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1998 FHWA
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Protecting the health and safety of the traveling public and commercial drivers is imperative. While we have gained important ground in reducing highway fatalities over the past decade, there remains room for safety improvements. Highway crashes are disruptive and can often be costly--not only in human lives but also in lost productivity and related economic costs. At FHWA, we strive to improve the safety of our highways. In FY 1998, we implemented simple, but ingenious, solutions to old problems like using continuous shoulder rumble strips to warn drivers who stray off the roadway, applied new knowledge about driver fatigue, promoted public awareness of many safety issues, and deployed ITS programs that hold the promise of dramatically in creasing the safety of our transportation systems.
Making Roads
User-Friendly | Staying Safe in the Zone | Hearing the Approach of Danger
Staying Awake Means Staying Alive | Partners in Safety | Evaluating
Brake Testing
Preventing Accidents Before They Happen
Even a road built entirely to code can introduce unsafe conditions that were overlooked in the design phase. Missing signs, confusing pavement markings, poor sight distance, and similar missed details can contribute to making a road difficult--or even unsafe--to drive. In FY 1998, FHWA introduced the road safety audit process in which a team of independent experts attempts to identify unsafe roadway conditions during project design or on existing roads. With 14 States piloting this new program, we are improving roadway safety by looking from the user's perspective to find those elements that do not match safety criteria. By implementing this road safety audit in the design phase of roadway construction, we also minimize potential crashes due to unsafe conditions, cut costs by doing it right from the start, and foster a spirit of checking it all twice to make sure our roadways are user-friendly, as well as safe, for the motoring public.
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Hazardous conditions are a given in work zones, which can present dangerous conditions for road crews as well as for motorists. In February 1998, FHWA, in partnership with Texas Transportation Institute and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, opened the National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse. The mission of the Clearinghouse is to provide an information resource aimed at enhancing work zone safety. In a related project, FHWA has worked in partnership with 21 States to increase public awareness of work zone safety issues through an outreach campaign entitled, Get the Picture, Listen to the Signs. This multimedia campaign makes television and radio ads, as well as written materials, available to States and localities. Kansas has even used a flagger from the campaign to make live appearances in their public school systems' driver education program through which young drivers are learning all about work zone safety right from the start.
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Commercial motor vehicle operators must meet driver hearing requirements, but is truck driving a hearing-critical job? According to a recent FHWA study, the ability to hear is a critical requirement for safe driving that aids in crash avoidance when car horns, train whistles, or sirens are heard. Hearing also enables the driver to detect in-cab auditory warning signals and allows both face-to-face and CB communication. While reaffirming FHWA's position that current driver hearing requirements are necessary, this study also answered many questions concerning truck driver hearing, noise exposure, and hearing-critical tasks. Researchers recommended consideration of pure-tone audiometric testing as an objective basis for driver testing and requested that truck manufacturers attempt to decrease the noise levels in the cabins of future truck models. This project is completed.
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One-third of all vehicle crashes involve motorists running off the road. A simple, but effective, solution is found in the use of continuous shoulder rumble strips. These regularly spaced alterations to the road surface can be raised, milled, or rolled. Different types of rumble strips produce different sounds and vibration patterns, but all are effective warnings to drivers who may be more fatigued than they realize while driving. To promote the use of continuous shoulder rumble strips, FHWA has produced several educational CD-ROM's for States to use before determining the type of rumble strips they will place into use. These CD's even present the different sounds produced by each type of rumble strip.
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We are forging a new relationship with the automobile industry in the interest of bringing technologies such as crash warning systems, fatigue alert systems, route guidance systems, in-vehicle automation systems, and night vision enhancements into the vehicle. As envisioned by the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative (IVI), smart vehicles will be able to give route directions, sense objects, warn drivers of impending collisions, automatically signal for help in emergencies, keep drivers alert, and may ultimately be able to take over driving. In an intelligent vehicle, drivers will have access to more information than they are traditionally accustomed. This includes information on road and weather conditions, route directions, vehicle diagnostics, anti-collision warnings, the driver's physiological status, etc. Over time, IVI expects that intelligent vehicles will advance in three primary ways: in the capabilities of in-vehicle systems, in the sophistication of the driver-vehicle interface, and in the ability of vehicles to communicate with each other and a smart infrastructure. IVI is focused on stopping crashes before they occur through the use of advanced technology.
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FHWA recently completed field testing of several performance-based brake testers and developed criteria that help provide an objective, consistent, and standard measure of the "as is" braking performance of a commercial motor vehicle. Inspectors performed a visual inspection and a performance-based assessment on 2,865 vehicles in 10 different States. While keeping in mind that performance-based assessment is quantitative and objective, and visual inspection is qualitative and subjective, the results of these two methods were compared to determine the differences in brake defect rates when measured using different inspection methods. Simultaneous use of both techniques will foster safer vehicle maintenance and operation. This project is completed.
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When driving at night, it's not a bad idea to have a talkative passenger along who makes sure the driver stays awake or realizes when it's time to pull over and rest. For commercial truckers who drive alone, the electronic equivalent of the chatty passenger may be found in a joint FHWA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration program on alertness monitoring systems. FHWA-funded laboratory research has recently verified that an eyelid closure measure called "PERCLOS" is a highly valid and reliable measure of driver alertness. Related technology development has produced a prototype camera and software that can monitor driver eye activity to determine the onset of drowsiness. This technology was field tested with encouraging preliminary results. This project is completed.
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Many of the R&T projects start off with an objective to improve the effectiveness or accuracy of a product, process, or technique, and they wind up producing significant safety enhancements as well as improving quality. An example is the soil stiffness gauge for which our Geotechnical Laboratory was nominated in 1998 for the Construction Innovation Forum's NOVA award. The guage allows engineers to better evaluate the acceptability of a constructed fill or earthworks by directly measuring the soil modulus or stiffness rather than the density, which has been the customary method for many decades because density is much easier to measure. Also, the guage is quicker, easier, and less expensive than previous methods, and it will save lives and reduce exposure to injuries by enabling the technician to conduct each test rapidly. Previously, many technicians were injured and at least one was killed when they were preoccupied while conducting a density test and were run over by heavy construction vehicles.
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