It seems that one government body, namely the Transport For London (TfL), are coming around to what those of us who ride motorcycles have known for a while, which is that people who drive four wheeled vehicles generally don’t see us and because of that (ie their fault) we tend to have accidents with them, or rather them with us.

So, TfL, has launched a TV ad campaign, highlighting the optical effect that psychologists believe could put motorcyclists at risk.

If you live in London, you can see their safety adverts on ITV, C4 and Five as well as hear it on radio stations, until 31 October.

The optical illusion which the advert illustrates and which you can see on the video below, came about as the result of tests using footage of vans, cars and motorcycles, approaching at identical speeds, in which psychologists found that particpants regularly estimated that motorcyclists would take longer to reach them than larger vehicles.

This optical effect is apparently caused by the way the brain assesses approaching objects and this could cause drivers to underestimate how much time and space they have available when pulling out in front of approaching motorcycles, as opposed to just not looking/talking on their mobile/changing a disc in their CD player, presumably.

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) say they have been aware of this for a while and it is one of their arguments against the mandatory use of daytime headlights. Experiments have revealed that bright lights confuse people and encourage them to underestimate the speed of approaching vehicles.

You can see the advert below, let me know what you think in the comments: