Some of America’s most prominent sustainable transportation advocacy organizations are challenging governments to adopt innovative technology that makes it impossible for drivers to access, starting with the vehicles in their own fleets.
In a webinar broadcast last week, a coalition of nonprofit leaders announced an ambitious goal to get 50 U.S. communities to install Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) technology in at least a portion of their municipal fleets by 2025, an effort they are making. calling it the Safer Fleets Challenge.
Already required for new cars in Europe and piloted in municipally owned vehicles in New York City and elsewhere, ISA systems use GPS or traffic sign recognition cameras to detect the current limit and warn the driver that he slows down when he is overtaken or it automatically accelerates the car, with an override option that allows motorists to accelerate briefly to pass.
If municipalities take up the challenge to demonstrate the life-saving potential of ISA on America’s roads, the team behind the campaign hopes it will prove to federal regulators that all cars should come equipped by law.
“I find it difficult to understand why public employees, [if they’re not operating] Emergency vehicles should be violating the speed limits set by their own government,” said Mike McGinn, executive director of America Walks, which is leading the effort.
“I think it’s a great starting point for building acceptance, understanding and ultimately leading to broader safety standards.”
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For McGinn and his co-panelists, the fact that those standards aren’t now instead, despite the fact that speed limiters have been around since the early 1980s, it’s a sign that American transportation officials don’t see going over the speed limit as a major problem, even though it was a factor in 29 percent of accident fatalities in 2020 alone.
And drivers of publicly owned cars aren’t immune to lead foot syndrome either: A 2020 study of vehicle telematics data in San Francisco found more than 148,000 separate instances of city car drivers exceeding the speed limit at least 10. miles per hour, and this data Excluded many vehicles not yet equipped with telematics systems, including all city police patrol cars.
In Ventura County, California, a similar analysis found incidents of non-emergency workers driving 103 miles per hour, prompting the region to start its own ISA pilot.
“If this was their vehicle, they probably wouldn’t be driving it like that,” said Jorge Bonilla, who manages the county’s fleet.
Despite some employee complaints, Bonilla said the program has been well received in the region, reducing speeding by 99 percent among retrofitted vehicles, reducing hard braking events by 36 percent and has relieved supervisors of the responsibility of disciplining their most dangerous. drivers by simply making speeding impossible.
Data from other cities suggests that ISA will have other benefits for the region over time; one study found that the fuel savings of just limiting drivers’ top speed paid for the technology’s installation in less than a year, while also reducing emissions.
And that’s to say nothing of the astronomical savings from avoided infrastructure damage, hospital bills and lawsuits when city vehicles are involved in speeding-related accidents.
“I just think back to when I was a councilman, how many cases we had to take on where people would sue the city [after a crash]”said Erica Gilmore, metropolitan administrator for the city of Nashville. “It would happen very often. . . . Greater safety, of course, would lead to long-term budget savings for cities and towns.”
Panelists acknowledged that before those savings arrive, cash-strapped municipalities may struggle to find the upfront money needed for a speed limit pilot, which costs $1,100 to $1,250 per retrofitted vehicle in front.
They also acknowledged that ISA is not a silver bullet for all dangerous driving behavior, and it certainly won’t stop city employees from reaching deadly speeds when local speed limit signs and road designs actively encourage them .
Still, given that fleet modifications can generally be requested only by executive order, and that America Walks has even provided a template for officials to quickly write their own, forward-thinking leaders it’s long overdue that they finally get off this low hanging fruit and help. solidify the case that Intelligent Speed Assist belongs in every vehicle in the US.
“This is not cutting edge,” said Cathy Chase, president of the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
“This United States is falling behind and needs to catch up with what’s going on in other countries… If you ask a parent if they would like to have this technology in their cars for their teenagers, I would venture to say that almost every parent would say yes. If we want it for our teenagers, we should want it for everyone, because everyone shares the roads with each other.”
View a printable fact sheet about the Safer Fleets Challenge here.
