Sharing the Road: Designers Answer Vehicle Safety Challenges

October 11, 2006 | Levent OZLER

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration releases its latest statistics: 43,443 people were killed on streets and highways in the United States in 2005, the most since 1990, and overall fatality rate climbed for the first time in 20 years, to 1.47 deaths per 100 million miles traveled.

The World Health Organization has called road traffic deaths and injuries "a major but neglected public health challenge."

In conjunction with the World Bank, the WHO forecast that by 2020, road traffic injuries would become the third most prevalent cause of worldwide death or injury-related disability and would rank sixth among all causes of death.

It is estimated that more than 1.2 million people die each year in traffic mishaps around the world. That's 3200 people each day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, year after year after... and that statistic doesn't include the some 50 million others who are injured in motor vehicle crashes.

And it's not just the people driving or riding in those vehicles who contribute to the traffic toll. Of the more than 40,000 fatalities in one recent year on American roads, 4700 of those killed were pedestrians and another 4100 were riding motorcycles. Some 12 percent of fatalities involved collisions between light (cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles) and large (semis, buses, etc.) vehicles.

With such statistics in mind, "Sharing the Road" was designated as the theme for the 2007 Michelin Challenge Design competition. More than 260 entries came from people in more than 50 nations for the challenge, which for this year focuses specifically on designs to enhance road safety for North America. The best of those entries will be displayed at the 2007 North American International Auto Show, January 13-21 in Detroit.

Jurors for the Michelin Challenge Design included traffic safety researcher Dr. Anthony Stein, who notes that many major technological innovations-anti-lock brakes, vehicle stability control, energy-absorbing and deformable body structures, etc. -- have been made in recent years by the auto industry. Indeed, even though the number of passenger vehicles on the road has increased from 150 million to well over 200 million, the number of deaths on American roads has declined since it peaked at more than 50,000 people a year in the late 1970s.

But, Stein adds, "the large leaps" have been accomplished with the passive and active safety technologies installed as standard or optional equipment on so many new cars, trucks and SUVs. However, he says, no longer can we simply consider the car and its occupants. It really is about sharing the road.

"The biggest issue right now is integration of the transportation system," he says. "It is a system and everything is part of the system."

In addition to continuing improvement in active and passive safety systems for vehicles, Stein, president and technical director of Safety Research Associates, Inc., said issues such as driver training, aging drivers, driver distractions and alcohol use; road maintenance, signage and lighting; real-time route guidance to smooth traffic flow, and awareness of and consideration for two-wheel and pedestrian traffic - the so-called vulnerable road user -- must be considered and addressed.

"Little, big and huge vehicles, walking and riding all need to exist," he adds. "People who can't afford to drive [including those using buses and other public transportation systems such as the rails on the roadway systems being built in several major American cities] need road safety, too."

The WHO report noted, "Vehicle design can have considerable influence on crash injuries." The report adds that a European Commission report found that if every car were designed to the standard of the best car available in each category - even with such things as Center High-Mounted Stop Lights -- nearly half of fatalities and disabling injuries could be prevented. However, it added, "many low-income and middle-income countries do not set and enforce standards as high as the one in the European Union."

The WHO report adds that "from a car occupant's perspective, a major problem is the mismatch in size and weight between the vehicles involved in a crash."

"In the trucking industry, safety is very important," said Ruben Perfetti, director of design for Volvo Trucks North America and a Michelin Challenge Design judge. "We are very conscious of the other people we're sharing the road with and we approach it from a global perspective."

Perfetti also noted that an emphasis on safety is one reason that commercial truck drivers undergo much more rigorous and regular testing, both in terms of medical exams and driving skills, than do the drivers of passenger cars.

Recently, transportation design department chair Steward Reed and associate chair Geoff Wardle took students from the Art Center College of Design, one of the world's leading automotive design schools, to a Los Angeles area auto salvage yard.

"We want them to look at the wrecked cars in the salvage yard and think about safety issues," says Reed. "Did the doors remain secure? Was the occupant capsule violated? Was there both a primary and secondary impact?"

And, adds Reed, who also serves as jury chairman for the Michelin Challenge Design, there's another reason for his students to see the aftermath of automotive collisions -- that the romance of designing cars cannot ignore the responsibility of making those cars as safe as possible for all road users.

"We must make the roads safer for everyone," says Bob Miron, director of technical marketing for Michelin North America Inc. "We know this is a real challenge, but we are confident that technology developers, innovators and companies with a passion for safety are joining with the design community to make vehicles that are practical, beautiful and safe."

Sharing the Road

Safety by the Numbers
Each year, 1.2 million people around the globe die as a result of motor vehicle collisions. That's more than 3200 people each day. In addition, another 50 million are injured.

Here are some of the specifics of the traffic toll around the world:

* China is just beginning to motorize and to build its highway system, but already its traffic is killing more than 100,000 people a year.
* Half of those who die on India's roads are pedestrians.
* In Mexico, some 40 percent of fatalities involve pedestrians.
* In Thailand, more than 70 percent of road fatalities are people riding human- or motor-powered two-wheelers.
* Of the more than 45,000 fatalities in one recent year in the United States, more than 4700 of those killed were pedestrians and another 4100 were people riding motorcycles.
* The U.S. highway traffic death toll has fluctuated little in the last decade -- 41,000 to 46,000 people each year, with another 2.5 million injuries.
* The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among Americans 2 to 34 years of age.
* In the United States, nearly 10 percent of all medical expenditures are caused by vehicle crash-related injuries.
* Some 12 percent of roadway deaths in the U.S. occur after a collision between light vehicles (cars, pickups, SUVs) and heavy vehicles (semis, buses, etc.).

Michelin Challange Design: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/2697.html

Michelin Challenge Design Jury