Designers should make automobiles secure for everybody — not simply drivers and passengers

By Jessica Cicchino
Senior Vice President, Analysis, IIHS

A model of this text appeared in Dangerous by Design 2024, a report on pedestrian dangers all through the U.S. revealed by Sensible Progress America.

Designing for walkability isn’t just about roads. The design of automobiles — every little thing from their dimension and form to their software program — has a profound impact on the protection of pedestrians, cyclists, and different street customers. By our analysis and testing packages, IIHS is figuring out car enhancements that may work along with infrastructure and enforcement adjustments to supply a safer transportation system for all.

On the subject of car dimension and form, it’s lengthy been identified that SUVs, pickups, and light-weight vans usually tend to kill or critically injure pedestrians and cyclists when concerned in a crash in contrast with sedans. SUVs have taken over U.S. roads, climbing from 24% of registered automobiles in 2013 to 36% in 2023. Latest research from IIHS demonstrates that the peak and form of their entrance ends is a part of what makes them harmful. We discovered that passenger automobiles with entrance ends greater than 40 inches off the bottom and automobiles with blunt entrance ends between 30 and 40 inches excessive have been extra more likely to kill pedestrians than automobiles with shorter hood heights and extra sloping front-end profiles. The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration just lately proposed a program to check automobiles on how properly they defend pedestrians, however it might not account for the outsize function bigger automobiles play in U.S. pedestrian fatalities.

Poor visibility is one other attainable issue within the hazard bigger automobiles pose to pedestrians. We found that SUVs, pickups, and light-weight vans are extra doubtless than sedans to hit pedestrians at intersections whereas turning. It’s attainable that constructions just like the A-pillar or facet mirror, particularly massive ones, make it tougher for drivers to see a crossing pedestrian. We’re conducting analysis now to see if poor visibility explains why bigger automobiles are overrepresented in turning crashes.

Car design developments aren’t all unhealthy information. Since 2019, IIHS has been rating pedestrian crash avoidance programs, which warn the driving force when a pedestrian is detected and apply the brakes if the driving force doesn’t reply in time. We’ve discovered that this know-how reduces pedestrian crash rates by 27%; even when it doesn’t stop a crash, it may possibly cut back the severity of the pedestrian’s accidents by decreasing the affect velocity. Increasingly more automobiles are being bought with this know-how commonplace, and NHTSA recently mandated it on new automobiles beginning in 2029. Crash prevention programs that detect cyclists aren’t as prevalent, however they hold promise. And though headlights aren’t a brand new know-how, IIHS has been evaluating the standard of car headlights since 2016 and located that the proportion of headlights that obtained an excellent ranking for growing roadway visibility went up from 1% in 2016 to 42% in 2023. Autos with headlights that obtain an excellent ranking in IIHS checks have nighttime crash rates with pedestrians that are 23% lower than automobiles with headlights which are rated poor.

Controlling velocity is important for stopping severe accidents to pedestrians and cyclists. Intelligent speed assistance (ISA) is an rising car know-how that may assist drivers decelerate. ISA makes use of cameras to learn velocity restrict indicators or integrates maps of velocity limits with GPS. Some programs warn the driving force after they exceed the velocity restrict, whereas others restrict energy to the engine to maintain them from doing so. Many new passenger automobiles at this time are geared up with velocity restrict warnings. Energetic types of ISA are being trialed by municipal fleets. New York Metropolis, for instance, has put in the know-how on 300 city-owned automobiles and plans to equip 1,700 extra. Lawmakers in California are contemplating a invoice that may require ISA that warns drivers when they’re dashing 10 mph over the restrict on all new automobiles. A brand new regulation in Washington, DC, requires lively ISA for offenders with a historical past of extreme dashing; New York lawmakers are contemplating a invoice to do the identical.

As vital as car design enhancements and know-how are, we can’t depend on them alone to enhance security for nonmotorists. It will probably take many years after a brand new security characteristic is launched for it to be current on practically each automobile on the street. Furthermore, even superior know-how won’t stop each crash, which implies that secure infrastructure will all the time be wanted. Setting and implementing secure velocity limits, designing roads to require drivers to decide on secure speeds, modifying intersections and crosswalks to extend pedestrian visibility and driver consciousness, and growing the separation between pedestrians and cyclists from motorcar visitors are wanted now to fill that hole.

Enhancements to roadway design can mitigate the unfavorable results of accelerating car dimension. An SUV, pickup or gentle van touring at a decrease velocity can be much less more likely to critically injure or kill a pedestrian or bike owner. Avenue design adjustments that cut back speeds of left-turning automobiles at intersections (by way of left-turn traffic calming treatments) or right-turning automobiles (by way of a decreased corner radius) can equally cut back the severity of turning crashes. Methods reminiscent of eradicating parking close to intersections, a apply generally known as “daylighting”, and leading pedestrian intervals, which permit pedestrians to enter crosswalks at intersections earlier than automobiles are given a inexperienced gentle, can improve pedestrian visibility for drivers of all car varieties.

The design of the setting can also be key to permitting car know-how to operate optimally. Some pedestrian crash prevention programs don’t work properly at increased speeds, so measures to rein in excessive car speeds may also help these programs operate at their greatest. As well as, roadway lighting makes pedestrians simpler to see for drivers and pedestrian crash prevention programs alike. IIHS analysis discovered that pedestrian crash prevention programs don’t work properly in the dead of night, which is why we began testing these systems at night in 2022. Nonetheless, our crash analysis confirmed that these programs did work at evening when road lighting was current. We’re at the moment investigating if crosswalk lighting improves efficiency on the check monitor.

Design that accounts for human vulnerabilities and may accommodate errors made by drivers and different street customers is the spine of a secure system. Making this nation secure for strolling and biking would require ongoing dedication and funding from those that design our roadways and those that design our automobiles.