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Compendium of Best Practices on Motorcycle and Scooter Safety
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Motorcycle lanes (Malaysia) A major risk factor for motorcyclists is their interaction with larger, heavier vehicles, particularly if the motorcycles are small and relatively slow. One way of addressing this problem is to segregate motorcycles from heavier vehicles through the provision of exclusive motorcycle lanes. Malaysia first introduced exclusive motorcycle lanes in the 1980s and has undertaken assessments of the effectiveness of exclusive lanes in reducing crashes, optimum conditions for their use, and aspects of design criteria. The Malaysian government has now implemented a policy to provide motorcycle lanes along new highways and federal roads. An early study of a 14 kilometre exclusive motorcycle lane along Federal Highway F02 (Radin Umar et al, 1995) found that installation of the lane had led to a 25% reduction in all motorcycle accidents, rising to 34% when confounding factors were taken into account. A larger subsequent evaluation on the same route found a reduction of 39% in motorcycle accidents (Radin Umar et al, 2000). These are substantial reductions given the high proportion of motorcycle crashes in Malaysia. There are limitations on where motorcycle lanes can be installed, and research has been undertaken to identify the factors which need to be taken into account, both to warrant separate motorcycle lanes, and to ensure that the design of the lanes is optimal. For example, the incidence of motorcycle crashes is not related linearly to traffic flow, instead being characterised by a power law, and is also dependent on the balance of the mix between motorcycles and heavier vehicles. Radin Umar et al (2000) found that motorcycle lanes on Federal Highway F02 were of greatest benefit for a traffic volume in excess of 15,000 vehicles a day where the proportion of motorcycles in the traffic was between 20% and 30%. Design features are also important. Malaysia initially based the design of its motorcycle lanes on bicycle lane design criteria (Tung et al, 2008). This entailed use of guardrails which designed to protect low speed cyclists from motorised vehicles leaving the roadway. However, Tung et al (2008) found that the guardrails constitute an injury risk to motorcyclists, accounting for almost a quarter of fatal collisions with roadside objects and being associated with an increased risk of serious injury. This suggests that guardrail design for motorcycle lanes needs to be considered carefully. The width of motorcycle lanes also needs to be considered, and once again there are different considerations compared with cycle lanes. Digital recording of motorcyclists http://www.carrsq.qut.edu.au/APEC/case_studies/Malaysia_motorcycle_lanes.html
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4/2/2016
Compendium of Best Practices on Motorcycle and Scooter Safety
using lanes (Hussain et al, 2005) was used to develop the operating space required by motorcyclists, taking into account both the sizes of typical motorcycles and observations of preferred separation distances between motorcyclists. In Malaysia almost all motorcycles are small (150 cc or less) and (with a rider) about 0.8m wide. The operating space was shown to be about 1.3m, and where lanes were narrower than 1.7m motorcyclists were unlikely to overtake each other. This suggests that, for motorcycles of this size, motorcycle lanes should be at least 1.7m wide to allow slower vehicles to be overtaken. Of course, this does not take into account PTWs which comprise a motorcycle plus side platform or vending equipment. Motorcycle lanes are most easily installed when a hew road is being built, as the appropriate widths and interfaces with other traffic can be planned. Retrofitting of motorcycle lanes presents more challenges, especially where it is not possible to exclude other road users. In these cases careful consideration needs to be given to the balance between the needs of all relevant road users. However, where conditions for their use can be met, exclusive motorcycle lanes offer substantial crash benefits. References Hussain, H., Radin Umar, R. S., Ahmad Farhan, M. S., & Dadang, M. M. (2005). Key components of a motorcycletraffic system A study along the motorcycle path in Malaysia. [PDF] IATSS Research, 29(1):5056. Radin Umar, R. S., Mackay, G. M., and Hills, B. C. (1995). Preliminary analysis on impact of motorcycle lanes along Federal Highway F02, Shah Alam, Malaysia. Journal of IATSS Research, 19(2):9398. Radin Umar, R. S., Mackay, M., and Hills, B. (2000). Multivariate analysis of motorcycle accidents and the effects of exclusive motorcycle lanes in Malaysia. Journal of Crash Prevention and Injury Control, 2(1):1117. Tung, S. H., Wong, S. V., Law, T. H., and Radin Umar, R. S. (2008). Crashes with roadside objects along motorcycle lanes in Malaysia. International Journal of Crashworthiness, 13(2):205210. © APEC 2011 sitemap
http://www.carrsq.qut.edu.au/APEC/case_studies/Malaysia_motorcycle_lanes.html
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