Transforming Transportation Policy and Planning for Safety

Transportation policy studies and improved planning are essential for furthering goals of the University Transportation Centers and the US Department of Transportation. This project is intended to build upon long-standing and successful activities in these areas. Three tasks are envisioned. First, the research team will produce a policy brief on safety and ownership characteristics of battery electric vehicles (BEV). The safety concerns will build upon the previous year’s research on BEV safety with respect to fires, vehicle weight and stopping distance. The ownership characteristics, focusing on equity issues, will come from the National Household Transportation Survey (NHTS, 2023). The latest NHTS is for 2022 (released in 2023) so is recent enough to have a sample of BEV and includes extensive demographic data such as household income, numbers of vehicles and race. PennDOT and Duquesne Light Company are heavily involved with charger implementations and will serve as deployment partners. Second, the team will initiate analysis of fatality risks for vulnerable road users using the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS 2023). Data is released annually with considerable detail on crash characteristics and environment. As an example of risks, a disproportionate number of pedestrian fatalities occur at night and this is a national issue, as recently described in a NY Times article, Why Are So Many American Pedestrians Dying at Night? These risks will then be compared with automated and connected vehicle capabilities to identify potential risk reductions from these new technologies. A recent CMU policy brief produced in part by the project team summarizes these capabilities (Martelero 2022). This task is focused upon developing a professional paper that could form the basis of a policy brief. Third, project participants will continue to work with Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC) in the planning for Pennsylvania Safety Transportation and Research Track (PennSTART), a safety, training and research facility for autonomous vehicle testing and emergency responders. The results of both tasks 1 and 2 can help inform appropriate test scenarios for Penn Start.

• Record URL:
  • https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/projects/detail/482

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $200000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552344811

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Carnegie Mellon University

  Pittsburgh, PA  United States 

  Safety21 University Transportation Center

  Carnegie Mellon University
  Pittsburgh, PA  United States  15213
• Project Managers:

  Stearns, Amy

• Performing Organizations:

  Carnegie Mellon University

  Pittsburgh, PA  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Hendrickson, Chris

• Start Date: 20240701
• Expected Completion Date: 20250630
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Connected vehicles; Electric vehicles; Fatalities; Pedestrian safety; Risk assessment; Vehicle safety; Vehicle tests
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01933376
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Safety21 University Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552344811
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 12 2024 11:30AM