Survey: 78% 2-wheeler riders don't know half the road signs!

A Road Sign IQ Survey done by Honda 2-Wheelers has revealed that around 78% riders in India can't recognize even 50% of the road signs. Since India is the world's largest two-wheeler market, these road sign literacy figures are truly alarming.

The said survey was conducted during the National Road Safety Week earlier this month. It saw participation from almost 1,500 riders across 10 major Indian cities.

Here are some of the key findings from the survey:

• Mumbai emerged as the most aware and road sign literate city. 79% riders from Mumbai were able to identify half of the road signs. The next two cities on this list were Pune (63%) and Bengaluru (41%).

• Nearly 80% two-wheeler motorists in India don't know the difference between cautionary and mandatory road signs.

• Women came out to be relatively more road sign literate than men. 26% women were able to identify half of the road signs, as compared to 21% of the interviewed men.

• Riders in the age group of 20-24 years were found to be the most aware of road signs, with 31% of them identifying over half the signs. In the age group of 25-44 years, only 18% of the interviewed motorists were able to identify 50 percent of the road signs. Interestingly, the corresponding figure for riders over 45 years old was 30%.

• 63% of the interviewed riders agreed that they wear helmets for their own safety. Meanwhile, 16% riders said that law enforcement forces them to wear helmets, while another 16% of the riders mentioned family pressure to be the reason behind them wearing helmets.

• However, 55% of the riders do not wear helmets while riding pillion.

• 51% of the interviewed two-wheeler riders claimed that they haven’t jumped a red light in 2016, while 30% of the respondents admitted to jumping traffic signals 1-2 times a week.