University urges bike awareness training

[toratora]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_NvUHGgi8
https://motorbikewriter.com/university- ... -training/

7TH JANUARY, 2018

Motorcycle awareness should be included in all driver training and increased in safety campaigns, according to the authors of an Australian National University study. It found that drivers are twice as likely to miss seeing a motorcycle compared with a taxi and admit they do not expect to see motorcyclists. Riders refer to this phenomenon as SMIDSY (Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You), but the study refers to it as “inattentional blindness” resulting in “looked-but-failed-to-see” (LBFTS) crashes.

These are the most common type of collision involving motorcycles, according to the 2017 US Motorcycle Crash Causation Study.

The Alliance of British Drivers even produced a video which explains one of the scientific principles of SMIDSY called saccadic masking.

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Overloaded drivers

Now, the Australian National University study, “Allocating Attention to Detect Motorcycles: The Role of Inattentional Blindness”, has found that drivers are overloaded with more sensory information than the brain can handle.

“So our brain has to decide what information is most important,” the study reports.

“The frequency of LBFTS crashes suggests to us a connection with how the brain filters out information.”

University researchers Kristen Pammer, Stephanie Sabadas, and Stephanie Lentern asked 76 participants to look at photographs taken from the driver’s perspectives and determine if it was safe or unsafe.

The final photograph included an unexpected object, either a motorcycle or a taxi, which was not noticed by 48% of all participants.

Of those, 65% did not detect the motorcycle while 31% did not notice the taxi.

University experiments

In other experiments, drivers modulated their attention to accommodate motorcycles when necessary, suggesting that motorcycles are given the least amount of attention. Participants said they believed a motorcycle was just as likely to be on the road as a taxi, but admitted they would be far less likely to notice the motorcycle. However, participants who have a motorcycle licence were more likely to notice the motorcycles. “By putting motorcyclists higher on the brain ‘radar’ of the driver, hopefully drivers will be more likely to see them. In the meantime, we need to be more vigilant, more active, and more conscious when driving.”

10 ways riders to avoid SMIDSY crashes

1. Position on the road is important. You need to ride in the wheel track closer to the centre line so you are visible sooner to oncoming traffic or vehicles turning across your path. It also gives you a buffer from vehicles suddenly emerging from a parking bay.
2. Weaving from one wheel track to the other also draws attention. It may look erratic and as though you have lost control, but it attracts much-needed driver attention.
3. Never assume a driver has seen you.
4. Assume they haven’t seen you and prepare an exit route in case they drive out in front of you or merge into your lane.
5. Don’t ride in a vehicle’s blind spot.
6. Give yourself a buffer zone from other vehicles.
7. Slow down and get ready to take evasive action if you see a vehicle at an intersection.
8. Wait until you see the whites of their eyes before accelerating. And even then, prepare for them to make a sudden move.
9. If so, it is best to think about changing course behind the car, rather than in front of it. The normal reaction is to weave away from the direction that the threat is coming. However, that leads you into the direction the threat is heading, so you may still collide.
10. If you don’t see the whites of their eyes, then it might be time to give a polite toot on the horn to alert them.