Better Riding Advice: Hazard perception

In association with Honda Motorcycles UK and MotorbikeCoach.com, we bring you our Better Riding series – a program of self-help videos as well as written content packed full of tips, advice and simple-but-useful exercises designed to help motorcycle riders of all experiences or ability to get more from their riding. It provides expert information and practice drills that help increase rider confidence and machine control skills that supplement traditional post-test training techniques.

In this article and video we look at Hazard Perception. It’s all too easy to get distracted while riding a motorbike and non-riders won’t understand the levels of concentration required, but in the real world – whether that’s commuting in a congested town/city or free-flowing along the more rural b-roads, how can we improve our planning which includes looking out for hazards and reading the road ahead.

Before we get into the detail, how about this stat for a warmup: the average perception reaction time is 2-seconds; that’s from the moment the rider has noticed a car at a junction ahead that looks like it might pull out to the adjustment of speed and direction in response. If you’re travelling at 60mph then in 2-seconds, you’ll have covered 180 feet (55 metres / 60 yards). Worryingly, there’s little wonder that so many single bike accidents involving motorcycles demonstrate little-to-no sign of braking. When was the last time you practised your emergency braking? How do you know the speed of your reactions? Or how much ability your bike’s ABS system has? Please go out and practice.

As BikeSocial Publisher, Steve Rose, quipped this week, “there’s no motorcycling equivalent of a golf driving range”, meaning that when the sun is shining we all just want to ride our favourite roads instead of practicing our skills.

Better Riding – hazard perception

Top tips on how to read the road and anticipate upcoming risks with Motorbike Coach, Mark McVeigh, and BikeSocial’s Michael Mann.

What is hazard perception?

Hazard perception is a motorbike rider’s ability to read the road and anticipate upcoming risks. It’s not just about spotting risks it’s about predicting them before they fully materialize. This proactive approach allows us riders to make timely decisions to adjust our speed, position and direction, reducing our risk. Vision is a major part of good hazard perception which was covered in episode 7 of Better Riding. Also covered in a previous Better Riding episode is the safety bubble which is part of the MotorbikeCoach.com riding system to minimising risk while maximising flow and riding enjoyment.

While some hazard perception theory is covered to get your licence its rudimentary compared to what’s needed in the real world and there’s only so much you can fit into the 20 hours required to gain a motorcycle licence training versus the 10,000 hours of structured practise needed for motorcycle ‘mastery’. Hazard perception or knowing what risks to look for is primarily developed from experience.

The research shows that inexperienced riders are over-represented in crash statistics, and they are slower to detect hazards than experienced riders which is a somewhat obvious conclusion. As you get more experience you learn to understand potential hazards through surprises, close calls or worse.

What are some examples of hazard perception on a motorcycle?

Mark McVeigh recalls a relevant story, “Nearly 40 years ago as an 18-year-old on my trusty FZR600 I found this out the hard way. My inexperience coupled with tarmac over-band on a dark, wet corner meant I lost front end and slid almost head-on into an oncoming car. Lucky for me the driver was super alert on the brakes reducing the collision speed saving my life. I still slid feet first into the car’s front wheel result two broken legs but it could have been worse.” That became the catalyst to what Mark does now via MotorbikeCoach.com basing training on the aviation industry, using common crash scenarios as a good method to hack or fast track hazard perception ability.

Meanwhile, I was riding along a rural b-road in deepest Cheshire early one morning recently. The roads were unfamiliar but I slowed down once I started smelling typical farmyard animal smells. So by using a sense that wouldn’t normally be associated with riding a bike allowed me to avoid a large pile of horse manure in the middle of the next blind corner.

What are the most common motorcycle crash scenarios?

We learn from the aviation principles and, without getting too dark, we review the crash data and near miss scenarios to help us learn and build our knowledge base of hazards.

If you look at single vehicle crash stats in Western countries, roughly half of motorbike crashes are single bike crashes, so 50% of crashes are on our own with nobody else involved.

What are the reasons behind all these single vehicle crashes?

A piece of research conducted by Deakin University (Victoria, Aus) looked at almost 1500 crashes and their data over four years resulting in identifying four types of motorcycle crashes as the most frequent and injurious:

1. Crashes on curves

2. Head-on (not overtaking)

3. Rear ended

4. Intersection crashes

And these crash types accounted for over two-thirds of all motorcycle casualties and the majority of those killed or seriously injured.

Taking a look at each of them:

Loss of Control in Curve

The research on this is staggering, very sobering. It was found that in single vehicle motorcycle crashes that resulted in fatal and serious injuries, 64 % involved a loss of control in a corner, particularly in rural environments.

Often the research gave reasons such as inadequate skills or knowledge, overestimation of abilities, misjudgement of situation, too high speed.

The bottom line is that when you get a scare such as meeting an oncoming car in your lane, entering the corner too face, or being faced with gravel on the road and you automatically drop to the level of your training because if you don’t practice for those situations then your brain cannot react in time when it happens for real.

Head-on

This is the most injurious crash type, and the majority of head-ons when you’re not overtaking take place in corners, around 80% of them. Typically a car can be across a white line, or you can run too quick into the corner and end up across that white line.

What drills can riders practise to build cornering skills?

A great drill is ‘the circle’ (above) to practise correct techniques in a controlled environment such entering the corner, trail braking and vision, plus you can run wide with no issue. Try practicing by carrying a little front brake to pre-load the front tyre and suspension. In a real-world situation then if something happens then you’re prepared and on the brakes already.

We’ve said it before but how often do golfers practise their swing or visit a driving range, or football players taking penalties and free kicks, and so on. But how many times do us motorcycle riders practice our skills? The skills that could have so much benefit to the enjoyment of riding but also our health.

So it’s no surprise that the first time you need these skills is when you’re faced with a real-world situation, and Mark tells us that 90% of his students can’t do these drills first time. It takes plenty of practise to become intuitive and to give yourself that have a chance.

Have you seen the silver car? Has the driver seen you? Are they going to pull out?

How can I improve hazard perception for rear end crashes?

Rear-End Collisions

Defined primarily as a vehicle crashing into the back of a stopped or slowing motorcycle, often at stop signs or red light. The use of lane filtering can be beneficial to be off set to the vehicles behind. Have situational awareness, a glance in your mirrors or a life saver when slowing can paint a picture so you don’t end up as the meat in a car sandwich. Don’t be too close to a vehicle in front either, especially if they’re stationary.

Riders sometime brake too hard and cause the driver behind to be caught out. It doesn’t matter who is at fault, the bike and its rider will also come off second best.

Junction - car pulls out in front of motorcycle

This is the leading cause of motorcycle crashes involving other vehicles. In fact, the Motorcycle Accidents In Depth Study (MAIDS) found that 54.3% of motorcycle accidents occurred at intersections/junctions because drivers look but don’t actually see us. Maybe it’s because of our smaller visual profile that makes motorcycles harder to see than cars because that’s what drivers who don’t ride are automatically programmed to look for.

It means that we have the responsibility to compensate for this by riding defensively and being hyper-aware. Adjust your speed and position using the safety bubble technique. Don’t trust a driver’s eyes, and a good tip here (as highlighted in the Vision article) is to look at the vehicle’s front wheels – spot their direction and movement. The moment they move is the moment you need to be reacting.

Above all, see and be seen. Side-to-side (or lateral) movement can help as the headlight dancing around can catch a driver’s attention.

Are there any other tools to improve our hazard perception?

Knowledge is power, and Mark’s Motorbike Coach curriculum teaches a three-pillar system:

• Skill – Machine control ability

• Craft – Road craft, hazard perception

• Mind – Attitude and cognitive bias, knowledge is power

All of which encourages riders to practise and develop machine control skills especially in these common crash scenarios in conjunction with hazard perception which is part of your road-craft which will help you plan your ride and reduce the surprises in the first place.

The sign is 2 seconds away, can you react and stop in time?

How do reaction times affect our hazard perception?

We touched on it at the beginning of this article but perception reaction times when travelling at speed on a motorcycle are potentially and critically underestimated. It’s all well and good watching professional goalkeepers, cricketers or boxers reacting to shots, bowling or punches, but in the case of the motorcyclist riding at 60mph, and the perception-reaction time being the total time from when a hazard appears to when the rider begins to take evasive action (like braking or swerving), then think of this simple equation; 1+1 = 2. Meaning, the time taken for a rider to recognize the hazard is around 1 second. The reaction time to physically initiate a response, like moving your hand to the brake, is also around 1 second. At 60mph you’ll have covered 180 feet in 2 seconds.

Thinking about mindfulness, you can rehearse situations making it a great way to be ready for hazards. Visualising different road scenarios and how you'd react can build mental agility and help make hazard responses second nature. If you can shave 0.5 seconds off that perception reaction time you’ll be an extra 45 feet better off, which might make all the difference.

What is the biggest hazard on the road for motorcycle riders?

The 3rd pillar of the motorbike coach system is MIND. Our attitude, our cognitive bias and our appetite to learn to progress from 20 hours towards 10k hours for mastery. So when you look at the data, especially the loss of control on corner stats which are staggering, you would have to say the biggest hazard is ourselves, the riders.

 We all want to be better at the passions or hobbies we spend our time and money on, so how about becoming a Better Rider? Those who play golf, ski, horse ride all practice to get better, but motorcyclists somehow just assume greatness. We don’t aspire to be safer riders but if becoming a better rider is on the cards, then we’re up for it. Safer isn’t the sexiest of words but it is fundamental to adding confidence and skill to your riding. Afterall, as the aforementioned Mr Rose recently said, “you’d rather have a better orgasm than a safer one”.

If you’d like to chat about this article or anything else biking related, join us and thousands of other riders at the Bennetts BikeSocial Facebook page, or why not join our own new online community known as BikeSocial BikeClub.