The U.S. Department of Transportation has unveiled its National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) aimed at curbing the sudden rise in roadway deaths over the past two years. The proposal calls for more mandatory collision avoidance technology on new vehicles; lowering speed limits on dangerous roads; implementing variable speed limits during bad weather; adding speed cameras, safer designs for new roads and intersections; safer redesigns of existing roads and intersections; better tracking of autonomous vehicle crashes; and better record keeping on chronically bad drivers.
The proposal is designed to be holistic, covering drivers, vehicles, infrastructure, and enforcement, though it lacks many specific details which will presumably be ironed out later by responsible agencies. As the Department of Transportation (DOT) is limited in what it can mandate, many of the proposals will update federal guidelines, which states can choose to adopt, and provide strings-attached grant money to encourage such adoption. Where the feds can mandate, though, they will, particularly when it comes to vehicle regulations.
The DOT's action was spurred by a sudden rise in deaths on the road in the past two years. Prior to the pandemic, roadway deaths had been steadily dropping for decades, though the rate at which they dropped had slowed significantly in the past ten years. The DOT notes deaths are up especially among pedestrians and cyclists, and the majority of those deaths are Black, Latin, and native peoples, all of whom have corresponding lower rates of vehicle ownership.
The agency also notes that drunk driving, not wearing a seatbelt, and speeding were major contributors to the rise in total roadway deaths over the past two years.
Much of the document revolves around making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists, with proposed rules and guidelines focus on making vehicles and roads safer for people outside of vehicles. The document directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to update its new vehicle crash testing program and provide guidelines for how the program will grow over the next decade. It also directs NHTSA to mandate or consider mandating more safety technology on new vehicles to protect pedestrians and cyclists as well as drivers and passengers.
Most new vehicles today offer some kind of collision avoidance technology, whether it's a simple forward collision warning system or automated emergency braking. A growing number of vehicles come with this technology standard. Only a few, however, include technology that can detect and react to pedestrians and cyclists in addition to other cars or large objects, and they're generally expensive luxury vehicles.
That won't be the case for long. The proposal calls for a new regulation to make automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection mandatory on all new passenger vehicles and big rigs.
Additionally, the document requires a new rule for the Monroney label (window sticker) on all new vehicles to include the vehicle's crash avoidance technology alongside its government crash test rating.
Some suppliers of cutting-edge driver monitoring technology have suggested it could be used to detect whether a person is drunk or high and prevent the engine from being started. The technology could also detect distracted driving, which is on the rise but not nearly as common in fatal crashes (yet). The DOT is very interested in this technology and, if it works, is considering mandating such technology in all new vehicles in the future. No timetable is given, but realistically it would be years from now.
Regulators nationwide have been very hands-off when it comes to testing experimental autonomous vehicle technology on public roads, but the DOT is starting to crack down, just a little. The document calls for mandatory reporting for automakers of any crash involving autonomous driving technology and directs the department to quickly investigate any safety issues that arise from the development of autonomous driving technology.
Speed limits are not set by the DOT, but rather state, tribal, and local agencies. The DOT provides methodology for determining a proper speed limit, and this proposal suggests those agencies consider prioritizing roadway safety over traffic flow.
Specifically, the DOT is recommending lowering speed limits on deadly sections of road regardless of the implications on traffic congestion. The department is also encouraging the adoption of variable speed limits which can be lowered temporarily during bad weather, when there's congestion ahead, or when there's an accident ahead. These electronic speed limit signs are common in other parts of the world but almost unheard of in the U.S.
With speeding on the rise during the pandemic and more speed-related crashes and deaths because of it, the DOT is encouraging the adoption of automated speed cameras. Common elsewhere in the world, speed cameras can automatically photograph a speeder and send the bill to the registered owner of the vehicle. They generally work by either taking an instantaneous speed reading or by analyzing how long it takes a vehicle, identified by its license plate, to travel between two cameras.
The reasoning behind the speed camera push is two-fold. First, it intends to crack down on speeders. Second, it's designed to reduce the number of people pulled over by police on the side of the highway. This is primarily meant to protect both the police and the stopped drivers, who are sometimes struck by careless drivers passing the scene. It would also reduce the number of traffic stops in general, reducing peoples' interactions with police and therefore the likelihood of people being mistreated or discriminated against by cops.
The DOT doesn't regulate roadway design, but like speed limits, it provides guidelines for state, tribal, and local governments to follow. The proposal calls for new guidelines for designing and building new roads and intersections as well as re-engineering existing roads and intersections. The goal of the new guidelines is, again, to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety.
The proposal gives few specifics, other than to call for an update to the manual on traffic lights and other traffic control devices for vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists and for more roadway lighting. The document stops well short of recommending major changes like traffic circles or protected bike lanes, though such suggestions could come out in future proposals. Many metropolitan areas have begun adopting or moving toward such bike- and pedestrian-friendly designs in recent years.
Drivers licenses are issued by states and territories, not the federal government, and these various agencies don't always share information with one another. To combat drunk driving, the DOT will mandate more electronic records sharing between states for both private and commercial drivers. This is intended to catch people with bad driving records and multiple DUIs who move out of state and apply for new licenses in other states and to keep these repeat offenders off the road.
Because the DOT is limited in what it can mandate, many of these proposals will be encouraged through grant funding. Federal grants can be written with specific strings attached forcing a state, tribal, or local agency to follow certain rules in order to get the money. One such grant program will provide funding to states that keep strong records about the race and ethnicity of people pulled over by the police.
