Target Zero: Motorcycles Are Not Automobiles

It may be that there are still several members of the Washington State Legislature, Washington State DOT, and the Dept. of Licensing, who do not understand that motorcycles are significantly different from automobiles.  For unknown reasons all three of these groups; the Legislature, WSDOT, and the DOL have personnel in key positions who cannot grasp that motorcycles and automobiles are fundamentally different.  

Quite often we hear the statistic that motorcycles make-up only four percent of the registered vehicles in Washington state, yet account for fifteen percent of fatalities on the roadways.  This inability to understand why motorcyclists are over-represented in highway fatalities need only take a look at the above photo to comprehend if one should care to actually look and see for themselves.  

Motorcycles don't have 'crumple zones' or a metal passenger safety enclosure as automobiles do.  Only a very small percentage of motorcycles have airbags and those that do operate in a different manner and for a slightly different purpose than do those in automobiles.  Where automobiles may have approximately 360 square inches of surface contact with the roadway, most motorcycles tend to have less than 20 square inches of surface in contact with the pavement.  Motorcycles are also much more susceptible to loss of traction due to a road surface or debris issue that may have passed completely unnoticed by an automobile.

Infrastructure features that are meant to have been a safety feature for automobiles can be a danger to motorcyclists.  Some features can have a detrimental effect on the handling of a motorcycle, and loss of handling or traction is a contributing factor in many single-vehicle accidents.  Even something as seemingly insignificant as the painted lines on the road can contribute to significant loss of traction for a motorcycle with dangerous results.  Whereas an automobile driver would not even necessarily notice that they had crossed the line.  

In 2011 Washington State DOT published a study entitled "Performance Analysis of Centerline Rumble Strips in Washington State".  Within this report, the researchers show that there was a 76% increase in serious and fatal motorcycle crashes after installation of the Centerline Rumble Strips (CLRS); but because none of those accidents were related to the vehicle operator being "asleep, fatigued, or distracted" the researchers "exempted" all motorcycle data from the study because it was "skewing" the CLRS analysis data.  The study also showed that a vast majority of the crashes were "lane departures to the outside of the curve".  

If you are at all familiar with how motorcycles function, you should understand that the motorcycle is not steered effectively by turning the handlebars in the direction you wish to turn.  Instead, an operator 'counter-steers' by pushing the handlebar forward on the side of the bike they wish to turn (pushing forward on the right handlebar turns the front wheel to the left, but creates a right-leaning turn in the motorcycle at speeds above about 5 mph) and quickly or violently doing so can easily cause loss of control of the motorcycle.  In a flat curve, from the inside of the curve, this loss of control has a significantly higher risk of the motorcycle becoming involved in a 'low-side' crash and then experience "lane departures to the outside of the curve".  Those rapid or violent inputs to the steering are provided by the CLRS's themselves when a  motorcyclist strays just a little too close to the centerline.  In other words; the Centerline Rumble strips that are a safety feature to help reduce accidents caused by sleeping, fatigued or distracted drivers present a significant risk of a serious or fatal crash to a motorcyclist. 

Even many common safety barriers may well protect automobile operators and passengers from serious or fatal injury while creating dangerous hazards to motorcyclists.  The ubiquitous "W Beam" guardrail, 'jersey barrier' and cable barrier are just some of the safety barriers that fall into this category.  These risks can be mitigated by simple steps in most cases.  But WSDOT has repeatedly turned a deaf ear to any attempt to discuss such mitigation possibilities.  This seems to cast a cloud of doubt over WSDOT's commitment to attaining Target Zero.

Until the WSDOT, the DOL, and the Washington State Legislature realize that motorcycles and automobiles have very different requirements for safely traveling on our roadways we will continue to have reductions in automobile traffic fatalities, but little or no reduction in motorcycle fatalities.  Without understanding that what can be a safety benefit for one mode of transportation can seriously increase the hazard of a fatal crash to another mode of transportation, Washington State goal of zero fatalities or serious injuries by 2030 will remain an unattainable dream.

In WSDOT's 2016 reports on the safety performance on urban, suburban arterials, and rural two-lane highways, bicyclists and pedestrians were each mentioned several dozen times.  Motorcyclists were never mentioned once in over 750 pages of the two combined reports.  Until the Legislature, WSDOT and DOL actually open themselves up to listening to the stakeholders involved in the various modes of transportation, not just automobile operators, bicyclists and pedestrians, little improvement is likely to occur.  Without understanding a problem there can be no solution attained.

Catch you on the road sometime...