Safe System Weekly | December 6th, 2024
by Russ Martin
Welcome to this week’s edition and the holiday season! This last week has been the 2024 Older Driver Safety Awareness Week. The number of older drivers (and related crashes) seems to be on an uptick, but resources are available from NHTSA and likely also from most state highway safety and licensing agencies about how to keep older adults safe, independent, and mobile. U.S. Congress is also returning not only for a “lame duck” session but with a December 20 deadline to approve the FFY 2025 federal budget. This author expects a punt until after the holidays, which will impact federal cash flow for state and local partners implementing safety programs.
NHTSA: Traffic Fatalities Decreased in First Half of 2024
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s early estimates predict declines in almost all categories of crashes for the first half of this year.
NHTSA NCAP Update Includes 10-year Roadmap
NHTSA released its formal notice to add four new advanced driving assistance systems to the New Car Assessment Program and also announced future plans to incorporate other technologies into NCAP through 2033.
U.S. DOT Seeks Feedback on TCE Tool
Respondents have until December 16 to send input on the Transportation Community Explorer Tool, which states and communities nationwide are using to identify disadvantaged communities for transportation planning.
FCC Approves C-V2X Spectrum Rules
ICYMI, the Federal Communications Commission finalized rules that promote “efficient use of 30 megahertz of spectrum” dedicated to intelligent transportation signals using C-V2X (cellular vehicle-to-everything) in the 5.9GHz band. This is expected to accelerate ITS use.
FHWA Releases Complete Streets Operations Primer
This new resource from the Federal Highway Administration describes the role of transportation operations in Complete Streets projects.
Congressman Larsen and Senator Fetterman to GAO: Study on MUTCD Use
In a notable letter this week, Rick Larsen, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Senator John Fetterman request the U.S. Government Accountability Office study how engineers use the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and how it might limit discretion to increase safety.
ADAS Manual Takeover Impacts Driver Use; Safety Groups Debate AEB
A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that drivers are less likely to take over a driver assistance system if the system doesn’t automatically re-engage. Meanwhile, in the wake of NHTSA’s most recent rule requiring automatic emergency braking, the safety community is still debating what is actually doable in the near term.
AAAFTS 2023 Traffic Safety Culture Index
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety’s 2023 national survey found continuing poor traffic safety culture. Notably, speeding behaviors have the lowest perceived social disapproval of all the unsafe driving behaviors examined. The aggregate survey results also found that some respondents fit a clear profile of a very dangerous driver willing to engage in all risky behaviors studied.
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NCHRP: Reducing Conflicts Between Turning Motor Vehicles and Bicycles
A new NCHRP report offers a countermeasure decision tool and design guidelines to improve safety at intersections, which have many inherent conflicts related to different vehicles turning and are excessively risky for those on bicycles.
Unhoused People Pay a Disproportionate Price for the West’s Deadly Roads
The recent increase in pedestrian deaths has coincided with the growing number of people experiencing homelessness and an alarmingly high number of pedestrian fatalities on freeways.
San Francisco Residents Crowd-Source Transportation Data to Substantiate Dangerous Driving
Following concern about dangerous streets, a San Francisco non-profit Transpo Maps has aggregated local data from Telraam – devices that neighborhood residents can independently place to monitor traffic volumes and speeds.
CS’ Prashanth Venkataram Presents on Community-Centered Design
This week, Prashanth Venkataram joined 3x3 to discuss the intersection of road safety and disability, as well as guidance on implementing community-centered design.
CS Openings
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That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
Send me any updates you'd like me to include next week at rmartin@camsys.com or message me on LinkedIn.