Increased motorcycle awareness through C-ITS

Motorcycle crashes at intersections are often caused by other road users, making rider visibility and awareness critical. While Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can assist, Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) present a promising addition, offering complementary visibility beyond the line of sight.

This project asks: how can C-ITS improve driver awareness of motorcycles by enabling better detection of riders at intersections, and how effective is it as new perception layer of ADAS? At Toyota’s test track, drivers will face simulated road scenarios to directly evaluate this.

Findings will inform policy priorities, safety strategies, and community education, providing evidence-based insights for future adoption.

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Participants

• La Trobe University

Project background

Motorcycle awareness — or the lack thereof amongst other road users — is a significant cause of crashes. This project aims to assess the extent to which C-ITS can reduce crashes by increasing driver awareness of motorcycles at intersections.

Data about the causality of accidents is not publicly available in Victoria, but an analysis of 5 years’ worth of Queensland accidents up to 2023, shows that 83% of accidents involving motorcycles at intersections and requiring some form of medical assistance are caused by other road users. This includes failures to give way, blind spot issues, and intersection crashes.

This insight is far from new. In 2008 at the International Transport Forum Motorcycle Workshop held in Lillehammer, Norway, Jacques Compagne, the Secretary General of ACEM reported that: “a major contributing factor to the cause of motorcycle accidents was perception failure and that this failure was almost three times more likely with the driver of other vehicles than it was for motorcycle and scooter riders.”

That’s why the Motorcycling Community Engagement Panel (MCEP), the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) and Victoria Police are working together in an annual motorcycle awareness month to create more awareness of motorcyclists.

This project will test if C-ITS warnings can raise the awareness of motorcycles as a new perception layer of ADAS. La Trobe’s hypothesis is that C-ITS can perhaps replace or at least strongly complement ADAS.

Millimeter-wave radar and LiDAR cannot detect objects hidden behind walls or around blind intersections due to their direct line-of-sight limitations. This is a critical shortcoming, especially in urban environments where parked vehicles, buildings, and other obstacles block direct visibility.

Research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) emphasises that ADAS technologies alone are insufficient for predicting hidden hazards and that connected vehicle solutions are necessary to enhance intersection safety (NHTSA, 2022).

The project outcomes will help policymakers and regulators to set priorities, to accelerate adoption, and to consider guidelines and standards. The project will also provide factual information to educate the rider community and other stakeholders.

This project is supported by the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning through the Safer Motorcycling Grants Program. The Safer Motorcycling Grants Program funds new and innovative projects aimed at improving motorcycle safety in Victoria. Find out more at vic.gov.au/safer-motor-cycling-grants-program.

Project objectives

The main project objective is to test to what extent C-ITS as a new perception layer of ADAS can increase the awareness of motorcycles among car drivers in common road scenarios.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!