Transportation Safety

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Ohio's Train Derailment—Not Spy Balloons—Is the Real National Security Threat

The slow degradation of infrastructure and disaster response is less a spectacle than an overflying balloon, but the train derailment and chemical spill in Ohio highlights just how bizarre such a focus on perceived external national security threats has become. The far greater threat may be from within.

Bradley Martin, Aaron Clark-Ginsberg @aclarkginsberg

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Grounded: The FAA Alert System Failure Could Be a Wake-Up Call

It turned out to be a system failure that grounded thousands of flights on January 11, but U.S. critical infrastructure faces a range of threats—from Russian hackers, to weather events, to angry individuals with guns. The government and organizations responsible for critical infrastructure can take steps to actively manage these risks.

Henry H. Willis @HenryHWillis

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Refugees, Women's Health Research, Supporting Incarcerated Parents: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the humanitarian fallout from a Russian invasion of Ukraine, investing in women’s health research, supporting incarcerated parents, and more.

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Developing a Winning Safety Strategy for Automated Vehicles

When policy problems involve many different groups with diverging interests along with significant uncertainty about the future, games can be a valuable way to explore the potential consequences of important policy decisions. What could gaming bring to the area of AV safety?

Laura Fraade-Blanar, Brian A. Jackson

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Micromobility: How Will We Know When It's Working?

Micromobility was positioned as a solution for every urban problem from traffic congestion to air pollution to transit deserts and inequality. Is there a way to know if micromobility can fulfill these ambitious goals?

Liisa Ecola, Laura Fraade-Blanar

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How State and Local Governments Might Consider Approaching Operational Design Domains for Automated Vehicles

An operational design domain (ODD) is a description of the conditions in which an autonomous vehicle is designed to operate safely. No nationwide ODD policy exists, but because ODD is partly about the characteristics of a specific location, state and local policies could be useful.

Laura Fraade-Blanar, Maynard A. Holliday

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When Driverless Cars Were a Remote Idea

Researchers at RAND have been working on the technology behind driverless vehicles for over 50 years. From 1968 to the present, studies have involved remote-controlled drones, military land vehicles, autonomous submarines, and the safety and liability issues of self-driving cars.

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Road Safety, Venezuela, Mental Health: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how to end U.S. roadway deaths by 2050, Washington's strategy in Venezuela, a mental health social marketing campaign, and more.

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How to End U.S. Roadway Deaths by 2050

Tens of thousands of people die on American roads every year. Bringing that number down to zero by 2050 is possible. We would have to change how we think about road safety, stop accepting car crashes as accidents, and make smart investments in technology.

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Why AV Safety and Cybersecurity Need to Be Pursued in Tandem

Safety and cybersecurity are generally pursued by separate teams within autonomous vehicle companies. A joint approach to standards could optimize safety and cybersecurity and reduce overall risks to autonomous vehicle operation.

Marjory S. Blumenthal @MarjorySB

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State of the Union, OxyContin, Appalachia: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on insights from RAND after the State of the Union, public-health impacts of reformulating OxyContin, STEM jobs in Appalachia, and more.

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How to Make Roads Safer for Autonomous Vehicles

Roadways and vehicle design could be modified to better accommodate both human error and the shortcomings of autonomous vehicle systems.

Laura Fraade-Blanar

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Veterans, Infrastructure, Middle East: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the challenges facing veterans and their loved ones, a chance for bipartisan infrastructure policy, realignment in the Middle East, and more.

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The New AV Challenge: Creating a Universal Safety Framework

Autonomous vehicle developers are pursuing different safety strategies and technologies, making different claims, in different ways, about their systems. A universal framework could provide a more consistent and transparent view of progress in AV safety within and across the industry, better informing the public and policymakers.

Marjory S. Blumenthal @MarjorySB

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A Better Way to Think About Scooters

Unleashed in Santa Monica, California, last September, Bird and its competitors are now in 30 American cities and counting. Cities are responding to the scooter takeover with new regulations and increased law enforcement. But if officials rely only on 20th-century tools to integrate these 21st-century scooters into their cities, they will miss a big opportunity.

Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, Tim McDonald, et al.

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Why Waiting for Perfect Autonomous Vehicles May Cost Lives

Some people think autonomous vehicles must be flawless before humans take their hands off the wheel. But putting AVs on the road before they're perfect improves the technology more quickly—and could save hundreds of thousands of lives over time.

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How California Is Trying to Keep Autonomous Vehicle Development on Track

California's Department of Motor Vehicles recently proposed new regulations governing the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles. Will this help retain the state's status as a testing and deployment ground for the technology, and will it make California safer?

Nidhi Kalra

q&a

Driving to Safety: Autonomous Vehicle Questions, Answered

A recent RAND report found that test-driving autonomous vehicles is not a feasible way to determine when they will be safe enough for consumer use. This resulted in a lot of questions.

Nidhi Kalra, Susan M. Paddock

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Being Safer in the Arctic

The Arctic is more accessible than it once was, but it's still a formidable place to travel. An emergency involving a cruise ship or a downed plane could stress the search-and-rescue system. But modest investments and planning measures can make a big difference.

Abbie Tingstad, Timothy William James Smith

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The Brains Behind Autonomous Vehicles May Need a License to Drive

Autonomous vehicles require exquisite software. To make this software secure, industry and government should consider educational standards and licensure requirements for the engineers who create it.

Isaac R. Porche III

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When Will We Know Self-Driving Cars Are Safe?

Will autonomous vehicles be safe before they are allowed on the road for consumer use? Maybe. And that might be the best that can be said.

Nidhi Kalra

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Tesla Fatal Crash Reminds That Human Interface Remains Important

The first reported fatality in a self-driving vehicle is a chilling reminder that the evolving relationship with increasingly robotic motor vehicles needs to be a partnership, an undertaking with humans and machines managing the risks.

Shawn McKay

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Fatal Crash Shouldn't Kill Self-Driving Cars

The first known fatality in an autonomous vehicle occurred on May 7 and raises important questions. It does not, however, mean that self-driving cars are less safe than human drivers or that development of the technology should be stopped.

Nidhi Kalra

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Should Some Californians Lose Their 'License to Drink'?

In California, many efforts to reduce repeat drunken driving focus on the driving. What if the state targeted the 'drunk' aspect instead?

Beau Kilmer @BeauKilmer

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The Response to Every Terrorist Attack Cannot Be Another Checkpoint

The Istanbul attack will renew calls to extend existing security screening at the front doors of terminals. But checkpoints create bottlenecks and queues of people waiting to get through them, which then become an easy target.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

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The True Cost of Dimming Street Lights

Local authorities across the UK have considered reducing street lighting to save money. What impact might this have on crime, night-time traffic collisions, and other outcomes?

Matthew Davies

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If California Legalizes Marijuana, Consumption Will Likely Increase. But Is That a Bad Thing?

Legalizing and allowing profit-maximizing firms to produce, sell, and advertise recreational marijuana would likely increase marijuana consumption. But how would this increased consumption influence the use of other substances?

Beau Kilmer @BeauKilmer

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A New Tool to Assess the Costs and Effectiveness of Traffic Crash Interventions

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in the U.S. An online tool can help policymakers understand the available evidence-based interventions that can help prevent crash injuries and deaths, what they will cost, and how effective they will be in their state.

Liisa Ecola, Jeanne S. Ringel @JeanneRingel

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With Driverless Cars, How Safe Is Safe Enough?

Waiting for autonomous vehicles to operate perfectly misses opportunities to save lives by keeping far-from-perfect human drivers behind the wheel.

Nidhi Kalra

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When Public Trust in Corporations Is Shaken

The Volkswagen scandal comes at a time when the public's trust in both the automotive industry and tech companies is at risk. The level of public trust in an individual organization could end up burnishing — or infecting — an entire industry or new technology.

Douglas Yeung @DouglasCYeung

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Internet of Things

Late last month, Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million cars to fix a defect that allowed hackers to imperil drivers from afar. In essence, what was considered a huge threat was converted into a solved or at least solvable problem.

Martin C. Libicki

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To Hit the Road, Driverless Cars Must Be Safe, Not Perfect

Once driverless cars are safer than the average human driver, they should be allowed to hit the road. Indeed, waiting for autonomous vehicles to be perfect would be its own safety concern because it would mean the needless perpetuation of the risks posed by human drivers.

Nidhi Kalra

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What If Distracted Driving Was Safe?

According to consumer research, the ability to consume media, write an email, or even sleep during transport is a key selling point for autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars), which could be widely available in the fairly near future. Autonomous vehicle technology could also produce a wide range of public benefits.

James M. Anderson

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Sounding the Car Alarm on Hackers

Security protections on vehicles have not kept pace with systems that control safety features, navigation capabilities, and wireless communication functions. Onboard computer networks will likely become much more attractive to hackers, whether their aim is to steal a car, eavesdrop on a conversation, stalk a potential victim, or cause a devastating traffic accident.

Isaac R. Porche III, Timothy M. Bonds

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Death Is Never Far When You Are at Sea

The U.S. marine safety record is impressive, arguably the best in the world. Yet, as the heartbreaking example of the Sewol demonstrates, the United States must never become complacent.

Anthony L. Russell

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Deadly Aftermath of 'Microsleep'

Though “microsleep,” commonly referred to as “highway hypnosis,” may enter the public discourse most often when it's cited as the possible cause of a disaster like the Metro-North train wreck, it is responsible for fatal accidents on American highways every day.

Wendy M. Troxel @wendytroxel

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America's Great Yellow School Buses

One of the things taken for granted in the United States is the vast network of school buses—about 26 million children ride 480,000 buses every day. But in other parts of the world, getting millions of children to and from the right school, on time, safely, and for a reasonable cost is a significant challenge.

Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson

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A Risk to Themselves

Drivers 65 and older are only 16 percent more likely per mile driven to cause a traffic accident than are drivers ages 25–64. And their total contribution to the nation's traffic accidents is surprisingly small, writes David S. Loughran.

David S. Loughran