Estimating Motorcycle Miles Traveled From State Vehicle Inspection Records
Estimating vehicle exposure is difficult for any type of vehicle, and motorcycles are no exception. As motorcycle vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is based on traffic counts of sampled roadways supplemented with traffic modeling, a long-standing challenge of measuring motorcycle exposure is due to motorcycle characteristics in terms of size and type (smaller, lighter, single-axis) and use (recreational and weekend trips). This study sought to improve our understanding of this issue by examining use of motorcycle odometer readings as measures of VMT. The study used odometer data to calculate motorcycle mileage. The odometer data were part of motorcycle safety inspection records provided by three States — Hawaii, from 2013 to 2016; North Carolina, from 2012 to 2016; and Virginia, from 2012 to 2017. Mileage was computed for motorcycles that had more than one inspection record. The results showed that mean annual mileage per motorcycle was consistent year-to-year for the periods studied, and motorcycles on average were ridden about 2,000 miles each year. This distance is lower than the mileage reported in self-report studies, suggesting that self-reports may be overestimations. Also, the annual motorcycle mileage was skewed, with a large proportion of motorcycles having been ridden for very few miles each year. The current study suggests that inspection records are valuable for revealing patterns of use, as they are a direct measure of distance ridden. The information in this report is presented to share research findings; it is not a recommendation to use this strategy for computing VMT. There are signification limitations to using odometer- based readings from inspection records to calculate VMT. First, this type of odometer data is not widely available, as few States require motorcycle safety inspections. Second, thousands of inspection records used in this study had missing or erroneous odometer data. Third, interpretation of odometer-based VMT is challenging because inspected motorcycles may have mileage accrued out-of-State, thereby limiting conclusions about State- based VMT.
- Record URL:
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Corporate Authors:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Highway Safety Research Center
Chapel Hill, NC United States 27599National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Authors:
- Kirley, B
- Wang, Y
- Foss, R
- Harrell, S
- Goodwin, A
- Publication Date: 2022-5
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Edition: Final Report
- Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 51p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Estimating; Highway safety; Motorcycling; Traffic counts; Vehicle miles of travel
- Geographic Terms: Hawaii; North Carolina; Virginia
- Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01847831
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 813 288
- Contract Numbers: DTNH2211D00223L/0006
- Files: HSL, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
- Created Date: Jun 1 2022 3:49PM