Design for motorist 1st, then cyclist. Motorist Survey.

I am currently completing my honours in Industrial Design at University of Technology, Sydney.
I am conducting research in the area of Cycling Safety. More specifically what cyclist can do to be safer and potentialy develop a product to facilitate this. I am framing the my research as:

Designing for the motorist first, then the cyclist.

Therefore I am mainly looking for people that DO NOT regularly ride a bike to complete my survey. Of cause there is room for people who do ride to complete it too.

Thanks very much!

Can you explain, “Designing for the motorist first, then the cyclist.”?

When looking at the ways cyclists and motorists communicate on the road it would seen that motorist often struggle to understand the intent of the cyclist. Many products have concentrated on the requirements of cyclists (which is important) but have forgotten that the main user of hand signals, bike lights etc. is the receiving motorist. Therefore designing for the requirements of motorists first allows for freedom when solving these problems. Then the solution can be applied to a cycling application. Its not really such a black and white transition but you get the picture.

I hope that was clear, love to hear thoughts anyone has on my method/direction.

Flipping the focal point sounds like an interesting approach.

Keep us posted on the progress. It would be great if we actually got to see some mid-review material as well and follow the thinking and progression.
There are some great examples here of students not just posting their final presentation but also material along the way.

Thank you for the explanation.

And I would agree a lot of motorists are clueless. For example, coming up to a 4-way stop sign. When cross traffic (the cars) have the right of way, they don’t know what to do with me. When I clearly stick my arm out pointing to the right, you would think they would know I am going right. But more than half the time the car on the right just sits there until after I turn right. My guess is they think I am going straight and wait. Even though they have the right of way if I were going straight and the fact that I am actually turning right and will never cross their path.

Then there are the cars at the stop sign who have the right of way but insist on waving me through. I generally don’t go and then we stare at each other for a while.

Then there are the idiots who honk their horn to let me know they are behind me. I can hear your car, your horn only startles me.

But I think I can sum it up for a cyclist’s intent. Contrary to the motorist’s belief, we don’t want to die. They think we want to die when we break traffic laws but are main intent is to keep going and stay out of their way. I will not ever win a contest between me and a 3000 pound car. So yes, I roll stop signs, but so do 99% of motorists. Intersections scare me. If I get hit, that is where it is most likely to happen so I want to get in and out of that intersection as fast as possible to lower my risk. I always yield to the right of way - I think there is nothing else the motorist needs to know about my intent other than that. Knowing that, they will understand all of my actions.

Also, realize there is nothing you can do for the truly stupid. The latest for me this year was just after I rolled a stop sign, the guy who yelled out his window “Obey the rules of the road!” … as he rolled the exact same stop sign. Too stupid to see the irony.

And I did have an idea, take it fwiw. A capacitance bar grip so when I release the bar and point to the direction I am turning, it activates a turn signal at the end of the grip. A simple switch would relieve the obvious need to be able to turn this feature on and off.

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