Easy rider meets knight rider: an on-road exploratory study of situation awareness in car drivers and motorcyclists

A comparison of two very different vehicle designs, cars and motorcycles, allows the effect of vehicle feedback on driver/rider Situation Awareness (SA) to be analysed in an ecologically valid on-road setting. The findings justify this comparison and reveal that the structure, quantity and type of SA is different for car drivers compared to motorcyclists. In addition, the differences in the structure of SA are suggestive of some behavioural incompatibility in which certain aspects of SA may be appropriate to car driving but not motorcycling. An analysis of effect sizes within this exploratory study is suggestive of further areas for targeted research.