Citation

Darrell JEP. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1965; 9: 134-137.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1965, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Highway engineering today is very different from what it was a generation ago. Engineering techniques have advanced in all phases of highway design and construction. Prior to World War II, the greatest progress was perhaps in the areas of construction and maintenance. Problems of traffic operations were arising and more and more states were establishing units in the highway departments to study and find solutions to those operational problems. By 1940 most of the states had a traffic engineering section or division whose principal function was to study the operational practices and try to solve the traffic safety problems that were rapidly becoming more serious. The material reduction in traffic death rates since 1941 in spite of the large increases in exposure is, I am sure, familiar to all of you. Since that time, traffic operational problems have received more engineering attention until at the present time they are receiving top priority consideration in highway planning and administration. The rising accident tolls have required that more attention be given to the capabilities, limitations and other characteristics of drivers in order to provide facilities as free as possible of those features that have been found through studies and investigations of driver performance to contribute to the frequency or severity of accidents. For too long the driver had not been given proper consideration in the development of road design practices. But as more studies of driving practices were completed, it became evident that certain previously adopted design standards needed to be revised. It began to be more generally accepted that design criteria should be based more on what a driver was likely to do rather than what he could do in a given situation. In design, driver tendencies are of equal or greater importance than driver abilities. For a long time it has been customary to place most of the blame for traffic accidents on the driver. I would not for one instant suggest that the driver is not an important factor. Probably he is the most important factor. We know that a good driver can operate under the most hazardous conditions and over the most inadequate facilities for long periods without mishap, while other operators will often have accidents on the safest roadways. But the driver is only one of several factors among which both the road and the vehicle must also be considered. Roadways and vehicles can be designed and constructed to minimize the results of driver failures. It is also true that the roadway can be designed to compensate for and thus reduce the severity of the consequences of both driver and vehicular failures. Therefore, engineering must accept a definite responsibility for highway safety, and must provide highways that will encourage better driver performance and reduce both the probability and severity of accidents as much as possible. In a recent study by the Automotive Safety Foundation in cooperation with the Bureau of Public Roads of the U. S. Department of Commerce, the relationships between highway safety and the roadway and traffic control was investigated. This study confirmed a number of previous findings and opinions, but what is more important, it has caused a revision in much of our thinking and in some popular conceptions regarding the causes of accidents.