Distracted driving has long been a concern of traffic safety advocates and transportation professionals, and the pandemic has potentially made things worse. Reports by data and insurance companies suggest distracted driving contributed to the dramatic recent surge in traffic deaths. Fortunately, a growing body of research shows how road design and the built environment can help make crashes involving distracted drivers less serious.
Safety
States can target key transportation issues with federal infrastructure funds
The much-anticipated Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was finally signed by President Biden on Monday, and state DOTs are preparing for what will amount to around 50 percent more transportation spending than originally planned for over the next five years. The act includes an additional $110 billion for roads and bridges, $11 billion for safety, $39 billion for public transit, and $66 billion for freight and passenger rail (a five-fold increase).
Connecting streets may reduce congestion without sacrificing safety
Studies show that gridded, highly connected street networks improve safety, disperse traffic, increase access, and are more sustainable than more disconnected designs such as the “loops and lollipops” found in sprawling contexts. To help planners better characterize connected neighborhoods and inform street design decisions, researchers at the University of Utah have developed a street design index of the density and connectivity of street networks.
Hawaii shows pedestrian safety can improve, even in historically dangerous year
The rate of pedestrians struck and killed by motorists in the U.S. has increased by 45 percent in the last decade and the pandemic has only made it worse. Despite many factors at play, Hawaii has gone against this trend, with pedestrian fatalities dropping from 37 in 2019 to 21 in 2020.
Underreported crashes are a barrier to making streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians
Transportation agencies often rely on police generated crash reports for improving roadway design and making streets safer for all users. A recent study from Washington, D.C., however, found that almost one in three car crashes involving a cyclist or a pedestrian goes unreported. With such a wide gap in data, it is quite possible agencies don’t fully understand the real risks pedestrians and cyclists—the most vulnerable users—face, let alone address those risks.
DOTs are thinking beyond highways for keeping economies moving
Construction of the Interstate Highway System spawned decades of economic growth in the U.S., but building more of the same will have diminishing returns, according to research outlined recently in the Wall Street Journal and the National Review. If it’s true that “you can’t build the Interstate Highway System twice” and expect the same benefits, then it’s worth understanding the different ways that DOTs are investing and thinking about how they can keep the economy moving.
Perception and psychology may explain why drivers speed when volume is low
Changed travel behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced congestion and vehicle miles traveled (VMT), even while traffic deaths continue to rise. Evidence shows that open roads, speeding, and other dangerous driving behaviors go hand-in-hand. But what is it about people that leads them to speed and drive dangerously in the first place?
Safer systems are needed to curb traffic deaths
The U.S. needs to adopt a “Safe System” approach to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries, according to the Institute of Transportation Engineers and policy experts at Johns Hopkins University. “Our current roadway system reflects a history of flawed decisions about land use, opportunity, investment, and racial and ethnic equity,” they write in a recent issue of ITE Journal, pointing to the impressive safety records in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and other countries that adopted the approach early on.
Speed limit standards are an essential step toward safer streets
New considerations for setting speed limits have the potential to shift the practice away from the historic norm of service to drivers, and toward the safety and accommodation of all users.
A marketing trick to support safe speeds
Using the “left digit effect,” a group of researchers slowed drivers’ speeds with a simple change on speed limit signs.