When there is a collision between a motorcycle and a car, the car driver very often says, ‘I didn’t see the mototrcyle.’ Why is that? Has there ever been a study?
My own hypothesis:
[ul][li]Motorcycles are smaller than cars[/li][li]Smaller objects appear to be farther away than larger objects[/li][li]Motorcycles tend to be ridden faster than cars are driven[/ul][/li]Car drivers are conditioned to look for cars (when they bother to use their Mk.I Panning Mount – their neck to turn their heads – and their mirrors). If they see a motorcycle behind them, their brains register ‘vehicle’. The brain observes that the ‘vehicle’ is one-quarter the size of a car, and concludes that there is a car at a certain distance away. But the motorcycle is smaller than a car, and so it is ‘closer than it appears to be’. Thus a car driver might change lanes in front of a close motorcycle because he has registered a ‘generic vehicle’ at a farther distance away. If the motorcycle is travelling faster than the car traffic, the rate of closure (from the shorter distance) is increased.
But I’d still like to know if there have ever been any scientific studies.
There’s also the factor that motorcycles will often “white-line” between two lanes. A motorist looking behind him might not be seeing that area, but will see the next lane over, where a car would, of necessity, be.
My guess would be that lane splitting is frequently to blame. When you’re getting ready to change lanes, you mark where the nearest cars are and how fast they’re travelling, but not necessarily that object speeding up between lanes from 5 or 6 cars back.
There’s already another thread on lane-splitting. Many collisions happen when a car driver turns left in front of a motorcycle at an intersection. In my example in the OP I used an overtaking motorcycle, but the ‘smaller means farther’ hypothesis also works with opposing traffic.
Mirror blind spots are effectively much larger for motorcycles than for cars, too. A passing car is wide enough that you can see its right side in the left wing mirror (when properly adjusted) almost until you can see it in your peripheral vision. If a motorcycle is in the middle of the lane, it will probably be in the blind spot for 10-20 feet more than the car. A driver conditioned by looking for cars might not turn his head far enough to see the motorcycle.
Do you have any data or a sense for what kind of accidents are more likely in motorcycle-car collisions? This would explain cars sideswiping motorcyclists, but I don’t know if that is a common type of accident.
I think it’s just to do with not using mirrors correctly and not checking blindspots before maneuvering. There was a road safety advert in the UK recently that went something like this:
We see the scene from the driver’s point of view as a car goes down the street. A motorbike is behind us. We look up at the rear view mirror, where the rider is clearly visible
Voice over: “Now you see him”
Right wing mirror. We can’t see the motorbike.
“Now you don’t”
Left wing mirror
“Now you see him”
Rear view mirror again
“Now you don’t”
The driver turns right as the bike tries to overtake and we hear a loud bang. The door opens and we pan down. The motorbike and rider are lying in the street.
“Now you see him. Now you see him”
No, I don’t. That’s why I’m asking if there have been any studies. FWIW, most of the motorcycle fatalities I’ve heard of (i.e., this is IME/hearsay) have been caused by cars turning left in front of motorcycles. For example, in college I left class early (I was getting an ‘A’ and didn’t feel I needed to stay after the break) a motorcyclist was riding on the avenue and a woman turned left out of the car park in front of him. He was under a sheet when I got there. She said ‘she didn’t see him’.
I was taught not to rely on mirrors when driving, and to actually turn my head to look at the ‘blind spot’. SMOG: Signal, (look in the) Mirror, (look) Over the shoulder, Go. (FWIW, I do MSMOG – look in the mirror before and after signalling.)
There has only been one official government study of the factors contributing to motorcycle accidents, the HURT Report. This was completed in 1981. I think there is another study in the works attached to the new transportation bill. I hope so, it’s long overdue.
THE most common car-motorcycle accident is a car making a left turn in front of the motorcyclist at an intersection.
Personally I feel the contributing factors are the relative small size of the motorcycle, the misconception that the motorcycle will always be quicker than the car, and just plain old negligence and inattention of the car driver. A motorcyclist must always be ver vigilant of the traffic situation, and must always assume that the cagers (car drivers) cannot see you, even if they are looking straight at you. I’ve had car drivers look dead at me, and STILL pull off some bone headed maneuver cutting me off or otherwise putting me in danger. We just don’t REGISTER in their brains. So it’s up to the motorcyclist to always be ready to perform whatever evasive/defensive action is required.
I do not know of formal studies but I can discuss my experience of about 15 years riding motorcycles plus 32 years driving cars. Many posts have already hit on what I think the main causes are:
[ul]
[li]Exaggerarated effect of the blind spot, since a motorcycle can be more easily 100% obscured[/li][li]Failure of the driver to look for other vehicles, which causes car crashes as well, BTW[/li][li]Congitive psychology issue where a driver, looking for a car and seeing none, completely misses the fact that he looked directly at a motorcycle (although I would defer to scientific proof on that one)[/li][/ul]
You learn quickly not to ride in a driver’s blind spot, especially to the driver’s left rear. (Often drivers will check over their right shoulder when moving right but the angle to the left is sharper.) I had many experiences on multi-lane roads where I was in a position next to a car not in the blind spot and the driver changed lanes into my lane. I have almost never had this happen when in the same position while driving a car. I have never had a car turn left in front of me but I know this is a common scenario.
Most motorcycles run with the headlight on all the time and some have a flashing or pulsating headlight in the daytime to mitigate the visibility/recognition problem.
I drive a Ford E-350 club wagon. If there is a motorcycle to my left, at the left side of his lane, about in the middle of my van, I can’t see him in my left side mirror, and if I turn my head and look, I still can’t see him because the door post off my left shoulder creates a big enough blind spot to hide an entire motorcycle.
I can see him coming from behind me in the left side mirror, but if he comes up in the 3rd lane, then changes lanes to be right beside me, I have no idea he’s there.
I’ve taken to checking the mirror, then turn my head and look, then look ahead to see if things are still okay ahead, then I lean forward and look into the blind spot… freaks my passengers out when I do this, but hey. I’ve lost Geo Metros in that blind spot…
Do you remember the basketball video in which people were asked how many baskets were made and then they were asked if anything odd happened? No one could recall anything until they were shown the same video again. Now they saw someone nonchalantly strolling around the court in a gorilla costume.
Drivers also tend to develop a sort of tunnel vision. They effect is enhanced when they are distracted by using a cell phone, eating, doing they makeup or talking to someone.
I’m one of the few people I know who do this religiously (MSMOG and all). Still, more often than you’d think the delay between looking over the shoulder, turning back to face forward, and changing lanes is long enough for some lunatic on a motorcycle to come tear-assing up the road behind me and into that space. I’m sure present company is nothing but sweet angels on their bikes, but the vast majority of people on motorcycles I’ve interacted with are self-centered jerks about it.
And, to go somewhat off-topic with another bit of evidence as to this general mindset: aftermarket sound enhancers. I can’t ever sleep in on the weekend because all these 50-year-old professionals with midlife crises have to come down the street with glass in their mufflers like the world’s coming to an end. Mock “cagers” all you want: motorcyclists, in general, feel that the rules of the road simply do not apply to them (the same goes for pedalists using the roads as if they’re sidewalks, but that’s another rant). It’s as often as not an attention-getting device, the sort of which used to get you time-out back in school.
I have a 2000 Dodge truck that has a severe blind spot because of the large A pillars, particularly on the driver’s side. I have to bob my head like a pigeon or the pillar can easily obscure a whole car let alone pedestrians or motorcycles.
I’d say it’s a lot of mechanical factors combined with the fact that people aren’t looking for the head on view of a motorcycle in their mirrors.
New Scientist recently had some interesting features on how the mind ‘lies’ to itself, including the way that people can miss the obvious when doing complex tasks that require concentration. Here is a link to one of the new scientist articles http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18725101.400
As a full-time pedalist (no car), staying alive means knowing when drivers don’t see me. Most do. Many don’t, or don’t for a disconcertingly long time (meanwhile, I’ve positioned myself so I don’t become a road pizza). Most of these seem simply not to be paying attention, i.e., are zoned out. Some are distracted. In my observation, someone on a cell phone takes, on average, four times as long to spot me as someone who’s merely not paying attention. Blind spot problems occur, of course, but they are dwarfed by the inattention and distraction problems.
BTW, IMHO, the single most helpful thing car drivers could do to help bikers and pedalists would be to use turn signals. Always. Even when you don’t see us (and there’s always a non-zero chance you don’t). If we know you’re coming, we’ll almost always figure out a way not to get hit.
Apart from rear-enders, I’d have to say that turning left in front of oncoming traffic is the most common cause of traffic accidents. Doesn’t matter that it’s a motorcycle, people do this to semis, SUVs and 1983 2-door Corollas. Mercifully I don’t see too many cases where a car hits a motorcycle in the rear. Those are Ug-Lee!
Uh…my point? Um…oh yeah, if you wanna point the finger at Left-turn vs. Motorcycle, it’d probably be best to study the general phenomenon of drivers not seeing/gauging traffic that is approaching from directly ahead of them. My guess is people who are turning left fix their eyses on the point where their lane will begin once the turn is completed giving only cursory attention to oncoming traffic before the starting the maneuver, and none once they’ve begun to turn. The profile of an oncoming motorcycle is considerably smaller than that of a car, and often they are travelling a bit faster than anticipated, so they’d be easily overlooked given my hypothesis.
And actually, at least as often as the left turn scenario is the case where a vehicle noses out into traffic from an alley or side street.
I would suspect that a large percentage accidents between two cars are also because one of the cars didn’t see the other - last week my girlfriend (who drives an SUV) got sideswiped by someone who switched lanes without seeing her. The big difference is that the human injury is generally much worse in motorcycle accidents, so it gets noticed more.