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Mark Hinchliffe·
Tips/trainingRiding/safety tips
··5 Comments·1 min read

Motorcycle hazard perception tests added

Austroads Motorcycle hazard perception tests added

Austroads is producing a claimed world-first library of motorcycle hazard perception test (HPT) videos and supporting road safety material to help train novice riders.

The project is expected to modernise the HPT videos used in most states and introduce them in Tasmania and the territories.

It is believed the computer-based motorcycle-specific tests will improve learner training and graduated licensing systems.

The videos, put together by Adelaide-based digital media producer Monkeystack, also include car dashboards. However, Austroads claims it is the first time specific scenarios for motorcycle riders have been included in the tests.

The clips are being produced using computer generated imagery (CGI) rather than real-world video.

Austroads Motorcycle hazard perception tests added
Learners taking hazard perception tests

The scripts for the videos were developed following an analysis of mass crash data and in-depth crash investigation data to determine the road and traffic hazards that are most problematic for novice drivers and motorcyclists. 

Clips are being developed for more than 80 motorcycle scenarios and include a range of hazards (including wildlife) in different weather and at different times of day.

Austroads Chief Executive Nick Koukoulas says the project will improve novice driver and motorcycle rider safety.

“Young drivers and motorcyclists are over-represented in fatal and serious injury crashes and poor hazard perception skills have been shown to contribute to their crash involvement,” he says.

Hazard test

The computer-based test measures the rider’s ability to recognise potentially dangerous situations on the road and respond appropriately.

The project is expected to be completed by mid-2017.

Hazard perception tests play a key role in licensing in NSW, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland.

Austroads says the tests have been shown to reduce the likelihood of crashes.

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5 Comments

  2. The value in hazard perception training is it shows riders what to avoid before they are injured or killed.

    The value of hazard perception is that it can safely show riders how a risky situation developes without putting the rider at risk

    A number of situations that can get you killed occur very rarely. Now for the first time we can train riders in how to avoid these situations or what to do in these situations.

    Riders often have trouble imagining dangerous situations… hazard perception training makes it much easier to understand what can happen.

    Ideally the situations will eventually include the less common ones… as these can be the hardest to train.

    A extra outcome of this approach is that the correct way to respond will become more obvious and the approaches to problems should improve.

    A further advantage is that it will be easier to demonstrate to authorities what the problems are. Currently if you try to explain to Vic Roads (mostly car drivers) that a problem exists they often give you a blank stare and ignore you. A library of m/c hazards allows us to show the authorities what problems exist and how they can be improved. This should stop the authorities from treating motorcycle accidents as “intractible”… and make them more likely to co-operate.

    The weakness of the current system includes the fact that car drivers aren’t exposed to the same problems from a car perspective. As at least 50% of the m/c accident problem involves cars. if we can get them to behave better on the road it will also reduce accident and fatality rates. The TAC has been very slow to take advantage of this type of cross fertilisation despite producing both a car and a motorcycle training product.

    🙂

  3. If a car’s coming toward you headon on your side of the road, you get out of the way.
    You don’t need training from Austroads or anyone else
    unless you’re one short of a carton.

    “Young drivers and motorcyclists are over-represented in fatal and serious injury crashes and poor hazard perception skills have been shown to contribute to their crash involvement,” – quote from Austroads
    which is trying to subtly shift the blame for the car in the video being on the wrong side of the road,
    onto motorcyclists.

    What we need is less clowns in cars.

    If I didn’t know better, I’d think this product was just a revenue-earner for Austroads, just as reduced speed limits aren’t for safety, just for revenue.

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