How to Drive Safely Around Motorcycles

As someone who loves the outdoors and exploring new places, I think road safety is something we should all take seriously. Motorcycles can be harder to spot than cars, making awareness and patience essential for every driver. A few simple precautions can make a real difference in helping keep everyone safe on the road.

Motorcycle riders and passengers accounted for 15 percent of U.S. traffic deaths in 2023, based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data recording 6,335 fatalities among them.

Measured per vehicle mile traveled, the 2023 motorcyclist fatality rate was nearly 28 times the rate for passenger car occupants, according to NHTSA.

Since motorcycles are more compact and less visible than passenger cars, drivers should exercise caution when near them. Judging a motorcycle’s distance and speed is harder than it looks, and a miscalculation

while turning or merging can lead to a serious crash.

Here’s how to stay safe when traveling near a motorcycle.

Motorcyclist riding on a road alongside a car, illustrating the importance of awareness and safe distances when sharing the road.

The left turn is the crash

NHTSA’s 2023 figures show that 1,588 of the 3,419 fatal two-vehicle crashes involving a motorcycle, about 46 percent, happened when the other vehicle was turning left and the motorcycle was going straight, passing, or overtaking. Crashes in which a driver reports checking for traffic and still pulls out are often called ‘looked but failed to see’ crashes in the research literature. Through several simulations, researchers from the University of Nottingham found that motorists pull out in front of motorcycles after shorter time gaps than in front of cars.

Just because a driver turns in front of an oncoming motorcycle doesn't mean that the driver failed to look. The research points instead to a perceptual problem. Drivers estimate the time of arrival of an approaching vehicle partly by judging the speed of expansion of its image. This phenomenon is known as visual looming. Because a motorcycle is so much narrower than a car, the image of an oncoming motorcycle grows more slowly. Research suggests that because a motorcycle’s image grows more slowly, drivers can misjudge its speed and distance and accept a gap that is shorter than it appears.

Drivers can help lower that risk by signaling before turning, checking blind spots, and watching closely for motorcyclists.

Following distance is the piece a driver fully controls

Ohio law prohibits following another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, with due regard for speed, traffic, and road conditions. That standard applies to any vehicle.

Extra space is advisable when following a motorcycle. The NHTSA reminds motorists that a motorcyclist can slow by downshifting instead of braking, which means the rider can slow down without the brake light coming on.

Too little space behind a motorcycle can lead to a collision that leaves the rider with serious injuries and an insurance claim to pursue. Riders hurt in such a collision can work with an Ohio motorcycle accident lawyer to investigate the crash and negotiate with insurance companies.

Ohio's own numbers complicate the story

Safety content aimed at drivers tends to imply the car is always the problem. State crash data does not support that.

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol motorcycle bulletin, there have been 19,544 crashes involving motorcycles from 2019 to 2023, of which 1,015 were fatal, resulting in 1,045 deaths of motorcyclists and 12 others. Motorcycle operators were at fault in 56 percent of those crashes and 64 percent of the fatal ones.

One further figure from that bulletin is worth noting. Seventy-one percent of the motorcyclists killed over those five years were not wearing helmets.

The same bulletin shows that half of at-fault motorcycle operators from 2019 to 2023 did not hold a motorcycle endorsement, the license designation required to ride. Drivers therefore cannot assume every rider on the road is licensed.

Riding behavior changes by hour and by day

The NHTSA’s 2023 report identifies patterns in speed, alcohol use, and timing among motorcycle riders in fatal crashes. Thirty-six percent of motorcycle riders in fatal crashes were speeding, compared with 22 percent of passenger car drivers, 15 percent of light-truck drivers, and 7 percent of large-truck drivers.

Timing is another factor. Approximately 47 percent of motorcyclists killed in 2023 died on the weekend, which NHTSA defines as Friday 6 p.m. to Monday 5:59 a.m. Among riders killed at night, 38 percent were alcohol-impaired, meaning a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher, compared with 15 percent of those killed during the day. Alcohol impairment was also more common among riders killed on weekends, at 31 percent, than on weekdays, at 22 percent.

The practical version is shorter than most safety lists

A motorcycle’s smaller size can place it in a driver’s blind spot, and its narrow profile makes its distance and speed harder to judge. Riders can also slow by downshifting without braking, so no brake light signals the slowdown. Motorists should therefore leave extra following distance and look carefully at intersections.

In nearly half of 2023’s fatal two-vehicle motorcycle crashes, the other vehicle was turning left into the motorcycle’s path. The size of the gap a driver accepts is the part of that maneuver the driver controls.