It’s an issue that will forever haunt motorcyclists: no matter who’s at fault in a collision involving a motorcycle, the rider is at a higher risk of injury or death. There’s a Toronto-based inventor offering a possible solution.
Guiseppe Pino Mileto proposes the Motorcycle Warning System, a transmitter/receiver device to be installed on motorcycles and in cars that warns automobile drivers if a motorcycle is within the “threat range.”
If a motorcycle is sensed within the threat range, an audible alarm and warning light will signal the driver at a moderate rate, the rate increasing in intensity as the bike gets closer.
The device is meant to reduce the amount of automobile to motorcycle collisions, which the 1981 Hurt report found comprised 75 per cent of all motorcycle accidents.
It doesn’t seem like the device is in production yet, though Mileto is seeking sponsorship and investment through his website. The biggest inhibiting factor to implementing this system is convincing automobile drivers they should install the device.
That is a pretty typical uneducated response about drivers not caring. Perhaps if more motorcyclists understood WHY car drivers don’t see them, they could reduce the risk significantly for themselves. An alert system might help, but it will never replace driver and rider education and understanding of the driving task.
The majority of the time, car driver’s are resonably consciencious, and they DO look. And they still don’t see us. Perhaps if more riders learned to be visible, stopped wearing all black gear, (just two examples) and started taking more reponsibility for their own safety, things would change for the better.
with Parking Assist features, Traction Control, etc.. with many of the newer car models; drivers are constantly being dumbed-down and de-skilled.
If car drivers absolved themselves from observing and assessing traffic around them (including us riders) and expect a beeping to warn them, it may make it more dangerous to us and others should something fail in the sensing accuracy/transmitters/receivers of this device.
It’s time all users of the road get remedial training on actually being engaged fully into their driving, not just it being a subtask of other things. (texting,phoning,GPSing)
This is an over due warning system.
^like^
We already have a device, it’s called a brain. Supplies us with awareness if we choose to actually use it. With the overwhelming number of devices being invented to do our thinking for us we are sadly losing are ability to do the thinking ourselves!
Car drivers would need to care about motorcyclists in order to voluntarily install this device in their car.
We could reduce the number of motorcyclists injured by cars if we could just convince car drivers to care.