Motorcycle active safety systems: Assessment of the function and applicability using a population-based crash data set

Abstract

Objective: Motorcycles and mopeds, often referred to as powered two wheelers (PTWs), play an important role for personal mobility worldwide. Despite their advantages, including low cost, space and fuel efficiency, the risk of sustaining serious or fatal injuries is higher than is the case for occupants of passenger cars. The development of safety systems specific for PTWs represents a potential way to reduce casualties among riders. With the proliferation of new active and passive safety technologies, the question as to which might offer the most value is important. In this context, a prioritisation process was applied to a set of PTW active safety systems to evaluate their applicability to crash scenarios alone and in combination. The systems included in the study were antilock braking, autonomous emergency braking, collision warning, curve warning, and curve assist. Methods: With the functional performance of the five safety systems established, the relevance of each system to specific crash configurations and vehicle movements defined by a standardized accident classification system used in Victoria, Australia, was rated by two independent reviewers, with a third reviewer acting as a moderator where disagreements occurred. Ratings ranged from 1 (definitely not applicable) to 4 (definitely applicable). Using population-based crash data, the number and percent of crashes that each safety system could potentially influence, or be relevant for, was defined. Applying accepted injury costs permitted the derivation of the societal economic cost of PTW crashes and the potential reductions associated with each safety system given a theoretical crash avoidance effectiveness of 100%. Results: In the 12-year period 2000-2011, 23,955 PTW riders and 1292 pillion passengers were reported to have been involved in a road crash, with over 500 killed and more than 10,000 seriously injured; only 3.5% of riders / pillions were uninjured. The total economic cost associated with these injured riders and pillions was estimated to be $AU 11.1 billion (US$7.70 billion; €6.67 billion). The five safety systems, as single solution or in combination, were relevant to 57% of all crashes, and to 74% riders killed. Antilock braking was found to be relevant to the highest number of crashes, with incremental increases in coverage when combined with other safety systems. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that ABS, alone and in combination with other safety systems, has the potential to mitigate or possibly prevent a high percentage of PTW crashes in the considered setting. Other safety systems can influence different crash scenarios and are also recommended. Given the high cost of motorcycle crashes and the increasing number of PTW safety technologies, the proposed approach can be used to inform the process of selection of the most suitable interventions to improve PTW safety.

Applicability Assessment of Active Safety Systems for Motorcycles Using Population-Based Crash Data: Cross-Country Comparison among Australia, Italy, and USA

“…Country-specific applicability for each system, alone and in combination, was estimated using three real-world crash databases containing crash data from Australia, Italy, and the US. In addition, using the approach developed in an earlier Australian study [21], it was possible to compare the results with those obtained from the analysis of the Australian Road Crash Information System (RCIS) database. The new proposed approach is one of the first methods to allow an applicability comparison among datasets originally characterized using different standards.…”

“…An estimated total of 265,361 US PTW crashes was obtained after applying the CRSS sampling weights. The results obtained from the analysis of these three datasets were also compared with the applicability results obtained from the analysis of the crashes that occurred in the state of Victoria between 2001 and 2011 and were contained in the Road Crash Information System (RCIS) [21].…”

“…The Australian DCA chart (Appendix A Figure A1) is divided into 10 categories, comprising 81 total crash configurations, each described by a pictogram containing the trajectory of the vehicles involved in the crashes without distinguishing between types of vehicles. Following Savino et al, it was necessary to extend the crash configurations from 81 to 152, because the original Australian DCA code does not specify the type of vehicle to which the trajectories correspond [21]. The expansion was achieved by introducing a new variable, "Type", that specifies all the possible combinations of the position of motorcycles and other vehicles.…”

“…Previous research has estimated the applicability of PTW active safety systems as a function of crash scenarios in Australia [21]. However, how these results can be generalized to other regions of the world is unknown.…”

Visual Feedback Effectiveness in Reducing Over Speeding of Moped-Riders

“…Another way to try to reduce risky behaviors such as over speeding, is by acting directly on the actions that need to be corrected, by means of driving assistance systems which provide on-line feedback to induce the driver to modify her/ his behavior (behavioral perspective). Despite the great variety of advanced driving assistance systems developed and tested on cars, less effort has been devoted to powered two-wheeler (PTW) riders (Amback et al, 2009;Beanland et al, 2013;Savino et al, 2019). This is even more surprising, considering that riders are more prone to bad outcomes when involved in a crash and continue to be among the most vulnerable category of road users in 2018, in all the IRTAD countries, except United States (OECD/ITF, 2019).…”