利益相关者强调“零事故之路”的安全举措
参议员加里·彼得斯对货运和通勤走廊的安全问题发出警告。（C-SPAN）
联邦立法者和利益相关者表示，采用新兴技术有助于改善整个国家交通网络的安全，以再次推动减少高速公路死亡人数。
参议员加里·彼得斯（密歇根州民主党）最近对货运和通勤走廊的持续安全问题发出警告。他与支持国会专注于改善地面交通系统的安全计划和技术能力的团体一起。
“不幸的是，每天有 100 多名美国人在我们的道路上丧生。如果趋势继续下去，我们预计今年将有 40,000 多人死亡，数十万人受重伤。 “这意味着成千上万的家庭将因可预防的车祸而破碎，”彼得斯在 5 月 21 日举行的地面交通、海事、货运和港口小组委员会听证会上表示。“此外，这些悲剧中黑人、西班牙裔和美洲原住民以及居住在农村地区的美国人占了绝大多数。我们需要一个强有力的全面应对措施，今天我们将讨论解决道路安全危机的整体安全系统方法，以及如何在全国范围内实施这种方法。”
小组委员会举行了一次监督听证会，以审查人们对道路死亡率日益增长的担忧。彼得斯是小组委员会的主席。“我相信新兴技术将在这一努力中发挥重要作用，”参议员继续说道。“从改善碰撞响应的数字基础设施到预测性道路维护和主动交通管理，新的干预措施对于实现安全系统目标绝对必不可少。”
利益相关方援引美国国家公路交通安全管理局的数据，估计 2023 年交通死亡人数接近 41,000 人。“为了充分享受这些好处并实现更安全、更环保、更智能的交通系统，联邦交通政策需要更新和现代化，将交通技术纳入从规划到建设再到运营的每个环节。技术不能只是‘可有可无’的东西，必须全面纳入交通预算和运营中，”美国智能交通协会主席兼首席执行官 Laura Chace 表示。“这需要我们从根本上改变规划、资助和采购基础设施和技术的方法。”
“技术不能只是‘可有可无’，必须全面融入交通预算和运营，”Laura Chace 说道。
自动驾驶汽车行业协会执行董事 Jeff Farrah 强调了 NHTSA 的数据点，敦促国会推进与自动驾驶汽车部署相关的立法。国会山的政策制定者继续辩论针对自动驾驶汽车的立法和资金，这将增加 NHTSA 和其他交通机构的预算，以帮助推进自动驾驶汽车的部署。
“通过建立安全第一的文化，[自动驾驶汽车] 开发商进一步提高了他们正在设计的车辆的安全优势。自动驾驶汽车行业认为，公众对自动驾驶汽车的信任与自动驾驶汽车的部署密切相关，我们必须赢得并保持这种信任，”Farrah 补充道，“今天，人为错误，包括超速、不熟悉道路和疲劳，是导致道路事故的主要原因。自动驾驶汽车的设计就是为了消除这个错误，因为它们不会分心或疲劳驾驶。”
美国国家安全委员会最近的一项调查显示，越来越多的人支持地方机构加强交通安全举措。该组织总裁兼首席执行官、“零事故之路”联盟主席洛林·马丁 (Lorraine Martin) 表示：“这些调查结果为我们继续倡导道路上急需的变革提供了巨大的见解。”
在交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格 (Pete Buttigieg) 的领导下，拜登政府承诺到 2050 年将交通死亡人数降至零。今年早些时候，这位部长在宣传美国交通部国家道路安全战略时告诉利益相关者：“当航空事故发生时，整个国家都会注意到这一点。想象一下，如果我们把同样的严肃态度应用到美国道路安全危机上，每天有 100 多人丧生——也就是说，一架飞机上的人数都一样。这是不可接受的。现实是不可接受的。这就是为什么我们不把它当作不可避免的事情。”
Senator Promotes Emerging Transportation Technologies
Stakeholders Highlight Safety Initiatives for Road to Zero
Sen. Gary Peters sounded the alarm about safety concerns across freight and commuter corridors. (C-SPAN)
The adoption of emerging technologies contributes to safety improvements throughout the nation’s transportation network, federal lawmakers and stakeholders said in a renewed push to reduce highway fatalities.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) recently sounded the alarm about ongoing safety concerns across freight and commuter corridors. He was joined by groups supporting Congress’ focus on improving safety programs and technological capabilities for surface transportation systems.
“Every day, unfortunately, more than 100 Americans lose their lives on our roads. If trends continue, we expect more than 40,000 fatalities this year and hundreds of thousands of serious injuries. That means thousands of families are going to be torn apart by preventable crashes,” Peters said during a Surface Transportation, Maritime, Freight and Ports Subcommittee hearing May 21. “Also, over-represented in these tragedies are black, Hispanic and Native Americans, as well as Americans living in rural areas. We need a strong and comprehensive response, and today we will discuss a holistic safe systems approach to addressing the roadway safety crisis and how we can implement that approach all across our country.”
The subcommittee met for an oversight hearing to examine growing concerns over the rate of roadway fatalities. Peters is the subcommittee’s chairman. “I believe emerging technologies are going to play an important role in this endeavor,” the senator went on. “New interventions, from digital infrastructure that improves crash response to predictive road maintenance and active traffic management, are absolutely essential to achieving safe system goals.”
Stakeholders cited National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data estimating that nearly 41,000 traffic fatalities occurred in 2023. “To fully access these benefits and realize a safer, greener and smarter transportation system, federal transportation policy needs to be updated and modernized to include transportation technology at every step of the process, from planning to construction to operations. Technology cannot be a ‘nice-to-have’ and must be holistically incorporated into transportation budgets and operations,” said Laura Chace, president and CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. “This requires a fundamental shift in our approach to how we plan, fund, and procure infrastructure and technology.”
"Technology cannot be a ‘nice-to-have’ and must be holistically incorporated into transportation budgets and operations,” said Laura Chace. (C-SPAN)
Jeff Farrah, executive director of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, emphasized NHTSA’s data points in pressing Congress to advance legislation associated with the deployment of autonomous vehicles. Policymakers on Capitol Hill continue to debate legislation specific to autonomous vehicles and funding that would increase the budgets at NHTSA and other transportation agencies to help advance AV deployment.
“By building safety-first cultures, [autonomous vehicle] developers further enhance the safety benefits of the vehicles they are designing. The AV industry believes that public trust in AVs goes hand-in-hand with their deployment and that we must earn and maintain that trust,” said Farrah, adding, “Today, human error, including speeding, unfamiliarity with the roadway, and fatigue, is a major contributor to roadway incidents. AVs are designed to remove that error from the equation, as they do not drive distracted or tired.”
A recent survey from the National Safety Council determined growing support exists for local agencies to amplify transportation safety initiatives. “These survey findings provide tremendous insight as we continue to advocate for much-needed change on our roadways,” said Lorraine Martin, the group’s president and CEO who chairs the Road to Zero Coalition.
Led by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the Biden administration has committed to reducing traffic fatalities to zero by 2050. Touting the USDOT National Roadway Safety Strategy, the secretary told stakeholders earlier this year: “The whole country rightly takes note when there is so much as a close call in aviation. Imagine if we applied that same seriousness of purpose to the crisis of road safety in America that claims more than 100 lives — which is to say, as many people as fill an airplane — every single day. It’s unacceptable. The reality is unacceptable. And that’s why we’re not treating it as unavoidable.”