Is My Conspicuity Showing?

If you want to save lives on the highway you can do it with high tech or you can do it with low tech. My pal, Peter Gold, wants to do it with low tech and he’s willing to demonstrate his technology in person (if you happen to be in the Detroit area in October).

Peter is very particular about noting that his solution, called Inview Vehicle Trim, is not approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation. I guess you’d have to see it for yourself and judge its merits personally.

His solution has already been proven in use on street signs where 3M’s “Full Cube Technology” incorporated into 3M “Diamond Grade DG3 Reflective Sheeting” has been shown to save lives. According to research cited by 3M:

"A systematic upgrade of 2,400 traffic signs among nearly 11,000 signs in Mendocino County, CA, was conducted in 1993. Crashes in rural county-maintained roadways under review were analyzed for three-year periods before and after the upgrades. Crashes were also analyzed on control sites with no upgrades to determine overall crash trends.

• On the roadways where signing and marking upgrades were made, there were significant decreases in crashes that resulted in property damage (reduced by 42%), injury (reduced by 42%), and fatalities (reduced by 61%).
• On roadways where no upgrades were made, crashes that resulted in property damage increasedby 44% and in injury by 9%. There was a reduction in fatal crashes by 40%. Fatal crashes were too rare to draw definite conclusions with statistical certainty.
• The reduction in accidents on the reviewed roads with upgrades were dramatic enough to conclude that the program of road system traffic safety reviews developed by Mendocino County DOT has had a significant effect on the safety of those roads.
• The observed improvements are especially striking when compared with accident data from the control roads where no improvements were made.
• A total upgrade program cost of $79,260 resulted in total savings of an estimated $12,580,0001. The resulting return on investment (or benefit-to-cost ratio) was 159:1.

https://tinyurl.com/ppbnvr3 - Quantifying the Safety Benefits of Traffic Control Devices: Benefit-Cost Analysis of Traffic Sign Upgrades

Peter wants to put those reflectors on car doors which would look something like this:

The 3M reflective sheeting is intended to increase a vehicle’s conspicuity via something traffic industry executives will recognize: retroreflectivity. Crashes will be avoided by improving a car’s conspicuousness – if THAT is a word.

3M is fond of pointing out that "fully half of all traffic fatalities occur at night, even though the nighttime hours account for only a quarter of total vehicle miles driven."  The result is that a driver is three times more likely to die in a fatal accident in the nighttime vs. the daytime.

It is worth noting that the US DOT wants to increase vehicle conspicuity by adding a box with a wireless beacon announcing the vehicle’s presence and location, via the so-called Basic Safety Message Part 1, 10x a second. In fact, this US DOT to-be mandated technology is seen by some as ultimately removing the need for roadside signs which could manifest, instead, on displays in the car.

With tongue firmly in cheek, Peter says his solution will allow car doors to communicate immediately and wirelessly. And we already know this conspicuity tech is capable of saving lives. But don’t take my word for it – see it for yourself.