Organisation: Department for Transport
Date uploaded: 4th May 2011
Date published/launched: Pre 2009
The DfT commissioned the TRL to undertake a literature review of motorcycle rider fatigue.
The aims of the review were to:
• Investigate the incidence of fatigue-related accidents among riders;
• Investigate the causes, symptoms and effects of fatigue on riders;
• Assess the impact of fatigue in riders on possible accident causation; and
• Explore possible countermeasures to combat the effects of fatigue and review campaign strategies that have addressed fatigue and its dangers.
However, due to the nature of the motorcycle riding task (which includes exposure to noise and vibration, and the need for the rider to maintain physical balance), the
final component is not generally a major problem for riders.
The review covered data from a wide variety of sources including publications in the open literature and ongoing work by major transport research centres. Overall, it
found that there have been few studies investigating the causes and effects of rider
fatigue. Where they do exist, they tend not to provide a definition for fatigue and also not to separate the definition into the above three components of fatigue, namely sleepiness, ETDs and effects due to under-stimulation, which may have quite different effects on performance.
Additionally, there tends to be a reliance on self-report questionnaires rather than on directly observed effects of task performance or safety. Similarly, the literature does not provide much evidence for the effectiveness of potential countermeasures or campaign strategies specifically to combat the effects of rider fatigue.
However, information from the literature about driver fatigue and fatigue in general has, with careful interpretation, provided some insight into the possible causes of fatigue and the likely effects that it can have on motorcycle riders.
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