Report: drivers’ ability to see on decline
It’s not just your imagination, it’s getting harder to see out of cars, and that’s bad news for bikers.
Have you ever noticed how much you CAN’T notice when you’re driving? Turns out it’s not just your imagination, and it’s getting worse.
A recent study from the US Department of Transportation finds that manufacturers’ attempts to make cars safer for occupants is having the unintended consequence of making them more dangerous for everyone else by decreasing driver visibility.
According to the study, performed by the USDOT’s Volpe Center, forward visibility of passenger cars has decreased by as much as 58 percent over the last 25 years. They were able to determine this using a new technique developed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which represents roughly 80 percent of the US auto insurance market.
Using a collection of cameras to create 360-degree “blind zone maps,” researchers determined that forward visibility within a 10-metre space of the vehicles it tested had decreased considerably since the 1990s, largely due to the increased size of vehicles' front ends, wing mirrors, and A pillars.
Six different models were studied. One of the worst offenders was the Honda CR-V. According to an IIHS summary of the report, “Drivers of the 1997 model were able to see 68% of the area 10 meters in front of the vehicle, while drivers of the 2022 model can see only 28%.”
Researchers were inspired to look into the issue of decreased visibility upon discovering that over the past 25 years, pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in the US have shot up 37 percent and 42 percent, respectively, to their highest levels in almost half a century. Whereas the number of vehicle fatalities (per capita) has decreased over that same time span.
There are a number of caveats to consider here, of course. Firstly, all the data comes from the United States and relates to US roads. Additionally, researchers only looked at six different models - ones with long enough production runs to cover the 25-year span. And most of the vehicles studied are not available in the UK.
We’re not able to find any comparable studies from the UK or Europe, but that doesn’t mean the same trend isn’t happening on this side of the water.
As someone who has had the misfortune of owning a number of Citroens over the past two decades, I can attest - anecdotally, at least - cars in the UK and Europe are getting larger and, by extension, it’s getting harder to see out of them.
Whether this is having a negative effect in the UK is a different question. According to reporting from the United Kingdom’s Department of Transport, pedestrian fatalities are down considerably over the past two decades.
Looking at data running from 2004-2023, pedestrian fatalities were down 40 percent (from 671 to 405), and serious injuries decreased by 40 percent, whereas the overall number of miles walked had actually increased by 19 percent. In other words, there is now more opportunity for a person to get hit but that is happening less frequently.
Looking at UK Department of Transport data for motorcycles, covering the same 19-year time span, fatalities were down 46 percent (from 585 to 315) and serious injuries have decreased by 36 percent. Although, unfortunately, the number of miles travelled by motorcyclists has also decreased (down 10 percent).
All that said, the data also shows that “Driver or rider failed to look properly” was the most common factor in fatal crashes involving another vehicle. It’s hard not to think that limited visibility from within the car might contribute to that.
So what can we do?
Well, you wear the gear, ride (mostly) within your means, and have a licence and insurance. That’s well and good, but when it comes to avoiding collisions the standard advice of hyper-vigilance applies.
Cars of 30 years ago may have offered more visibility but they were demonstrably less safe. So, we’re definitely not going back. That leaves you, the rider, with the responsibility to do the looking for the both of you.
Even when you think the other person is looking. We’ve all had the experience of locking eyes with a driver who then, bafflingly, pulls out in front of us.
The best thing to do is assume that other road users simply haven’t seen you. They’re not out to get you, they’re just not as focused as you’d like to be. Especially if you’re hidden behind an A pillar.
You may also be interested in this article: Most common motorcycle accidents and how to avoid them.
Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
