A release from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) caught my eye, telling about a study showing that novice riders who spend time on the Honda SMARTrainer traffic environment simulator are better at picking up potential hazards than those who do not.
The release stated that, "While the Honda SMARTrainer was not designed to be a motorcycle simulator, it does provide exposure to a simulated, complex riding environment where a student can experience hazard avoidance without risk. As a simulation, the SMARTrainer does not replicate real-world riding, but it serves as a compelling approximation of the hazards presented by other vehicles and pedestrians. Since it would be difficult for a novice rider to gain the benefit of experience with significant hazards without risking the exposure to potential crashes, the SMARTrainer is a useful and relevant tool."
I wanted to read the report the researchers put together so I went to the website of the journal where it was published, Accident Analysis and Prevention, which is published by ELSEVIER. As I thought might be the case, you can view abstracts of the articles in the journal but to read the entire report you have to pay. That limitation notwithstanding, I found quite a bit of interesting, albeit basic, information on the site.
First off, there is apparently a great deal of motorcycle safety research going on in a lot of different places. Most motorcyclists are familiar with the broader studies such as the Hurt Report, the current Motorcycle Crash Causation Study led by Dr. Samir Ahmed at Oklahoma State University, and the recently launched naturalistic study funded by the MSF. Less well known is the fact that numerous smaller, more sharply focused studies are underway as well.
A search of the Accident Analysis and Prevention site produced a wide variety of report titles, such as the following.
- Motorcycle riders’ perception of helmet use: Complaints and dissatisfaction
- The association of helmet use with the outcome of motorcycle crash injury when controlling for crash/injury severity
- A comparison of the hazard perception ability of accident-involved and accident-free motorcycle riders
- Facial trauma and the risk of intracranial injury in motorcycle riders
- Evaluation of the motorcycle rider course
- A review of risk factors and patterns of motorcycle injuries
- Do Motorcycle Helmets Affect Riders' Vision and Hearing?
While the information available in the abstracts for these reports is extremely limited, it can nevertheless be very interesting. For example, the abstract for the report, "A comparison of the hazard perception ability of accident-involved and accident-free motorcycle riders," states that "In this study, we found that both the divided and selective attention of accident-involved motorcycle riders were significantly inferior to those of accident-free motorcycle riders. Besides, accident-involved riders exhibited significantly higher driving violation behaviors and took longer to identify hazardous situations compared to their accident-free counterparts."
Much more provocatively, the abstract for the report, "Evaluation of the motorcycle rider course," says that the major findings are that riders who took the MSF rider course did not have a lower accident rate, did not have fewer traffic violations, did not incur less costly damage to their bikes, and did not incur less costly medical treatment. The abstract does note that, "the mean cost of damage to the motorcycles was less for those who took the course; and (f) the mean medical cost per accident was less among those who took the course than the control group. The latter may be attributable to the finding that (g) those who took the course made more use of protective clothing, such as helmets, than the control group, and to other exposure factors affecting the severity of the accidents."
Clearly there's a lot of work going on that can be of concern to motorcyclists. I'll make a point to revisit this site regularly and I'll share what I find with you.
Comments