Motorcyclists’ speed and “looked-but-failed-to-see” accidents

Abstract

Previous research on motorcycle crashes has shown the frequency and severity of accidents in which a non-priority road user failed to give way to an approaching motorcyclist without seeing him/her, even though the road user had looked in the approaching motorcycle's direction and the motorcycle was visible. These accidents are usually called "looked-but-failed-to-see" (LBFS) accidents. This article deals with the effects that the motorcyclist's speed has in these accidents. It is based on the in-depth study and precise kinematic reconstruction of 44 accident cases involving a motorcyclist and another road user, all occurring in intersections. The results show that, in urban environments, the initial speeds of motorcyclists involved in "looked-but-failed-to-see" accidents are significantly higher than in other accidents at intersections. In rural environments, the difference in speed between LBFS accidents and other accidents is not significant, but further investigations would be necessary to draw any conclusions. These results suggest that speed management, through road design or by other means, could contribute to preventing "looked-but-failedto-see" motorcycle accidents, at least in urban environments.

Improving car drivers’ perception of motorcycle motion through innovative headlight configurations

“…Insofar as we have found that vertical configurations were especially effective at high approach speeds, we chose speeds of 60 km/h and 90 km/h for the second phase of the study. Furthermore, a high motorcycle speed has been shown to contribute to accident occurrence at intersections, probably because it diminishes motorcycle perceptibility (Clabaux et al, 2012). It is also known to cause more serious accidents.…”

Modeling offenses among motorcyclists involved in crashes in Spain

“…The other vehicle could have crossed the path of the motorcycle when turning in an intersection or overtaking in a straight without having perceived it ("looked-but-failed-to-see". See Clabaux et al, 2012;Shahar et al, 2012), therefore the driver of the other vehicle would be the offender. This is more likely to happen at an intersection or on a straight than on a curved road section where there is no reason for the vehicle's paths to cross.…”

“…Regarding the road layout, Oluwadiya et al (2009) found that most motorcyclists crash more on straights or on bends than on intersections. However, the probability that an accident is severe or fatal when it happens at intersections is higher than at non-intersections (Clabaux et al, 2012;De Lapparent, 2006).…”

Motorcyclist Is the Right-of-Way Violator: A Population-Based Study of Motorcycle Right-of-Way Crash in Taiwan

“…Our conjecture here needs to be confirmed with speed data that are in general not available in policereported crash data. In examining motorcycle's speed in approach-turn crashes where motorcycle's ROW was violated by turning cars, past studies [5,10,[18][19][20] have concluded that motorcycle's speed tended to be higher. Coupled with the findings of these studies, the current research suggests that from a policy perspective, controlling motorcycle speed on a roadway with higher speed limit should therefore be beneficial in curbing ROW crashes (regardless of whether motorcyclist is blamed for ROW violation).…”