Digging Into Results Of Naturalistic Study

November 7th, 2016
chart showing how risk increases

This chart from the report shows how much certain conditions or actions increase risk. (Source: Motorcycle Safety Foundation)

As noted previously, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) has released the results of its naturalistic motorcycle crash study. Here are some interesting items from that report.

I would guess that the findings the MSF considers important to work into their rider training curriculum could be considered the most relevant. Toward the end of the report there is a section, “Application of Findings,” where they briefly state the issue and then list the finding that suggest more emphasis might be needed in training. I’m going to abbreviate this considerably. If you want to read it all you’ll find the report here.

  • Changing direction requires special attention / Riding in a right curve doubles the risk of a crash or near-crash compared to riding on a straight roadway.
  • Emphasis on the importance of appropriate speed in curve maneuvers / Study results indicate that excessive speed is a factor in 45% of the events.
  • Crashes, if they ever happen, occur mostly in curves and at intersections / The risk of crashes
    and near-crashes are increased at various types of intersections: traffic signaled intersections (nearly 3 times), parking lot/driveway intersections (8 times), and intersections uncontrolled in the rider’s direction (40 times).
  • There is rarely a single cause of any crash / Factors that increase risk include locality, intersections, the type of road surface, traffic flow, roadway grade, and roadway alignment; practicing under these conditions, riding with extra vigilance, or just avoiding the risky situations will decrease one’s chance of being involved in a crash.
  • Use your eyes and mind to determine how and when to adjust position as situations unfold / having to maneuver to avoid an object increases the crash/near-crash risk by nearly 12 times.
  • Running off the road accounts for many crashes / 67% of all single-vehicle crashes and near-crashes involved curve negotiation, and 63% of those were run-off-road or lane line crossing cases.
  • Special consideration for starting on a hill / riding on an uphill grade doubles the risk of crash/near-crash, and riding on a downhill grade increases this risk four-fold.
  • Types of road surfaces to be aware of, and how to react to them / Riding on a gravel or dirt road is related to 9 times the risk of crash/near-crash involvement than riding on paved, smooth roads.

Of course, we already know these different situations involve greater risk but this study puts some numbers to them as to just how much riskier they are than just going straight on a smooth road under good conditions. All good information to factor into your riding strategy.

Biker Quote for Today

A bad day just makes an evening ride feel that much better.

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Report Out On ‘Naturalistic’ Study Of Motorcycle Crashes

November 3rd, 2016
naturalistic study

The opening slide of the naturalistic study slide deck.

About six years ago I wrote quite a lot about a new motorcycle crash study that was being conducted by the University of Oklahoma. It was to be an update to the old Hurt Report of 1981. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) was to chip in to cover the cost.

Then things got a little crazy. The MSF announced it would not help fund the study, but instead would fund its own “naturalistic” study of factors contributing to motorcycle crashes. Later on, Dr. Samir Ahmed, the researcher heading up the Oklahoma study, left the group and had some harsh words for it all. Honestly, I lost track and don’t even know if a report was ever issued.

But now the MSF has completed its study and it recently issued its findings. I’ll do a quick recap here and then follow up in more detail in follow-up posts.

The difference between the two types of studies are that the one looks at police reports and interviews those involved after a crash occurs. The “naturalistic” study equipped 100 motorcycles with a considerable array of cameras and other sensors and tracked riders at all times. The thinking, of course, was that at least some of these riders would experience “incidents” along the way. Then the data collected by the sensors could be studied to develop a deep understanding of what happened, which in turn would make it possible to devise methods for avoidance of such events in the future. And as a purveyor of a motorcycle rider training curriculum, the MSF would presumably revise its curriculum and work these new findings into its training.

A number of the tracked riders did indeed crash, although most of the crashes appear to be been cases of dropping the bike in a parking lot. I say that with some caution, however, because the wording used is not totally clear and that is my interpretation.

The 100 riders covered more than 366,000 miles during the course of the study. There were 78 male and 22 female riders, ages 21 to 79. Bikes included 41 cruisers, 38 touring bikes, and 21 sport bikes. Participants live in California, Virginia, Arizona, and Florida. The study ran over the course of one year.

Altogether, there were 30 crashes and 122 near-crashes, summed up under the term of “crashes and near-crashes” and abbreviated as CNC.

Beyond the 17 incidents of “ground impact – low speed,” which I presume to be dropping the bike, there were 3 incidents where the rider ran off the road, 3 where another vehicle turned in front of them, 2 where the rider rear-ended someone, 1 crash at speed, 1 poor curve negotiation, 1 rider who was rear-ended, and two I’m not sure I understand, but 1 “other vehicle straight crossing path” and 1 “subject vehicle turn into path (same direction).”

Enough for now. I’ll get into the details next time.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle is really a miniature automobile with full sized noise, smell and dirt output.

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MOST Will Not Die

October 31st, 2016

The Colorado Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program, or MOST, is up for renewal in the legislature this next session and despite the desires of much of the motorcycling community, it will probably be continued. That was the word at ABATE recently.

The issue now, said ABATE State Coordinator Bruce Downs, will be to figure out how to live with it as best we can.

selfie with Senator Todd

This first selfie I have ever shot shows the group at the Piper Inn, with the arrow pointing out Sen. Nancy Todd.

How times have changed! Just a few years ago ABATE was battling in the legislature to keep MOST alive. Back then the program was doing what it had done for years, providing substantial funds to motorcycle rider training programs to keep training affordable for as many riders as possible. One arm of ABATE of Colorado does rider training, so it was a comfortable arrangement.

Now, however, the amount paid to lessen the cost has been radically reduced and the program is spending its money–money paid in by motorcyclists as add-ons to our license renewals–is being spent in large measure for oversight of the program. Let’s see . . . MOST is no longer helping make training affordable but is spending the money to keep itself functioning. For what reason? I mean, if not for rider training, for what reason? So ABATE would now like MOST to die.

But as Bruce says, that does not appear likely to happen, at least not this time around. So the issue becomes figuring out how to get that money going back to training. This is where State Senator Nancy Todd comes in. For a number of years, Sen. Lois Tochtrop was one of the strongest motorcycling proponents in the state legislature. She was term-limited and is now gone from the Senate. Nancy Todd has stepped into the void. ABATE arranged a meet and greet with Todd and others interested in motorcycling issues about a week ago at the Piper Inn, which is a popular biker bar in southeast Denver.

Sen. Todd was the one who held the Colorado Department of Transportation’s (CDOT) feet to the fire over this recently resolved issue of motorcycles being required to have transponders in order to freely use HOV lanes. And according to Bruce, she agrees that there appears to be some conflict of interest in the idea that the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) is serving as both one of several competing rider training curriculum providers AND as the overseer of motorcycle rider training programs in Colorado in general. And of course, as ABATE points out, the funds paying MSF for its role as overseer are coming out of MOST funds far in excess of what the legislation seems to allow.

Sen. Todd said she intends to set up a meeting soon with CDOT and MOST to ask them to justify these issues.

And the beat goes on.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re not leaving work early, you’re just stretching your legs . . . all the way to your bike.

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Examiner Resurrection: The Best Motorcycle Road In Utah That No One Knows

October 27th, 2016

I’m here to blow the cover off the best motorcycle road you’ve never heard of. Somebody’s probably going to hate me for this.

Kolob Road coming out of Virgin, Utah

Kolob Road coming out of Virgin, Utah.

This is such a minor road that, as you can see, the mapping software doesn’t even show it when I zoom back enough to get it all in. Trust me it’s there.

And where is there? This is Kolob Road, going north out of Virgin, Utah. It runs up into Zion National Park but there is no sign of any kind telling you that. The only reason we found it was that my wife did some research before we headed for Utah last month, and she discovered it.

What a discovery! I would rank this hands down as the highlight of our entire trip. You can take a look at the pictures in the slide show below to get an idea of what I mean. (Note: Sorry, the Examiner slide show is lost to the world.)

This little strip of two-lane, red(!) asphalt climbs and winds high into the park and the views are incredible. At one point you want desperately to look at the view but the road is narrow and steep and you don’t dare. Find a place to park and walk back down if you want to see it.

I’ve been through Zion quite a few times and I have got to rank this as the best part of the entire park. And almost nobody knows about it! There’s even a campground up at the top and they don’t charge a fee to use it. Probably too much trouble to go all that way to collect the fees.

By the way, it’s not a motorcycle-accessible road to the campground, so don’t try that unless you’re really into that stuff.

So it’s 20 miles up and 20 back and altogether 40 miles of some of the best riding in all of Utah. The pictures don’t do it justice; you’ve got to see it for yourself. But don’t tell the locals I told you.

(Note: If it seems I’ve been putting up numerous Examiner Resurrection pieces about Utah recently it’s true. I’m taking these more or less chronologically and back in 2009, when they were all written, we had just been on an extended trip to Utah.)

Biker Quote for Today

Sometimes you need a really crooked road to get your head straight.

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More On Motorcycles In HOV Lanes

October 24th, 2016
motorcycle three-wheelers

As far as HOV lanes are concerned, these are motorcycles.

I got a note the other day from William, at Iron Buffalo Motorcycle Training.

Hello Ken

Just something you might ad to your post as no one thought of it until after the fact…
There are a growing number of 3-wheel riders out there that seem to get ignored.

Straight from CDOT:
“Here is the official definition of what is a motorcycle, including a 3-wheeler:

(55) “Motorcycle” means a motor vehicle that uses handlebars or any other device connected to the front wheel to steer and that is designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground; except that the term does not include a farm tractor, autocycle, low-speed electric vehicle, or low-power scooter.”

So in case anyone was unsure, yes, three-wheelers do count as motorcycles in using HOV lanes without needing a transponder. Although I’m curious. It mentions “autocycles” as not being considered motorcycles. Autocycles is the term that is more and more in use around the country to describe all these various three-wheelers that are not out and out motorcycles, i.e., two-wheels one behind the other.

Counting three-wheelers as motorcycles skews crash statistics because these things just handle differently, have different problems, and crash differently, at least in some instances. So what happens in the future if Colorado decides to rewrite its legislation to create an autocycle category that would include trikes? I do suspect, however, that bikes with sidecars will always continue to be considered motorcycles, even though they do have three wheels.

So this latest success at getting procedures changed so motorcycles don’t get ticketed/fined for using HOV lanes without transponders was very much a topic of discussion at Sunday’s ABATE District 10 meeting. It turns out the fix to the computer system was not as simple as you might think it would have been.

According to Bruce Downs, the system now has the ability to distinguish motorcycles by the size of their front tires. For the first 90 days they’re doing a side-by-side comparison with the computer making the ID and a person making the ID. The idea is to be sure the computer is identifying bikes successfully. If it’s working sufficiently well it will go completely by computer after the 90 days.

And there is back-up. Before any dunning statements are mailed, a human views each one, and if a motorcycle has slipped past, that person will remove them.

Beyond that, there is always the possibility of a screw-up. Nothing and nobody is perfect. Carol Downs told of someone they know who received a letter demanding payment and it turned out when she protested that the license plate number had been read incorrectly and the vehicle in question was a car belonging to someone else entirely. So the bottom line is, you’re free to use any HOV lane on your bike and if you get a bill, don’t just pay it, protest it. It will be dismissed.

Biker Quote for Today

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know when to just go riding.

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My Close-Up Experience of Roy’s Mystery Ride

October 20th, 2016
aerial view of area south of Elbert, CO

All you need in order to understand how nice this route was is all the green.

I gave an overview of Roy’s Mystery Ride last week but that report was necessarily short on details. It’s often the details that make something really interesting so that’s what you’re going to get here.

Heading out from Performance Cycle this route immediately put me on roads in the Tech Center (I use that term loosely, I guess) that I had never been on. That’s a plus right from the start. Winding around a bit I turned onto Jordan Road headed south. Next I needed to turn left onto Pine Lane.

The hardest part about this ride was having such detailed directions and needing to stop and consult them frequently. Mileage was very precise but I didn’t zero out my tripmeter before starting so I made it a little harder on myself than I could have. I kept looking for Pine Lane, even pulled over at one intersection to consult the directions again, and kept going south. Too far south, I was convinced. And then I reached Hess Road where Jordan ended and I turned around and headed back north. It turned out Pine Lane was where I stopped to consult the directions, and I apparently didn’t see the street sign when I stopped. OK, back on track.

Pine Lane took me east into the hilly area beyond Parker Road and there were numerous interesting sights to locate: a giraffe, a pair of pink pigs, a psychedelic cow, and much more. These were all things we were to watch for. The point of this ride was to be observant while riding your motorcycle.

It was funny to see how easy it was to identify other participants on this ride. I’d be consulting the directions and someone would go past on a bike. A couple miles later I’d pass that same rider and he would be looking at a very familiar piece of paper.

The route led down through Elizabeth, on roads I had mostly been on before, and then on south from there to Elbert. I think I may have only been to Elbert once before, but I saw then that there is some very intriguing landscape around there. My memory was confirmed and now I want to go back there again and do some real exploring.

Heading south out of Elbert I was looking to go east on Sweet Road. The main road seemed to sweep to the right (west) at one point, and that was Sweet Road, but that didn’t seem right so I stopped to consult the sheet. While I was there two other bikes blew on past, with one yelling to me “This is west!” And they kept going. I looked to the south and there was a road heading east about another 100 yards down that way. I went to check and it was Sweet Road. I was on track; they weren’t.

More zig-zagging around carried me further and further to the southeast. Finally Falcon Highway carried me west again and then the route cut through a neighborhood in the eastern suburbs of Colorado Springs where they seem to have a penchant for interesting lawn ornaments. I can’t imagine what it took to design this route.

A stop at a shopping center was built in, so I got a mocha at Starbucks and waited for other riders to show up. A few did, circling the parking lot, but nobody stopped, except a couple who needed gas. So I pushed on. Now the roads were carrying me back east, away from town, and once again into the Black Forest area. McLaughlin Road, Eastonville Road, Meridian Road, Hodgen Road: all of them could be called highways. And if they were called highways I would have known they existed, but they’re not so I didn’t. Now I do.

Then once again it was time to cut through a neighborhood. I’m sure the folks living there wondered why all these bikers were going by this day. That road wound around and eventually came out to CO 83 and then it was just a straight shot back to the Denver area and the finish point.

The whole thing was such a nice ride on a gorgeous autumn day that I told Judy I would take her on a repeat if she has time in the next few days. And next time I won’t have to stop so often to consult the sheet.

Biker Quote for Today

True happiness is when you think of your bike and an automatic smile is on your face.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club | No Comments »

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