Citation

Walton D, Buchanan J, Murray SJ. Transp. Res. F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2013; 17: 145-153.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.trf.2012.11.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This research examines a case-control (N = 305) for CVC (car versus car) and CVM (car versus motorcycle) crashes from the New Zealand drawing from the 2004 to 2009 police reports entered into the Crash Analysis Systems (CASs) database. The characteristics of the crashes are compared across the vehicle configurations to distinguish the features of CVM crashes. The analyses show that CVM-type crashes are not easily distinguished from CVC-type crashes. The two crash types are similar, contrary to overseas recent findings but consistent with those reported nearly 20 years ago by Cercarelli, Arnold, Rosman, Sleet, and Thornett (1992). Four exceptions are that CVM-type crashes occur more often than expected in urban speed zones, between the times of 4-7 pm, and at uncontrolled intersections. CVM crashes occur less often in merging traffic. These findings are discussed in the context of the conspicuity hypothesis that posits that crashes with motorcycles occur more frequently because they are harder to detect.