Posted on 10/18/2022 1:36:23 PM PDT by aimhigh
Motorcycle drivers are 27 times more likely to die in an accident than those in regular passenger vehicles. Night driving is especially dangerous, accounting for nearly half of all fatal crashes.
Now a new study has found that a reimagined lighting configuration -- six lights running from the top to the bottom of a motorcycle rather than a single headlight -- could help improve other motorists’ abilities to see them.
The study published in the journal Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour was conducted by researchers Pat DeLucia from Rice University and Bradley Weaver from Emory Healthcare, who earned his Ph.D. at Rice.
“Because motorcycles are smaller than many other vehicles, it is more difficult for other drivers to accurately judge their motion on the roadway,” said Weaver, the study’s lead author and a human factors engineer and researcher who did his doctoral dissertation on the topic. “It is particularly difficult at night when a motorcycle has only a single headlight because other drivers can’t see the motorcycle’s full height or width.”
The study revealed that improved lighting could result in other motorists being able to see motorcycles up to 0.8 seconds sooner. “Just under a second might not seem like a lot, but reducing a driver’s response time to a potential collision can make a difference between life and death,” said DeLucia, a professor of psychological sciences who conducts human factors research, particularly related to transportation and health care.
For the study, DeLucia and Weaver recruited 35 people who were between 19 and 70 years old to take part in a laboratory driving simulation. The researchers measured how quickly the participants saw motorcycles with various enhanced lighting configurations that illuminated their full height and width. Each of the new designs improved response times compared with a single headlight, but the participants reacted most quickly to the configuration of six lights.
The study entitled “Effect of motorcycle lighting configurations on drivers’ perceptions of closing during nighttime driving” is available online at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369847822001942 .
IMO, motorcycle headlights are already too bright and misfocused. I’ve never had one come up behind me with headlights on that weren’t adjusted too bright or too high. That goes double for oncoming.
i was behind black bike with dude in black leather and he was behind a black van....i couldn’t see him. it was dusk.
I don’t believe visibility is the issue. Drivers see the motorcycle. They just don’t care.
Because California law allows you to lane-split doesn’t mean you should or have to.
“Because motorcycles are smaller than many other vehicles, it is more difficult for other drivers to accurately judge their motion on the roadway,”
Well, that, and probably also the fact that most other vehicles don’t haphazardly weave in between other vehicles (and in between lanes).
Beat me to it.
Defensive driving is all the more necessary for motorcyclists, I think. They tend not to get noticed because of the lack of lights like a car. I don’t have a motorcycle, but I was T-boned by a car on my bicycle even though I had a working headlight and tail light and was in the bike lane (I was not injured btw). I give all cars the right of way now, even when it belongs to me.
I have an idea.
Put louder pipes on the bikes and wear dark clothing and no helmet.
A yellow and orange florescent vest you can pick up at Walmart would seem to be a lot cheaper.
Splitting lanes is stupid, unless traffic is stopped or crawling..
The big killer with MC’s are intersections...Major death traps.
One of the first things I did on my Indian Scout was to install LED headlight and turn signals (LED brake light is stock). Big improvement in visibility. Thinking of installing an after market fix which will give me LED running lights.
Yes, amazingly enough the Scout does not come with running lights!
I don’t ride at night mainly for two reasons. I don’t need to, and deer.
Brights on all the time make golks swerve around.
Night driving is especially dangerous, accounting for nearly half of all fatal crashes.
Then, DAY driving is especially dangerous, accounting for the other half of all fatal crashes.
LOL I was thinking the same thing. Nearly half could be 49% which leaves 51% for daylight crashes.
BTW, most of those crashes are caused by inattentive (OLD) drivers. I’m going to strangle one of them one day. Came close a couple months ago.
Be careful.
A lot of us old guys have concealed carry these days....
Be careful.
A lot of us old guys have concealed carry these days....
So do a lot of bikers. the thing is that the old guys wont see it coming because they nearly killed another biker. I swear if that old fart had stopped, I’d be in jail. BTW I’m almost 60.
> ...participants reacted most quickly to the configuration of six lights.
“There are FOUR LIGHTS!” -Pickard, Cpt. Starfleet
And a meteorite could land in my yard tomorrow, ... but I ain't holding my breath.
Motorists aren't a threat to everything that's on two wheels because the 2-wheelers aren't properly lit, they're a threat to everything that's on two wheels because CAGERS DON'T CARE.
Cagers don't respect what they don't fear. Period. Full Stop. And they don't fear 2-wheelers because even if you run over one, it'll probably buff out.
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