Safe System Weekly | November 1, 2024
by Russ Martin
Welcome to this week’s edition! I hope everyone was careful last night for Halloween – a time of elevated risk for drivers (even for distracted driving ) and pedestrians. A reminder that this Sunday, November 3, Daylight Savings Time will end for the year and most of the U.S. will “fall back” to standard time. Don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour and be careful if the time change might lead to drowsiness while driving. Also, November 18-22 is national Crash Responder Safety Week #CRSW – an opportunity to promote safety for traffic incident responders. Learn more here .?
New FHWA Work Zone Safety and Mobility Rule?
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has announced a Final Rule for 23 CFR 630 Work Zone Safety and Mobility. All state and local recipients of federal-aid funding are required to comply with these regulations, which necessitate the establishment of compliant agency work zone policies, procedures, performance measures, training, and other elements. The compliance date will be December 31, 2026. The announcement also includes a new rule for policies on temporary traffic control devices in work zones, with updated policies due December 31, 2025, and full implementation due December 31, 2026.??
FHWA Releases Hot-Linked MUTCD?
FHWA has announced a new version of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) that has internal hotlinks for easier navigation. FHWA is also rolling out a phased released of MUTCD standards for highway signs.??
Why America Has So Much Road Safety Research But So Little Actual Safety??
We previously shared a national report Tackling the Road Safety Crisis . This article expands on the challenges of coordinating research and effective and consistent countermeasure evaluation.??
?? This article has a critical tone, but the overall topic should be part of the conversation. This author would agree that an integrated national research agenda would likely be helpful, and we do need to invest more in rigorous countermeasure evaluation. At the same time, we also know that safety research and countermeasure evaluation in particular is expensive and complex. Crashes typically have multiple direct and systemic causes, and it can be challenging to parse out what we need to change and why. There are also many safety issues where we lack good data at the source. And then we sometimes struggle to get the outcomes into the field. Among the countermeasures that are strongly validated, states and communities sometimes simply lack the resources to fully implement them.??
AAA Study Reveals Auto Emergency Braking Getting Better, But Limited?
AAA compared the effectiveness of Auto Emergency Braking (AEB) systems in model year 2017-2018 vehicles to their model year 2024 counterparts. Newer model vehicles show tremendous improvement on closed-course tests at low speeds, but not at speeds above 35 mph (where most driving occurs).?
?? Researchers have been carrying out close evaluations of advanced driver assistance systems for years. The findings have generally shown the technology improving over time but still showing wide variance in ADAS performance. Drivers should be aware of the potential gaps and understand when ADAS may come up short.??
Self-driving Cars Aren’t Here Yet, But States are Getting the Rules Ready?
Many state legislatures are creating or updating regulatory regimes in anticipation of wider future deployment of autonomous vehicles.??
领英推荐
Fully autonomous vehicles have raised safety concerns. California enacted a law this year that will, among other things, require manufacturers to continuously monitor every autonomous vehicle on the road and designate a remote human operator to immobilize a vehicle if necessary.
New York City Decriminalized Jaywalking??
As part of a national trend, jaywalking is now legal in the Big Apple, a policy change that aims to reduce enforcement disparities and to accommodate what is already considered to be widespread practice.?
?? This author sees it both ways. Most pedestrians are fatally struck outside of intersections. At the same time, we can’t ignore concerns about disproportionate enforcement. Ultimately, we should evaluate the impacts to see if these changes move us in the desired direction. Hopefully, we will also see more investment in better pedestrian infrastructure that can achieve even more impactful safety outcomes.??
Biggest Takeaways of the Alaska Safe Roadway Behaviors Symposium?
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 [email protected] or message me on LinkedIn. ?
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