Motorcyclists' and car drivers' responses to hazards

This study assessed the degree to which hazardous vignettes are perceived as dangerous and realistic by car drivers and motorcycle riders (Exp. 1) and whether riders could be distinguished from drivers on their performance in a commercial motorcycle simulator during safe and hazardous riding situations using the same hazards (Exp. 2). In Experiment 1, car drivers and motorcyclists received a questionnaire which consisted of short descriptions of the scenarios used in the simulator. Half of the car drivers and half of the motorcyclists were told to imagine they were driving a car through the scenario. The other halves were told to imagine they were riding a motorcycle. Respondents with the mindset of a motorcyclist rated the scenarios as more realistic than respondents with a car driver’s mindset. Real-life riders however reported the scenarios as more dangerous than real-life drivers, suggesting that their specific motorcycle experience influenced their criterion for danger. In Experiment 2, naive participants navigated a simulated route with the same hazards. Performance was coded on objective (e.g., crashes) and subjective (e.g., riding safety and skill) criteria. Experiential differences on some of the measures (and the absence of such differences on other measures) suggest that the simulator is useful for distinguishing riders from drivers during safe periods of riding but not necessarily during hazardous periods of riding. The implications of why hazard vignettes discriminate but the same simulated hazards do not are discussed, with emphasis on the crucial elements required to design a successful simulated hazard.