Let's Not Forget About Safety
With so much attention focused on the sorry state of the nation's roads and bridges and lawmakers' attempts to pass a long-term highway bill, the impact of traffic collisions can get lost. AAA tried to rectify that problem last week when it released a new report finding that traffic crashes cost $299.5 billion in a single year. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among people ages 5-34 in the United States, according to the report. AAA used calculations from the Federal Highway Administration to put the cost of a single motor vehicle fatality at $6 million. A single injury costs about $126,000.
There are a number of ways to address this problem, among them making safety a "national priority," according to AAA. Seat belt laws, impaired driving countermeasures, and graduated driver licensing systems also would make a difference.
Politically, however, AAA President Robert Darbelnet found the critical button to push in Congress. "This report further underscores the importance of a long-term, multi-year federal transportation bill that will provide the necessary and sustained investments that lead to better and safer roads for all Americans," he said.
Last week, we saw a lot of politically-barbed bluster about infrastructure from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. The Senate rejected, in turn, the president's infrastructure jobs plan and then the Republican alternative because each bill contained provisions that the opposing party could not accept. It is a disservice to the citizens who bear the costs of traffic collisions and congestion.
Are safety concerns overlooked in transportation policy discussions? Would a long-term highway bill make a real difference in reducing traffic collisions? What policies would have the biggest impact on reducing car crashes? Is there the political will to enact those changes? Can a focus on safety help the broader effort to enact a long-term highway bill?
November 9, 2011 11:02 AM
New policies to reduce road fatalities
By Gabriel Roth
Research Fellow, The Independent Institute
Road fatalities could be reduced in two ways:
First, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations already increase US road fatalities by some 2,000 a year. Environmental movements are notoriously indifferent to the preservation of human life (their objections to DDT result in millions of preventable deaths from Malaria) but their objections should be over-ruled and CAFE regulations abolished. Heavy vehicles are safer than light ones even in single-vehicle accidents. Taxes on fuel are a better way to discourage fuel use, and the revenues could top-up dedicated highway funds.
Second, allow insurers to test and license the vehicles and their operators they insure, as is done in maritime transport, where safety is taken very seriously. In contrast to local authorities, insurers have compelling financial incentives to reduce accidents. For example, Maryland was found to be not enforcing its regulations requiring those convicted of drunk driving to have alcohol detectors in their vehicles. Insurance companies, with $millions at stake, would be much more likely to enforce such regulations, and to seek new ways to make drivers and their vehicles safer.
November 7, 2011 10:20 AM
Interconnected & Intelligent Systems
By David Pickeral
Global Development Executive for ITS Solutions, IBM Corporation
Although the physical design of vehicles and infrastructure has done much in recent decades to mitigate injuries and loss of life from accidents, the essential next step will be to eliminate the accidents themselves. A key outcome from the expansion of smarter transportation around the world will be to ensure safety. At the outset, better traffic prediction coupled with enhanced traveler information systems (TIS) will reduce congestion and associated driver stress which will lead to an inherently safer environment.
Beyond that, as more advanced vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure systems come online, the ability for positive control and intervention offers the promise of eventually eliminating such factors as human error and undetected mechanical failure in the operation of transportation systems across all modes. Through instrumented, interconnected and intelligent systems the potential for real reduction of accidents is eminently possible.