cities across India from Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Bhuj (Gujarat) and Barwani (Madhya Pradesh) to Dhamtari (Chhattisgarh), Dhule (Maharashtra) to Guwahati (Assam), Sringar (Jammu & Kashmir) to Nagarcoil (Tamil Nadu).
- Leading the road safety cause from the front, Honda 2Wheelers is the first two-wheeler brand in India to adopt 11 traffic training parks across India (Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Delhi * 2, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Yeola (Nashik), Hyderabad, Indore and Coimbatore. During the week, Honda educated close to 6500 individuals at its traffic parks.
- Many engagements across India included awareness rallies in multiple cities where in more than 850 customers spread the message of safe riding on their Honda motorcycles and scooters via awareness walkathons in Delhi and Bhubaneswar; helmet awareness rally for pillion riders in Delhi. Additionally, Honda’s safety instructors helped close to 7600 riders improve their risk prediction ability on roads with the riding simulators during the National Road Safety week.
Elaborating on the survey findings and Honda’s efforts in the direction of road safety promotion, Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice-President – Sales and Marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India said “Two-wheelers account of the highest fatalities (31.5%) due to road accidents in the country. With a new two-wheeler coming on Indian roads every 2 seconds, ‘Safety for Everyone’ is Honda’s priority as a responsible corporate. Honda Road Sign IQ survey re-affirms that there is an urgent need to invest in behavioral change in Indian mindsets through road safety education. We have already educated over 10 lac people on road safety in India at Honda’s 11 adopted traffic parks across India. A sizable 38% of these are kids as Honda aims to mould youth of today into responsible road users of tomorrow. Post this survey, Honda is committed to intensifying its road safety initiatives with special focus on children and empowering women who are the conscience keepers of every family.”