Motivation – This paper presents some theoretical and methodological tools that help to identify and analyze 'situations of vulnerability' for drivers. Research approach – This study refers to 'Course-of-Action Centred Design' that highly considers the situational aspects of activity to improve situations. Findings – Examples have been drawn from a field study of the 'situations of vulnerability' of novice motorcyclists in real world with a view to improving initial training in France. Research limitations – The main limitation of the proposed methodology is the limited number of subjects due to the complexity of the data collection. Take away message – The concept of 'situation of vulnerability' provides an alternative to the concepts of 'vulnerable road user' and 'accident situation' which are conventionally used in transport research, and which have limitations for ergonomics research.
