Motorcyclists' visual behavior was examined and compared with that of drivers' by an eye-marker method. The background of this research is as follows. From the accident statistics of Osaka prefecture, characteristics of motorcycle accidents and those of ordinary passenger cars were analysed and compared and it was revealed that collisions on turning right (in the United States, collisions on turning left) are most remarkable. In this case, collisions between motorcycles running straight ahead and automobiles turning right are most typical. The automobile drivers expected that the motorcyclists would give way. But, almost without braking, the motorcycles crashed into the automobiles turning right. Here, one of the problems is motorcyclists' unawareness of existence of automobiles turning right. We focused upon this.
Three males participated as subjects in these experiments with an eye-marker. Independent variables were type of vehicel and speed. The results are as follows. (1) The proportion of the road surface which was recorded on film through an eye-marker is much larger in riding motorcycles than in driving an automobile. Motorcyclists' head is tilted forward. It follows that they are apt to be looking at the closer road surface more frequently. (2) From the result of distribution of fixation points, it is suggested that motorcyclists are mainly acquiring information from the closer road surface, whereas, automobile drivers are mainly acquiring information from distant foreground. (3) In riding motorcycles, the vertical variance of visual field and fixation points is larger. This suggests that motorcyclists are trying to acquire information from both the closer road surface and the distant foreground. (4) Mean fixation duration of motorcyclists is shorter than that of automobile drivers. This suggests that they are acquiring and identifying information relatively superficially.
These findings would throw light on motorcyclists' failure to detect vehicles turning right, oncoming vehicles, crossing vehicles and pedestrians. We stress that education for road users should involve these findings and that more appropriate road conditions for stable riding should be realized.