Motorbike safety can be measured objectively, says AIT

The Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) has developed a motorcycle probe vehicle to better understand the causes of motorbike accidents. The vehicle was deployed as a measurement method to evaluate popular motorcycle routes in Austria’s capital. Peter Saleh, road safety expert at the AIT Center for Mobility Systems, says: “Our aim is to give those who operate roads the precise information they need in order to reduce the danger in these areas efficiently,
August 30, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The 6625 Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) and TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology) has developed a motorcycle probe vehicle to better understand the causes of motorbike accidents. The vehicle was deployed as a measurement method to evaluate popular motorcycle routes in Austria’s capital.


Peter Saleh, road safety expert at the AIT Center for Mobility Systems, says: “Our aim is to give those who operate roads the precise information they need in order to reduce the danger in these areas efficiently, sustainably and cost-effectively.”

The motorbike, a KTM 1290 Super Adventure, was equipped with high precision sensors and video systems. The side cases were packed with recording technology which documented the condition of the bike.

Test drives gathered data on vehicle dynamics, trajectory and routing. This was augmented with weather, traffic volume and route environment and then analysed through machine learning to reveal road sections which pose a risk for motorcyclists.

According to Saleh, every road section which was classed as dangerous - after being driven along and analysed - had been the site of serious accidents in the past.

“The AIT/TU Wien research team is therefore in a position to anticipate future accident trends and can assess motorcycle safety on a scientific basis, even before anything has happened,” Saleh adds.

UTC

Related Content

  • April 29, 2019
    Cost benefit: just $25 boosts pedestrian safety in Florida
    A relatively straightforward change to the way that pedestrians cross the street in a Florida city has made a significant safety improvement. And what’s more, it was cheap, finds David Crawford Installing a lead pedestrian interval (LPI) system at 25 central business district signalised intersections in the Florida city of Lakeland has cut numbers of incidents involving pedestrians by some 60% - at a cost of US$25 for 30 minutes' work, according to traffic operations manager Angelo Rao.
    Read More
  • March 20, 2015
    Visible road markings: an essential for older drivers and intelligent vehicles
    The RAINVISION project, co-financed by the European Commission, recently held its final meeting. Over the past three years, the project has researched the impact of road markings on driver behaviour under different night weather conditions (dry, wet and wet and rainy) and has assessed how different age groups and gender groups adapt their driving based on the above mentioned conditions. The results of the project were presented and in particular, the outcomes of three different trials conducted over the pro
    Read More
  • July 19, 2019
    AV drivers need help for safe handovers, says RAC
    Drivers will need help preparing for unexpected situations where their autonomous vehicle (AV) hands back control, warns the RAC Foundation. RAC carried out a study in the UK with the Human Factors Research Group at the University of Nottingham on 49 people of varying ages using a driving simulator on a ‘commute-style’ journey for five days in a row. During the trial, the drivers demonstrated significant lateral movement (lane swerving) when control was handed back to them, even after being provided
    Read More
  • January 15, 2016
    US university investigates smart car tyres
    Researchers at Virginia Tech, Penn State University, and 12 industry partners are collaborating on a US$1.2 million National Science Foundation-funded project to integrate sensors into car tyres, with the aim of providing information on the vehicle’s speed and road conditions. Saied Taheri, an associate professor of mechanical engineering in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering and the director of the Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe), is the project’s lead investigator. Taheri has been working for
    Read More

Highlighted Content