Commuting by motorcycle?

In the Netherlands, motorcycle license and motorcycle ownership has decreased under the working population in the last years. While commuting with a motorcycle could bring benefits in modern day traffic, the motorcycle is not being chosen over alternative commuting modes. Not much literature is available on this topic, and the motorcycle is mostly not even seen as a full-fledged mode of transport. The most discussed topic about motorcycling is the aspect of safety, and this is the suggested reason to explain the observation of the decrease in motorcycle and license ownership. The results of this thesis show that the opposite is true for motorcycle riders, with just 9% of them stating that safety is a reason not to commute by motorcycle. Moreover, it appears from the literature that riders seem to have a quite good perception of the risks that come with motorcycling. The reasons that do seem determinative for not choosing the motorcycle for commuting are all in the context of practicality. Non-riders on the other hand do not seem to have a correct perception of the risks of motorcycling. They rate the safety of travelling by motorcycle lower than riders do, but fail to put it in a right perspective with respect to other commuting modes. Next to this could it be that the image of motorcycling they have does not help to promote this way of transport either.