PROBLEMS IN MOTORCYCLE SAFETY

Motorcycle safety is examined in terms of increased motorcycle registrations, accident risk, lack of accident data, accident data useful to traffic engineers, improvements to the motorcycling environment, planning and design of facilities, road construction and maintenance, and signing. Consideration of motorcycles in all areas of traffic safety will become increasingly important as cycle usage grows in response to fuel shortages and higher fuel costs. Adequate accident data must be generated in order to develop effective countermeasures. Because motorcycles are energy-efficient vehicles, their use should be facilitated via special parking facilities, use of all limited access roadways, and use of bus/bike lanes in cities and express lanes on freeways. More attention should be given to the skid resistance of road surfaces (including manhole covers, lane markings, steel bridge gratings, and temporary surfaces such as planking and steel plates). Prompt removal of roadway debris is an essential part of a motorcycle safety program. Project engineers must give greater consideration to cyclist safety at construction and maintenance sites. Existing environment hazards must be identified and corrected; where correction is not economically feasible, adequate advance warning signs should be erected.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Presented at 45th Annual Meeting of Institute of Traffic Engineers, Seattle, 20 August, 1975.
• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Buchanan, L S
• Publication Date: 1975

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 15 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bus lanes; Countermeasures; Crashes; Data collection; Freeways; Hazards; Motorcycles; Parking; Skid resistance; Traffic safety
• Subject Areas: Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00368403
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-810 289U
• Files: HSL, USDOT
• Created Date: Nov 30 1982 12:00AM