Transportation Engineering (Sep 2023)
Real use of vehicle dynamic capacities: Motorcyclists versus motorists
Abstract
The risk of serious crashes is much higher for motorcyclists than for motorists. While research into PTW safety is not as extensive as for other road users, there is a need for further understanding of fatal and injury crash patterns and causes, particularly in the critical pre-crash phase. Naturalistic Driving Studies (NDS) have been used to improve road safety and gain a better understanding of car crash mechanisms, but few studies have used this approach to examine PTW behavior. This paper aims to compare the actual use of PTW's dynamic capacities to that of passenger cars based on three Naturalistic Driving Studies conducted in France. A method designed to study the dynamic behavior of cars has been adapted to study the dynamic behavior of PTWs. This adaptation involves combining the longitudinal acceleration, not only with the lateral acceleration (which is adapted for cars), but also with the roll rate or the yaw rate. By doing so, it becomes possible to consider the specific behavior of PTWs in curves, and finally, to compare the dynamic demands experienced by cars and PTWs in all directions. It was found that there are significant differences in the distribution of accelerations, roll rate, yaw rate, and speeds between motorcycles and cars. Motorcycles were observed to endure higher levels of positive acceleration, experience more intense braking, and exhibit slightly higher levels of medium or high yaw rate values. The final analysis of speeds, with a 5 km/h interval, shows that motorcyclists travel at higher speeds than car drivers within a small fleet of equipped cars. However, when compared to a larger fleet of cars with speed data with a 10 km/h interval, car drivers were found to travel faster. Demand levels differ between fleets of cars and fleets of motorists, particularly where lateral demands are concerned. This can be attributed to various factors such as driving context, study duration, road type and weather conditions. Other NDS with more cars and PTWs should be analyzed with this method to complete the results.
