UMTRI Director Addresses House Committee

Posted 09/26/2008
UMTRI director addresses U.S. House Committee

UMTRI Director Peter Sweatman recently addressed the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He discussed how vehicle technologies, especially intelligent transportation systems (ITS), can be employed to improve traffic safety. He suggested the U.S. set a target for reducing annual vehicle fatalities from 42,000 to 20,000 by 2025.

As part of a September 25 Congressional briefing, Sweatman highlighted how UMTRI is leveraging its long-standing links to the auto industry, and its contribution to the science of driving, to make driving safer. He discussed the IVBSS program, the nation's largest independent effort to integrate vehicle-based crash-avoidance systems to help drivers avoid intersection and lane departure crashes, in particular. The UMTRI-led IVBSS program is a prime example of government, industry, and university collaboration.

He stated how vehicle safety technology has been developed to focus more on crash prevention and noted that we now have the opportunity to create a truly intelligent transportation system (ITS) by connecting our drivers, vehicles, and infrastructure. ITS can address many problems such as unacceptably high fatality and injury rates, unreliable travel times, traffic congestion, freight bottlenecks, homeland security, and the overall lack of sustainability in personal mobility. But Sweatman’s remarks were clearly focused on crash avoidance, and the high bar that this creates for the technology.

Sweatman advocated creating "co-operative highways" by establishing permanent communication among vehicles (and their drivers) and the infrastructure. Each vehicle would no longer need to develop its own situation awareness in total isolation, but vital information would be shared.

Finally, Sweatman suggested that as the world leader in these technologies, the United States must adopt a target to reduce annual fatalities from 42,000 to 20,000 by 2025. Our aim should be nothing less than world's best practice.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee actively reviews the activities of government entities under its jurisdiction. The Committee provides oversight to ensure that these agencies implement the laws, programs, and policies within the Committee's jurisdiction in a manner that is consistent with statutory intent. The Committee is currently considering the forthcoming highway re-authorization bill; the role that ITS could play in solving transportation problems is likely to be among the considerations of the Committee in the formulation of the bill.

For more information, read the transcript of Sweatman's talk