Improved Perception of Motorcycles by Simulator-based Driving Education

Research shows that about half of all motorcycle collisions with other vehicles were caused by the accident opponent, typically a passenger car. Limited visibility due to insufficient contrast and obstructions in the sightlines of car drivers to motorcycles play an important role here. This study aimed to assess the effect of simulator training for improving car drivers’ perceptibility of motorcycles. For this purpose, a training program with different methods was conducted and tested in a driving simulator with 80 learner drivers aged between 15 and 27 years, assigned to a control group and three training groups: variable priority, equal priority, and equal priority with warning. The conflict scenarios have been determined based on an analysis of motorcycle-car accidents. The results in post-test show that simulator training had different effects depending on the training method used. The variable priority training resulted in better perceptibility of motorcycles as compared to equal priority training and equal priority with warning on urban roads with high contrast between motorcycle and the driving environment and on rural roads with low contrast. Most participants rated all training methods in the driving simulator as useful and would recommend it to other learner drivers. These results are important because they show that simulator training has a positive effect on the motorcycle detection performance of learner drivers. Early perception of motorcycles in car drivers is essential for preventing collisions between cars and motorcycles.