Across the United States, pedestrian safety continues to be a critical issue. Nearly 7,500 pedestrians died in vehicle-related crashes in 2023, a number that has almost doubled over the past decade. As a result, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has made a concerted effort to advance pedestrian safety on America’s roads over the past year. The new NHTSA safety standards include new rules to establish advanced vehicle safety standards for new passenger vehicles and a renewed mandate for states to assess road safety across their jurisdiction with an eye on cyclists and pedestrians.
Against that backdrop, state and local transportation agencies must take additional steps to ensure safety for vulnerable road users. Despite ongoing constraints on human and budgetary resources, they must prioritize pedestrian and cyclist safety.
Navigating this complex environment means understanding the new regulations, finding ways to comply, and taking additional steps to create safer roadways for all.
The New NHTSA Pedestrian Safety Standards
The NHTSA’s emphasis on pedestrian safety is not necessarily new, but two new rules this year deserve particular attention. The first, announced in February, looks to better streamline federal regulations with what individual states must assess and report on. As reported by Smart Cities Dive,
“The proposal would require each state to perform a system-wide safety risk assessment and clarifies that each state’s strategic highway safety plan must include a safety assessment focused on vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, or those using a personal conveyance.”
The rule further proposes a streamlining of assessment reporting across all states. This includes an emphasis on outlining current issues and the projects and countermeasures taken to address them.
While not the only emphasis, the NHTSA also suggests a particular focus on the road systems of underserved communities within individual states. It suggests creating committees to broaden the emphasis and avoid communities or considerations falling through the cracks. These include representatives from underserved communities and public health agencies not otherwise directly involved in transportation.
Following up its new mandates on states, the NHTSA also proposed a new rule specifically designed to address new vehicle construction this September. This new rule would establish a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard requiring all new passenger vehicles to reduce the risk of serious-to-fatal injury in pedestrian crashes.
In its announcement, the federal agency outlines some of the details that will be included in this new standard:
“The proposed standard would establish test procedures simulating a head-to-hood impact and performance requirements to minimize the risk of head injury. The test procedures also include the use of human-like headforms to measure the head-to-hood impact. The headforms NHTSA proposes to use in testing the new standard represent a diverse range of pedestrians, from a small child to an adult.”
According to its internal estimates, the rule would save the lives of approximately 67 pedestrians across the United States yearly.
The Bigger Picture: From New Standards to Broader Emphases
While they might not directly affect daily operations for most state and municipal transportation agencies, these new NHTSA safety standards highlight a broader theme. Every time they’re on the road, vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists face potentially significant dangers.
Larger vehicles, like trucks and SUVs, are becoming more and more prevalent on all types of roads, directly putting pedestrians’ heads at risk. Autonomous vehicles without any drivers propose risks that are not yet fully understood. State and local agencies are directly responsible for all road users but are facing more constraints than ever.
And yet, budget shortfalls within transportation agencies continue to be an issue across the nation. At their worst, these shortfalls put a strain on the ability of agencies to maintain safe roads. These create an unsafe environment that can be difficult to solve.
To be sure, cities and states cannot regulate the vehicles on their roads. They can only partially influence the implementation of new federal regulations. At the same time, they can still take steps to create a safer roadway for all stakeholders and those who use it.
We know lighting, signage, and unsafe crosswalks contribute significantly to pedestrian accidents, injuries, and deaths. Maintaining well-lit streets, visible signage and clear paint lines is as important as ensuring that crosswalks and safety barriers like guardrails are in optimal condition. If the emphasis is on pedestrian and vulnerable road user safety, any steps can help.
Overcoming Constraints to Prioritize Pedestrian Safety
Of course, constraints in budgetary and human resources remain. Keeping up with regulations and the basic needs of all road users becomes a challenge. That’s where new, advanced technologies can play a major role.
Crowdsource dash camera data, for example, can help automate identifying potential problem areas for vulnerable road users. Tapping into the dash cams of consenting drivers across all roads within a given jurisdiction allows agencies to gain a comprehensive picture of anything from line markings to signage, lighting, road conditions, and more.
The massive amount of data can become a challenge, where artificial intelligence can enter the equation. AI-based models can comb through and make sense of dashcam footage regardless of scope, while pointing out potential issues dynamically. As a result, the agency can focus on planning and executing projects to fix these issues, rather than focusing its resources on identifying them.
Blyncsy’s platform is built just like that. Our product suite is built for transportation agencies looking to make their roads safer for vulnerable users. This includes automation on crosswalk detection, paint percentage analysis, bike lane detection and analysis, lighting, and more.
The platform alone, of course, cannot directly address cannot directly address new NHTSA regulations. However, it can help agencies streamline their resources, ultimately working to accomplish the same goal as the proposed rules: to reduce pedestrian and bicycle accidents and make the roads safer for everyone without major resource challenges.
