Learning to Drive - Think Bike

Like other unprotected road users, motorcyclists can be hard to see in traffic because they are much smaller than cars. They also make up only about 5% of all vehicles on our roads so canget “swallowed up” by the mass of other traffic.

Motorcycles are usually more agile than othervehicles. Most can accelerate faster than most cars and fit through small gaps in traffic. Some motorcyclists take advantage of these characteristics and will “share” lanes with other vehicles and weave from lane to lane even in heavy traffic. This can make them unpredictable.

Motorcycles can also be “masked” by other, larger vehicles. For example, you may not know that a motorcyclist is riding behind or beside a truck as the other vehicle completely hides them. This can make them hard to spot in traffic.

A motorcycle can also fit into the blind spots to the left and right of your car. You may not be able to see them at all without doing a head check. So check your mirrors and blind spots carefully before changing lanes or diverging. In too many crashes involving motorcycles, the other driver claims not to have seen the motorcyclist. This may be true, but is of no comfort to the motorcycle rider.

Common crash types involving motorcycles are:
• where another vehicle turns across the path of an oncoming motorcycle, and
• where a turning motorcycle is struck by a vehicle going straight through.
This means that you need to scan carefully for motorcycles when you are selecting a safe gapto turn, cross an intersection, pass or overtake.