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PREVENTION OF TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS INVOLVING POWERED TWOWHEELERS IN URBAN AREAS : PROTOTYPICAL ACCIDENT SCENARIOS AND PROSPECTS FOR THE PLANNING AND DESIGN OF THE URBAN ROAD INFRASTRUCTURES Nicolas Clabaux, Department of Accident Mechanism Analysis, National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS), Chemin de la Croix Blanche, 13300 Salon de Provence, France. 1. INTRODUCTION In France, in spite of a low part of 1,4 % of all weekday travel (Papon, 1997), powered two-wheeler riders account for 23 % of all traffic fatalities and 31 % of all injuries recorded (ONISR, In press). This extra risk is particulary marked in urban areas and in large cities. Indeed, according to the National Accident file, accidents involving mopeds and motorcycles account for 20 % and 23,6 % respectively, of all urban injury accidents recorded by the Police and the Gendarmerie (CERTU, 2006). In the city of Paris in 2005, powered twowheelers accounted for 3 % of all travel but were involved in 60 % of injury accidents recorded (Observatoire des déplacements, 2006). The recent growth in the use of powered two-wheelers in towns and the over-involvement of this category of users in injury accidents demonstrate the need for a better understanding of powered two-wheelers accident phenomena in order to develop countermeasures, notably through road engineering. Indeed, a review of the international scientific literature on road safety shows that few studies deal with the question of adapting urban road engineering to the safety problems of powered two-wheelers. Most publications which deal with the primary safety of moped and motorcycle riders generally cover one of the following principal research subjects : the helmet use and its influence on safety (see for example : Shankar et al., 1992, Branas and Knudson, 2001, Ichikawa et al., 2003, Houston and Richardson, in press, etc.), the motorcyclist conspicuity-related accidents (see for example : Foldvary, 1967, Radin Umar et al., 1996, Yuan,...