Autoroute Académie is a kind of virtual driving school for motorway driving. The initiative is aimed at drivers aged between 18 and 25, which is why the content of the www.autorouteacademie.com website has all the ingredients needed to ensure that it is attractive to a young audience: short videos, social networks, participation, recommendations, etc. In its second year of operation, new content has been added that is aimed specifically at young motorcyclists who, despite accounting for only 0.5% of traffic on sanef toll roads, are involved in 12% of fatal accidents.

While presenting the second phase of Autoroute Académie, Sergi Loughney, the Director of the abertis foundation, highlighted the importance of safe mobility and the need to tackle dangerous behaviour. François Gauthey, the Managing Director of sanef, also pointed out that the accident rate on the group’s toll roads decreased by 53% last year. Overall, drowsiness and fatigue (37%) and driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol and medication (29%) continued to be the main causes of accidents.

Autoroute Académie was created in January 2011 in response to the need to train drivers under 25 years old and young people studying for their driving licenses in France’s driving schools. In its first year, the website received over 20,000 hits. The initiative has been promoted through advertising on Facebook, e-mails sent to sanef pass holders and the support of France’s three main driving school associations: ANPER (Association nationale pour la promotion de l’éducation routière); CNPA (Conseil national des professions de l’automobile); and CER (Centres d’éducation routière). The programme has also been endorsed by the French Government through the Interdepartmental Delegation of Road Safety and Traffic.

For its second phase, the programme has three new partners connected to the motorcycling world: Easy Monneret, a school that teaches motorcycle driving and road safety; the AFDM (Association pour la formation des motards); and the FFMC (Fédération française des motards en colère).

The new content added for the second year focuses on motorcyclists and deals with aspects such as fatigue, adapting speed to traffic conditions, positioning within the motorway lane, overtaking manoeuvres and preparing the motorcycle for riding.