ANN ARBOR—How should cell phones, navigation systems and other “telematics” devices be designed to make driving more convenient without making it more dangerous? How do you get motorists to slow down in constructions zones? Under a $16 million Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) contract, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) will oversee and conduct research aimed at answering these and other questions.

“The purpose of this research is to save lives,” says UMTRI director Barry Kantowitz. “Forty-one thousand people die on American highways each year. By improving highway safety and design, we can substantially lower that number.” In the process, UMTRI and its collaborators also will make significant theoretical and methodological contributions to the “science of driving,” he adds.

The contract from the FHWA’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center will focus on two main areas: highway geometry issues—such as how to design bridge approaches and construction zones to get drivers to slow down to safe speeds—and human factors research related to telematics devices. Human factors research examines driver capabilities and limitations in order to make the driving task safer, easier and more efficient.

“We’re especially concerned about the introduction of telematics devices without sufficient safety research,” says Kantowitz, who has studied driver distraction for 15 years. “In order for the potential benefits to be achieved, we must observe driving behavior on the highway and in driving simulators so that the technology ultimately helps the driver, rather than making driving more difficult.” The research will make use of a new driving simulator that UMTRI expects to have in place by January 2002.

Finding ways to integrate various in-vehicle communication and information devices also is an important area of research, adds Kantowitz, who is program manager for the contract. “There are so many things that can distract drivers inside a vehicle. How do you make them all work together in a safe, harmonious way?”

UMTRI’s university partners on the contract are the University of Iowa’s department of industrial engineering, Georgia Tech Research Institute and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

The contract is one of two that UMTRI recently received from FHWA. Under the second, UMTRI and industry partners will receive $10 million to develop and test a new crash avoidance system. University-wide, the two contracts are ranked among the five highest received thus far in the current fiscal year, which began

Federal Highway AdministrationTurner-Fairbank Highway Research Center