James H. Hedlund

Methods to Reduce Traffic Crashes Involving Deer: What Works and What Does Not

More than 1.5 million traffic crashes involving deer, producing at least

Hard Core Drinking Drivers

1.1 billion in vehicle damage and about 150 fatalities, are estimated to occur annually in the United States. Deer-related crashes are increasing as both deer populations and vehicular travel increase. Many methods have been used in attempts to reduce deer crashes, often with little scientific foundation and limited evaluation. This article summarizes the methods and reviews the evidence of their effectiveness and the situations in which each may be useful. The only widely accepted method with solid evidence of effectiveness is well-designed and maintained fencing, combined with underpasses or overpasses as appropriate. Herd reduction is controversial but can be effective. Deer whistles appear useless. Roadside reflectors appear to have little long-term effect, although additional well-designed evaluations are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. Both temporary passive signs and active signs appear promising in specific situations, but considerable research is required to evaluate long-term driver response and to improve and test deer detection technology for active signs. Other methods using advanced technology require substantial additional research and evaluation.

Can progress in reducing alcohol-impaired driving fatalities be resumed? Results of a workshop sponsored by the Transportation Research Board Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation Committee (ANB50)

The term “hard core” has been used extensively over the past 15 years to identify persons who drink and drive regularly, typically at high blood alcohol levels. This article discusses how the term arose and clarifies what it means, both as a concept and in practice. It describes the characteristics of hard core drinking drivers and estimates their contribution to drinking driver trips, arrests, and crashes. It summarizes current knowledge and recommendations on the most effective means to affect their behavior and reduce their drinking and driving.

A Review of “Traffic Safety and Human Behavior, by David Shinar”

ABSTRACT Objective: Despite successes in the 1980s and early 1990s, progress in reducing impaired driving fatalities in the United States has stagnated in recent years. Since 1997, the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes with illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels has remained at approximately 20 to 22%. Many experts believe that public complacency, competing social and public health issues, and the lack of political fortitude have all contributed to this stagnation. The number of alcohol-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities is still unacceptable, and most are preventable. The public needs to be aware that the problem presented by drinking drivers has not been solved. Political leaders need guidance on which measures will affect the problem, and stakeholders need to be motivated once again to implement effective strategies. Methods: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Transportation Research Board (TRB), Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation Committee (ANB50) sponsored a workshop held at the NAS facility in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on August 24–25, 2015, to discuss the lack of progress in reducing impaired driving and to make recommendations for future progress. A total of 26 experts in research and policy related to alcohol-impaired driving participated in the workshop. The workshop began by examining the static situation in the rate of alcohol-impaired driving fatal crashes to determine what factors may be inhibiting further progress. The workshop then discussed 8 effective strategies that have not been fully implemented in the United States. Workshop participants (16 of the 26) rated their top 3 strategies. Results: 3 strategies received the most support: 1. Impose administrative sanctions for drivers with BACs = 0.05 to 0.08 g/dL.2. Require alcohol ignition interlocks for all alcohol-impaired driving offenders.3. Increase the frequency of sobriety checkpoints, including enacting legislation to allow them in the 11 states that currently prohibit them. 5 other important strategies included the following: (1) increase alcohol taxes to raise the price and reduce alcohol consumption; (2) reengage the public and raise the priority of impaired driving; (3) lower the illegal per se BAC limit to 0.05 for a criminal offense; (4) develop and implement in-vehicle alcohol detection systems; and (5) expand the use of screening and brief interventions in medical facilities. Conclusions: Each of these strategies is proven to be effective, yet all are substantially underutilized. Each is used in some jurisdictions in the United States or Canada, but none is used extensively. Any one of the 3 strategies implemented on a widespread basis would decrease impaired driving crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Based on the research, all 3 together would have a substantial impact on the problem.

What we know, what we don't know, and what we need to know about graduated driver licensing.

Most traffic crashes result from human errors of commission or omission or at least could have been prevented by actions of the drivers, pedestrians, and other active road users involved in them. The vehicles and the roads also contribute, of course, and safer vehicles and roads have indeed reduced traffic crashes and casualties substantially. But human behavior remains the main contributor, and every jurisdiction has an extensive array of laws and enforcement, adjudication, education, prevention, and intervention activities that attempt to control this behavior. It is thus perhaps surprising that universities offer no standard courses of study in traffic safety behavior, whereas they do for vehicle and roadway engineering. Most of us working in the discipline had to learn behavioral traffic safety research and practice on the job. And we had no textbook, nothing that laid out the important issues, disciplines, and research evidence that we needed. But now we do. Shinar’s book organizes and summarizes an immense amount of research in over 800 pages with 1,000 references (see Figure 1). It provides the framework, the guide, and much of the detail across the entire range of behavioral issues in traffic safety. The book is organized into six parts (A–F) and 18 chapters. Following an introduction, Part A provides context for the remainder. Chapter 2 gives an overview of research methods used in behavioral traffic safety—independent, dependent, confounding, and other variables; experimental designs; the difference between statistical and practical significance; and the range of research methods used, from tightly controlled laboratory experiments to largely uncontrolled observation studies. Chapter 3 discusses key theories of driver behavior including models of rational decision-making and motivation, with an extensive treatment of risk homeostasis (risk compensation). Part B begins with two chapters on driver capacities. Chapter 4 on vision explores the range of capacities beyond simple visual acuity that driving requires (e.g., useful field of view). Chapter 5, on information processing, includes sections on attention, perception, comprehension, decision, and reaction. It concludes that unexpected events affect crash risk substantially. Chapter 6 considers young and novice drivers: the contributions of inexperience and immaturity to their high crash rates and the effects of driver education and graduated driver licensing. It convinces the reader that experience may be more important than maturity when it comes to crash risk. Chapter 7 discusses older drivers: their crash involvement per person, per licensed driver, and per mile driven; how their performance deteriorates with age as vision, reaction time, and decision-making change; how many older drivers compensate by self-regulation; and how licensing, training, and road and vehicle design can play a role. Part C, Driving Style, tackles three aspects of how we drive. Chapter 8 deals with speed: the factors affecting a driver’s speed choice, the complex relations between speed and safety (how absolute speed, speed differential, and speed variance affect crash probability and injury severity). This is followed by a discussion of attempts to control speed through speed limits, manned and automated speed limit enforcement, public information campaigns, and environmental methods. Chapter 9 moves to the related but more elusive topic of aggressive driving: factors that may provoke it; how aggressive driving relates to a driver’s personality, including risk-taking and sensation-seeking; and what might be done to control it. Chapter 10 returns to the safer ground of occupant protection: seat belt effectiveness, belt use laws, child occupant restraints and their use; air bags; and an overview of vehicle crashworthiness features that protect occupants. Part D deals with driver impairment. Chapter 11 discusses alcohol: the physiology of alcohol absorption and elimination; alcohol effects on driving performance and judgment and an excellent discussion of alcohol and crash risk; and the extensive system in place that attempts to deter or prevent alcoholimpaired driving. Chapter 12 deals with the far more complex subject of other drugs: the seven basic drug categories; their