Innovative motorcycle headlight design as a means of improving motorcycle perceptibility for car drivers

The most frequent motorcycle accidents involve another vehicle violating the motorcycle's right-of-way at an intersection. The low visual conspicuity of motorcycles is the primary reason why they are often not detected or seen or too late. The main safety measure in the past has been the compulsory use of daytime running lights (DRLs) by motorcycles. This conspicuity advantage of motorcycles as the only vehicles with DRLs is presently getting lost by the growing use of DRLs by cars. In an earlier study we have actually shown that car DRLs decrease the detectability of motorcycles. In addition to detection errors, the misperception of the approaching motorcycle's speed and time-to-arrival also contributes to accident occurrence and severity. In order to reduce motorcycle accidents, and especially to improve motorcycle perceptibility (both detection and speed perception) by other vehicle drivers, ITS using vehicle-to-vehicle communication will probably provide effective long-term solutions (>10 years). But until then, solutions based on innovative motorcycle headlights could be easily implemented to improve motorcyclists' safety. In two simulator studies, we tested various motorcycle headlight configurations, intended for remedying simultaneously the two perceptual errors made by other vehicle drivers. The impact of different headlight configurations (using colour coding and additional lights) was studied in the presence of visual distractors (car front lights) and in different illumination conditions. The results indicate that headlight configurations comprising additional yellow lights on the fork and on the motorcyclist's helmet significantly improve motorcycle perceptibility in the presence of car DRLs.