Estimates of Motorcycle Speed Made By Eyewitnesses Under Ideal Experimental Conditions

The authors report findings of a study to evaluate the accuracy of stationary eyewitnesses' estimates of passing motorcycle speed, specifically as related to eyewitness legal testimony. Multiple experimental runs were performed with test subjects of various age, gender, eyesight hearing, motorcycle driving history and self-perceived speed estimation ability. The results show an overall large standard deviation in speed estimate errors. Self-perceived speed estimation ability was the only factor with a significant mean group difference.