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Compendium of Best Practices on Motorcycle and Scooter Safety
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Case Studies
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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