There’s a common, popular and well-studied method to ensure new technologies are safe and effective for public use – even if researchers don’t fully understand how they work.
A key factor is how well people and machines can avoid crashes.
Tempe Police Department via AP
Comparing crash rates between humans and self-driving cars requires more data than anyone currently collects. And some of it will be quite hard to figure out.
Surveys show most long distance truck drivers also did non-driving work like loading and waiting, but only a minority were paid for it.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Analysis shows that productivity-based payments are associated with recognised unsafe work practices including longer hours of driving and fewer rest breaks.
There is evidence to suggest there is a ‘system’ of factors influencing truck crashes.
AAP/Perry Duffin
Road safety campaigns targeting mobile phone use among drivers should emphasise how perceived social pressure is not an acceptable excuse for engaging in the behaviour.
Rock salt is widely used to deice roads around the world.
(Shutterstock)
With frigid temperatures and snow in the forecast, slippery roads can’t be far behind. Salt keeps roads safe, but it’s harmful to aquatic environments.
Consumers with high hopes of driverless vehicles improving safety might be looking past the boring near-term advances that could make a real difference. It happened before – more than 60 years ago.
Serious injury rates are rising in cyclists, and are associated with significant disability and economic costs.
from www.shutterstock.com
The primacy given to the car has shaped our cities, the roads that serve them and our very thinking about the place of driving in our lives. And it’s a mindset that leaves cyclists highly vulnerable.
How will we react when cars start driving themselves?
Patramansky Oleg/Shutterstock.com
How might we, and our nation’s roads and highways, need to change as autonomous vehicles become more ubiquitous? We know a lot of the answers, but not all of them.
Australia has a series of transport injury insurance, compensation and rehabilitation schemes.
AAP/Alan Porritt
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the bicycle, we look at new research that confirms cars cause the majority of bike collisions. It’s time to follow much of Europe and shift liability to drivers.
Because Australian roads were built and designed with motorists in mind, it is easy for Australian motorists to feel cyclists are using ‘their’ roads and disrespecting the natural order.