Motorcyclists Preferred Lane Position on Federal Roads in Malaysia

Motorcycle fatalities comprised of 60% of the total fatalities in Malaysia. Weaving between traffic and speeding are among the contributors to the high motorcycle fatalities and there is not much understanding of the. This study was conducted with the objective to determine the lane preference of motorcyclists within various road cross-section and speed of motorcyclists when using the lanes. The lane usage was recorded with video camera and video was playback to count the count of motorcyclists using their respective lane. As for speed of motorcyclists, spot speed measurement was conducted covertly to avoid affecting motorcyclists’ behaviour. A total of 11 locations with different cross-section designs throughout the Malaysia was identified for observation. The empirical results show that more than 95% of the motorcyclists travelled on the non-exclusive motorcycle lane (NEML) when the NEML is presence at 2 lane single carriageway section. Meanwhile, paved shoulder about 2.2-2.3m wide was found to be used by majority of motorcyclists (75%). Apart from obtaining the lateral travel position of the motorcyclists, the spot speed data were also collected. The speed results revealed that motorcyclists travelled statistical significantly slower on NEML or Paved shoulder (PS) than on main travel lane. The findings of this study conclude that NEML and paved shoulder can affect motorcyclists to ride slower and thus enhance the safety of motorcyclists in term of speed exposure. In addition, the NEML and PS separate motorcyclists from other motorized vehicles which could reduce the risk of crashes of motorcyclists with another vehicle. Even though provision of NEML incurs high costs, however in long term, NEML would prove to be one of the most efficient allocation resources in reducing motorcycle crashes. However, further studies need to be carried out on the use of paved shoulder by motorcyclists.