Motorcycle Crash Patterns Along Exclusive Motorcycle Lanes In Malaysia
Motorcycle crashes are being notified as the main contributor to road fatality in our country. Motorcyclists, as the vulnerable road user, are not protected while traveling along the traffic. The exclusive motorcycle lanes have been introduced to tackle the problem by segregating the motorcycle f...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/5259/1/FK_2007_50.pdf |
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| Summary: | Motorcycle crashes are being notified as the main contributor to road fatality in our
country. Motorcyclists, as the vulnerable road user, are not protected while traveling
along the traffic. The exclusive motorcycle lanes have been introduced to tackle the
problem by segregating the motorcycle from the main traffic. However, motorcycle
accident are still occurring on the exclusive motorcycle lanes. In this study,
motorcycle crashes occurred along the exclusive motorcycle lanes in Malaysia was
investigated. This study has been focusing on crashes which are roadside object
related. The motorcyclists are exposed to roadside hazards while travelling along the
pathways. The study has been focused to determine possible risk factors causing
fatalities in motorcycle crashes along exclusive motorcycle lanes, to identify the
harmful roadside objects to motorcyclist along exclusive motorcycle lanes and to
determine the multivariate relationships between the injury severity and other factors
of motorcycle crashes along the exclusive motorcycle lanes. The study unveiled that
the fatality risk factors for overall motorcycle crashes along exclusive motorcycle
lanes in Malaysia are the road geometry of the crash location, the brightness condition during the crash and finally, the roadside object involvement in the
crashes. Fatality risk is found to be higher while colliding with roadside objects, at
straight section on the lanes, and crashing during night-time. Furthermore, roadside
object is approximately 2.0 times more likely to cause fatality in motorcycle crashes
along the exclusive motorcycle lanes. Guardrail has recorded as the most being
struck object which represented 20.6% of all roadside object related crashes and
23.5% of all fatal cases were guardrail related. However, narrow surface objects,
(e.g. tree trunks, traffic sign posts, streetlighting poles) were determined 2.3 times
more likely to cause severe injury compared to non-narrow surface objects (e.g.
guardrails, tunnel walls). Therefore, guardrail should be provided to protect the
motorcyclist from colliding narrow surface object as initial impact. The study further
established that guardrail as one of the factors to cause fatality. Thus, a new
guardrail design should be introduced to the exclusive motorcycle lane. Lateral
offsets of the collided objects were found to be correlated to injury severity (p <
0.10). From the overall roadside object related motorcycle crashes, 85% involved
object planted at an offset distance 155 cm or less from the roadside. Furthermore,
multivariate analysis has verified that a higher injury severity if motorcycle crashes
involved narrow surface object occurred at location where the lane width is more
than 300 cm and the narrow object is planted at the offset distance 151.3 cm or less
from roadside. Another multivariate analysis performed on wide surface object
crashes has shown that higher injury severity to motorcyclist if crashes involved
guardrail, crashes during night-time, involved wide surface object that planted at
offset distance 75 cm or less from roadside and it is a single motorcycle crash Therefore, the existing design criteria of roadside object needed to be reviewed and
improved in order to achieve a safer exclusive motorcycle lane in Malaysia |
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