Infrastructure Dangerous To Motorcycles Needs To Be Studied For Mitigation

European, Australian and American studies have demonstrated the dangers of some of the common roadside safety barriers to motorcyclists involved in crashes.  Even Texas A&M University has studied the dangers that roadside safety features present to motorcyclists.  As early as 1982, Dr. J.V. Ouellet of the University of Southern California studied and reported the dangers of certain highway safety features that were meant to provide protection to automobiles in crashes, but presented additional dangers to motorcyclists.  The 2008 report by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), an arm of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies stated; "Historically, roadside safety barriers have been installed to protect errant motor vehicles from encroaching on fixed objects located beyond the barrier. In most cases, the installation of safety barriers has only taken into consideration the needs and concerns of passenger cars, trucks, and other motor vehicles, while the needs of motorcyclists are typically overlooked."  

FHWA requires use of NCHRP Report 350 testing protocols for
all roadside safety hardware. As currently established, there are no protocols covering the performance of roadside barriers based on collisions with motorcycles.  Such testing protocols have remained in limbo for over two decades, with little real effort to research and create baseline protocols covering the performance of roadside barriers.  Currently, when the subject has been brought to the attention of WSDOT managers and others in meetings, it was dismissed with little consideration or concern.  Why is that the case?  Is it because there is no current priority to research the effects of impacts with these features by motorcyclists?  With no impetus to perform the research, there is no concern about examining existing data.  

Would it not be prudent to conduct a study here in Washington State on the effects of impacts with these various types of boundaries by motorcyclists?  This would put Washington State squarely at the forefront of highway safety in this field.  A leader in an effort to actually find ways to move toward reaching Target Zero.  Would it not be better for the WSDOT or one of Washington's universities to conduct such research in order to help save lives on our roadways?







1. Motorcycle Impacts Into Roadside Barriers - Real-World Accident Studies, Crash Tests and Simulations Carried out in Germany and Australia by Berg, Rucker, Gartner, Koenig of the  DEKRA Automobil GmbH Germany and Grzebieta and Zou of Monash University, Australia.  Paper Number 05-0095

2. Motorcycle Crash Testing  Chiara S. Dobrovolny, Ph.D., Roadside Safety & Physical Security Division, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, 2016

3. Environmental Hazards in Motorcycle Accidents, Dr. J.V. Ouellet, Traffic Safety Center
University of Southern California. 1982

4. NCHRP Report 500, Transportation Reseach Board, National Academies, 2008