Safely saving the climate

Some policy measures and initiatives regarding road safety are complementary to CO2 mitigation policies, but in other cases there is tension between the two fields. The main question of the Safety and CO2 seminar will be: how can areas of tension between the two agendas be most effectively resolved?

Amongst the topics are: technical issues such as vehicle size, weight and design; the safety implications of vehicle electrification; tyre selection; behavioural issues including eco-driving and speed management.

Highlight: trading control for road safety

Oliver Carsten, director of the Leeds University Institute of Transport Safety, will be one of the speakers at the Safety and CO2 seminar. When asked what he will be speaking of, he lifts a tip of the veil: “I will be talking about the results of the Intelligent Speed Adaptation project of the Commission for Integrated Transport.” Some of those results are remarkable, as you can read below.

Road deaths and other unhealthy stuff
First some context information. From the cover note to the report:
2946 deaths on the British roads in 2007 was the lowest number since records began in 1926. But Malta, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway all had lower mortality rates on their roads in the same period. Understandably, British Government wants to further reduce the number of serious road injuries and road deaths.

At the same time, Government is battling climate change, together with the rest of the European Union. Stricter EU emissions legislation requires better results in this field as well. Of course, better air quality is a matter of public health as well.

Help
There is a new technology that could help in both areas: Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA). The system compares vehicle speed to the local speed limit and, if necessary, either advises the driver to adjust the car speed, or – overridably or mandatorily – controls the maximum speed.

If voluntarily implemented, could ISA save lives and cut carbon emissions at the same time? How large an impact could be expected and how many cars would have to be fitted with ISA to get those results? How would a cost-benefit analyses turn out? And what would be the disbenefits, if any?

The Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, were commissioned to find out and report, and so they did.

Report
The most remarkable conclusions according to the Commission for Integrated Transport (CfIT) and the Motorists' Forum (MF), who jointly commissioned the report:
regarding air quality

• Overall, for CO2 emissions, changes are not very significant on roads with a speed limit of 60mph or lower. But on 70mph roads, there is potential for a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions of 5.8% (with an uncertainty range of 0.7%) with a mandatory ISA system.
• On the modelled rural network, ISA doesn't have a major impact on overall CO2 emissions or fuel consumption rates at any level of penetration.
• In the two modelled urban networks, increasing ISA penetration had a small detrimental effect on both CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, increasing both by up to 3%. The detrimental effect is stronger at levels of ISA penetration above 20%. This is because cars tend to operate most efficiently at speeds above 30 mph. On the other hand, the more elaborate emissions models indicate small savings in CO2 emissions and fuel consumption on both 30 and 40mph roads, most likely because of reduced acceleration.
• Regarding other pollutants and noise no substantial effects can be expected.

regarding road casualties

• Overridable and mandatory ISA are predicted to be substantially more effective than the advisory form, and the positive effect increases when more vehicles are fitted with the system.
• At 100% use, overridable ISA would reduce the number of injury accidents by 12% and mandatory ISA by 29%, particularly in the more severe crashes.
• The potential is greatest on 30mph roads where there is considerable propensity to exceed the speed limit and crashes involve collisions with pedestrians and cyclists.

furthermore

• In less than fifteen years, under virtually every scenario, ISA recovers its implementation costs.
• No "critical mass" effect could be found: the impact at 80% of cars using the system is double that at 40% and so on.

Recommendations

Given the promising road casualties results, CfIT urges the Department for Transport to come into action:

• The department should work with the relevant European authorities, vehicle manufacturers, local authorities, insurance companies, representative bodies and others, to consider what steps should be taken to support the future availability of the technology and to promote its take up.
• The potential benefits and opportunities of ISA should be widely disseminated to employers, fleet operators, vehicle rental companies and companies that can provide effective incentives for ISA adoption.
• The Transport Department should also put in place the necessary infrastructure to provide the digital maps required and should look at opportunities to equip its own fleet with ISA and act as a champion.
• Government, according to CfIT, should examine whether ISA can help drivers convicted of dangerous driving or younger drivers.

Public debate
The commission calls for a public debate on the future of ISA. Why don't we start one here on MindsinMotion.net: how much control are you willing to give up in order to help save lives?

Related cartoon

Intelligent Speed Adaption: Positive impact on road safety and CO2 mitigation