Will using ocupancy sensors with hibay t8s shorten the life of the bulb by cycling on and off often?
Yes, substantially.
Not a whole lot if you use programmed rapid start. There isn't much to choose from though. The hibay probably uses high ballast factor. Only Osram Sylvania (PSH) and GE(MVPS-H) offers high ballast factor programmed rapid start ballasts.
You get around 5,000 hours @ 15 min.
15,000 hours if you use PRS.
http://www.gelighting.com/na/busine...ibrary/ballast/downloads/81173_ultrastart.pdf
That graph isn't made by GE. If you look in the OSI brochure, the same exact graph is there.
if it's more than one hour per start, I'd just go forward with motion detector without ballast change.