Hold on, y'all!
This is only one step of an agonizingly slow Federal Highway process. An agonizingly slow process, but one that's always very thorough, methodical, and carefully thought through.
The project is only intended to highlight three to five infrastructure-based hazards to bikers -- in other words, "Are we building things into our highway network that could cause motorbike crashes?"
This report summarizes a workshop attended by invited stakeholders and the Texas A&M researchers (the industry leader for highway safety research), who met only to prioritize “countermeasures” already identified in an earlier phase of the project. I’m rather disappointed that neither the attendees nor their organizations were identified, although I suspect there were representatives from the AMA, manufacturers, state DOTs, law enforcement motor officers, and --who knows? -- maybe members from the Sons of Anarchy.
The Summary (page 5) contains this telling sentence: “Attendees raised the notion that the list of 10 countermeasures was diverse, but none of the countermeasures would prevent a crash or help a rider survive a crash.” They then decided to branch off a little and recommended to discard many of the previously identified items: “Researchers agreed that the approach attendees recommended was appropriate, but it necessitated a significant modification to the workshop agenda.”
Seems to me that these three, from the list of ten at the beginning of the report, certainly would help a rider survive a crash:
Punctual energy absorption (crash cushions)
Remove roadside trees and poles
Pavement condition repair
The final list of eight drops the crash cushion idea and removal of roadside obstacles, but includes these which are useful. (I agree, SacMike, signs aren’t particularly useful to riders that pay attention to the road.)
Pavement condition repair and textured pavement markings
Barrier treatment for motorcycles (Lord, please don’t let me hit a guardrail on my FJR)
Retro-reflective pavement markings
Positive guidance in a work zone
The last step in this process is likely 3 years away, but will absolutely lead to changes in the way we build our highways.