19: Crash Countermeasures and Design of Safety

There is no panacea in traffic safety. Safety is a multi-dimensional issue, and crashes are the outcome of multiple variables that interact at a specific place and time. Unfortunately, most of us do not think in terms of systems, but in terms of our interests and concerns. The public’s cries for better roads and less congestion, the regulators’ demands for safer cars, and the licensing and enforcement agencies’ changing strategies for driver control are all going to fail without each other’s involvement and a coordinated effort to improve safety. This is all because if there is one singular firm conclusion that can be drawn from all the research on driver behavior it is that drivers are extremely flexible and adaptive, so that changes in vehicles, roadways, and regulations will invariably result in changes in driver behavior as well. We typically exercise caution when our environment demands it (such as when driving on slippery roads) in order to maintain our safety margins in high-risk situations. Conversely, we can – and often do – take advantage of road and vehicle safety features by engaging in high (or at least higher) risk behaviors, and in the process sometimes throw caution to the wind. Given the greater safety of alternative means of transportation such as buses, trains and planes, ipso facto we are willing to assume some risk when we get behind the wheel, let alone behind a motorcycle’s or a bicycle's handle bars.