The only time I have ever found it hard to pick a motorcycle is if they have the setting sun behind them and they have their headlight on (curiously it makes them harder to pick out than if the light is off).
Most modern bikes wont allow you to turn off the headlight, mine wont.
I think this is because its suggested in the highway code that bikes should have their headlights on at all times for visibility.
Then again, you should never pull out if you are not 100% sure what's coming down the road.
The suggestion of making all car drivers ride a motorbike before they can drive a car in my opinion, as a biker, is silly. I have a friend, who cannot balance on a push bike or a motorbike (we tried, and admitted defeat when he took a five feet, one inch deep gouge out of a car park) and I know he will never ever try a motorcycle again. But I have absolutely no reason to doubt that he will be a fantastic car driver when he starts learning as he is inherantly careful and observant. I imagine there are alot of people out there like him.
E.g. the first power bracket you could drive up to a 1.2l car, second bracket 1.6, third 2.0, fourth 3.0, fifth 3.0+. Or something along those lines with horsepower.
The other suggestion that has been made by various motoring groups, is that cars and bikes should be bracketed into power ratings. You get your licence and start off with a licence entitling you to ride the lowest power bracket (for either car or motorcycle) and you have to pass a further test to move onto the next power bracket. Similar to how 17 year olds can get their full motorcycle licence, they pass the test and are restricted to 33bhp for 2 years. If the brackets for cars and bikes were relative to one another (e.g. a 1000cc sports bike is in the same bracket as a high powered sports car) then I think people would treat them with alot more respect realising the power hidden in the engine.
It just really grates me up that a 17 year old taking his bike test is restricted to 33bhp by force, whereas they can take their car test and go jump into a ferrari, which one is going to be more dangerous to other road users?