Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Business

Tackling the road safety crisis: saving lives through research and action

Minority communities and vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists, have faced disproportionate impacts.

The Paris ring road is notorious for traffic jams
The Paris ring road is notorious for traffic jams - Copyright AFP STR
The Paris ring road is notorious for traffic jams - Copyright AFP STR

Road safety in the U.S. has continued to worsen in recent years despite significant investments in motor vehicle safety research, says a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report.

Traffic deaths and serious injuries have climbed over the past decade, and this U.S. crisis brings with it high human, social, and economic costs, including an estimated 40,000 deaths each year and nearly $500 billion yearly in monetary damages.

The rate of incidences has not been even, highlighting issues with U.S. society’s divisions. Minority communities and vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and bicyclists, have faced disproportionate impacts.

There have been some improvements and while the direction of road management and in transportation and public health agencies is changing to be more inclusive of matters such as energy consumption, the environment, surrounding communities, and the safety of all road users, there are significant gaps and shortcomings. These are called out in the report.

Previous studies have addressed the same issues, and in some cases made similar recommendations, but most of those recommendations have not been pursued, even as the country’s previous long-term gains in road safety waned.

The report offers a coordinated set of actions intended to achieve more impactful outcomes that can be sustained over time, highlighting opportunities to address a range of issues. It says that with the right changes in strategy, evidence-based research on road safety can be translated into practice and that the U.S. can make meaningful advances.

The report makes recommendations and it urges the U.S. Department of Transportation to exercise leadership in rallying the involvement of the many parties across the country that are integral to road safety practice, the research enterprise, and the implementation of research results in the field.

As part of these efforts, USDOT should establish a coordinated, data-driven national road safety research strategy across all federally funded safety programs. Persistent gaps in research agenda in relation to national crash outcomes is indicative of the lack of national-level guidance in road safety research planning and programming; consequently, the report also calls for systematic research to confirm the validity of safety guidance for practitioners, and to eliminate outdated and unproven guidance.

Among the report’s other recommendations, USDOT should consider the creation of a National Road Safety Research Center to both raise the general profile of U.S. road safety efforts and to efficiently support the technical resources, guidance, tools, research products, and skilled workforce needed to make early and sustained progress in the quest for zero deaths and injuries from traffic-related crashes. 

Avatar photo
Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

You may also like:

Tech & Science

Nicole Janssen knows a thing or two about navigating fear of artificial intelligence

Life

Trump, who began his second term last month, has launched a crusade led by his top donor and world's richest man Elon Musk.

World

An eco-friendly paper straw -- but do they work? - Copyright POOL/AFP Mark SchiefelbeinPresident Donald Trump on Friday raged against eco-friendly paper straws promoted...

Tech & Science

How to detect an AI impersonation scam, and how to stay safe.