Motorist Awareness (Awareness of Motorcyclists by Other Drivers)
This section is about efforts to increase motorist awareness that motorcyclists are present in the traffic mix. Campaigns such as these rely on changing individual behavior and motivating public officials to take action. Motorist awareness campaigns might be second only to training as the most often implemented component of a State’s motorcyclist safety program.
Like training, good communication and outreach awareness programs can be expensive to develop and implement. Given how frequent these types of programs take a leading role in motorcyclist safety efforts and how expensive they can be to implement, one would assume there is abundant clear evidence of the effectiveness of such programs. Not so. There are no direct evaluations of the effectiveness of motorist awareness campaigns to increase driver awareness of motorcyclists and therefore reduce crash rates.
Traditional motorist awareness campaigns (such as Look Twice – Save a Life) are based on two incorrect assumptions. The first incorrect assumption is that motorists (car drivers) are not aware that motorcyclists are on the road and/or motorists do not look. The second incorrect assumption is that if drivers were told (“it is the month of May, motorcyclists are on the road” or “Look for Motorcycles” that drivers would change their behavior.
The NHTSA report Countermeasures that Work (11th edition, 2023, p 1-2) puts it this way: “Education and awareness-raising campaigns are common approaches used to encourage behavior change. They are often seen as low-hanging fruits, easy, and low cost to implement but they rarely work in isolation. The goal of an awareness-raising campaign is to influence the attitudes, beliefs, or behavior of people through information and education. These campaigns often include communication strategies, such as press releases, press conferences, public service announcements, earned (free), paid, and social media, educational material like posters or brochures, and strategically placed logos or slogans. This strategy presumes that the audience lacks key information and that simply learning the information will be sufficient to change behavior.”
The assumption that if drivers look twice, paid more attention, or are reminded that motorcyclists are on the road, they would actually “see” approaching riders and the result would be a reduction in motorcyclist right-of-way violations by other motorists. According to Delhomme, et. el., 1999 (Evaluated Road Safety Media Campaigns: An Overview of 265 Evaluated Campaigns and Some Meta-Analysis on Accidents) “In general, a road safety publicity campaign, by itself, has only modest impact on attitudes and behaviour and no significant impact on crashes. Campaigns work best when combined with other interventions, such as enforcement of traffic laws and regulations, or provision of other safety services and products.” Awareness campaigns are becoming more and more sophisticated, but to rely solely on messages like these fails to recognize that behavior will not automatically change just by telling someone to act differently.
Statistical data on crash causation do reveal that when motorcyclists crash with other vehicles, the other vehicle driver has often violated the motorcyclist’s right-of-way (ROW). Drivers may not expect to see motorcyclists on the road and may simply not recognize a motorcyclist in their direct line of sight. Crashes that happen when a driver pulls into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist and claims not to have seen him/her approaching are often called “looked but failed to see” (LBFS) crashes.
The Four Chances for Error is an excellent review of the main causes of the LBFTS Crash.
SMARTER has developed a Traffic Search Procedure specific for the identification of vulnerable road users.
We encourage readers to investigate the PERCEPTION research section in general and specifically the literature review by U.K researcher and motorcyclist training professional, Kevin Williams, titled the Science of Being Seen.
If you have read this far, you know there is no research supporting the value of traditional motorist awareness campaigns. However, if your state or organization does want to publish an “awareness” brochure SMARTER is available to help ensure your publication is current in language and images, is consistent with available perception research and the research relevant to the Looked But Failed To See car/motorcyclist crash. We assisted the Michigan Office of Safety Planning in updating their brochure. The old is here and the newer version here.
Motorist Awareness Research Studies
2021 – “Understanding the SMIDSY (LBFTS) – Articles by Kevin Williams”
This document provides multiple links to the work of Kevin Williams (author of the Science of Being Seen) on subject of the motorcyclist/car crash scenario where the car driver violates the right-of-way of the motorcyclist . In the U. S. this crash scenario is often called a Looked But Failed to See (LBFTS) crash. In the U.K, Australia, and New Zealand this scenario is called the SMIDSY crash for Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You. The research reviewed dispels the common assumption that car drivers simply don’t look or don’t look hard enough for motorcyclists and helps us understand why common countermeasures such as efforts to increase motorcyclist/motorcycle conspicuity and motorist awareness campaigns have not demonstrated effectiveness.
2011 – “Motorcycle Right-of-Way Accidents – A Literature Review”
This paper provides a comprehensive review of past research that examined motorcycle ROW accidents. Two major causes of such a crash scenario are the lack of motorcycle conspicuity and motorist's speed/distance judgment error, respectively.
2011 – “ Improving the Effectiveness of Road Safety Campaigns: Current and New Practices”
The evaluation of campaigns aimed at improving road safety is still the exception rather than the rule. Because of this, ineffective campaigns and campaign techniques are allowed to continue to be utilised without question, while new methods of behaviour modification are often ignored. This article also describes the pros and cons of some of the more common campaign strategies and introduces a number of new methods that show a great deal of promise for the purpose of road safety campaigns. Note: this is not a review specific to motorist awareness of motorcyclist’s campaigns.
2011 – “The Roles of Motorcyclists and Car Drivers in Conspicuity-related Motorcycle Crashes”
This report discusses several measures and their potential effectiveness to reduce conspicuity-related motorcycle crashes. There is evidence that bright and reflective clothing has a positive effect on crash risk. However, it is difficult to recommend one type/color of clothing to improve conspicuity in all conditions. Conspicuity of a motorcycle is especially difficult from the front-view; therefore, improving frontal light configurations would seem a good way to improve motorcycle conspicuity. It is evident that expectancy plays a role in the perception of motorcycles. However, it is less clear if and how expectancy of motorcycles in traffic can be increased long-term. It is probably not very effective to emphasize the presence of motorcycles in driver training. Finally, it is important to realize that people, even when they are highly motivated, are limited by their capabilities; they commit errors. In this respect, measures should focus on improving the system and reducing the consequences of these errors and not on improving people’s capabilities.
2010 – “Best Practice in Road Safety Mass Media Campaigns: A Literature Review”
Instead of determining whether road safety advertising is effective or not, this review focused on what elements of road safety advertising are more effective and for whom. The review describes current psychological theories of behaviour change and social persuasion that are relevant to road safety advertising. In terms of mass media campaign design, factors that can improve campaign effectiveness were identified such as integrating advertising with other activities (e.g. enforcement), tailoring message content and means of communication to the characteristics of the target audience, and using new technology and multiple forms of media to reach the target audience. Note: this is not a review specific to motorist awareness of motorcyclist’s campaigns.
2008 – “Car Drivers’ Skills and Attitudes to Motorcycle Safety: A Review”
This report proposes a framework for interpreting the literature and evidence on car drivers’ skills and attitudes towards motorcyclists. The framework relates attitudes, knowledge and skills/strategies to three behaviors: Does the driver look at the motorcyclist? Does the driver realize that it is a motorcyclist? Does the driver correctly decide whether the motorcyclist poses a hazard? The authors tell us that it is quite possible that advertising campaigns such as “Take longer to look for bikes” fail to reduce right-of-way-violation (ROWV) crashes for a number of reasons and while this type of campaign may appear to be sound advice, there are many factors that may need to be considered when future interventions are designed.
2004 – “A Review of Mass Media Campaigns in Road Safety”
This report investigates the effectiveness of road safety public information campaigns conducted through the mass media. The type of appeal used (rational/emotional/fear), the use of supporting activities (such as enforcement or incentive) and the duration, intensity, timing and exposure of media placement are identified as key variables in the effectiveness of mass media campaigns. Note: this is not a review specific to motorist awareness of motorcyclists campaigns.