What's New at VTTI?
Director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to testify at Subcommittee on Highways and Transit and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 — Dr. Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) has been invited to testify at hearings to be held by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Highways and Transit on Thursday on October 29, 2009 and the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection on November 4, 2009, both in Washington, DC.
The hearing topics are "Addressing the Problem of Distracted Driving" and "Distracted Driving: Wireless Devices and Vehicle Safety" with both being held in response to the Driving Summit Leaders to Explore Solutions to Distracted Driving held in Washington September 30 — October 1 in an effort to continue moving toward finding viable solutions to stem the growing problem of fatalities that occur as a result of driver distraction.
Dingus has conducted transportation safety and human factors research since 1984, including the issues surrounding driver distraction and inattention. His distraction work has resulted in over 40 book chapters and refereed publications, over 20 major technical reports and over 150 technical publications. The associated projects have involved automobiles, trucks, and a number of after–market devices including cell phones. This work has been sponsored by the NHTSA, FMCSA, RITA, FHWA, NIH, the Virginia DOT, and several major automobile manufacturers.
He has also had the honor of previously testifying before a U.S. Congressional sub-committee in 2001 as well as providing invited presentations over the past 8 years to a Congressional Roundtable, the National Council of State Legislatures, the National Safety Council, and the Virginia Legislature on issues of driver distraction and inattention. Dingus will also be presenting video from several of VTTI's large–scale naturalistic driving studies which show real–world examples of the causes of crashes and near–crashes as a result of driver distraction and inattention.
Semi-annual School Day and Public Open House at VTTI held recently
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 — Sponsored by the Virginia Department of Transportation and VTTI, School Day and Pubic Open House were held at VTTI on October 8th.
Visitors to VTTI and Virginia's Smart Road toured the facilities in Blacksburg which included a brief presentation, a look at the Control Room and the instrumented vehicles used in research studies. They then headed out on the Smart Road to experience VTTI's all–weather testing capabilities with a ride through a simulated rain event.
VTTI welcomed over 500 students during School Day hours and over 200 visitors during Public Open House hours.
There were 5 groups of students touring throughout the day representing teams from First Lego League whose problem statement this year is on transportation. In preparation for their competition, the students had a chance to ask questions of researchers regarding transportation research, problems with various modes of transportation and how to address and correct those problems. First Lego League state competition is the first week in December, 2009 at James Madison University.
New Data from VTTI Provides Insight into Cell Phone Use and Driving Distraction
Monday, July 27, 2009 — Several large–scale, naturalistic driving studies (using sophisticated cameras and instrumentation in participants' personal vehicles) conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), provide a clear picture of driver distraction and cell phone use under real–world driving conditions. Combined, these studies continuously observed drivers for more than 6 million miles of driving.
"Given recent catastrophic crash events and disturbing trends, there is an alarming amount of misinformation and confusion regarding cell phone and texting use while behind the wheel of a vehicle. The findings from our research at VTTI can help begin to clear up these misconceptions as they are based on real–world driving data. We conduct transportation safety research in an effort to equip the public with information that can save lives," says Dr. Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Read the press release.
First Participant Motorcycle Instrumented for Extended Naturalistic Data Collection
"From 1997 to 2007, fatalities from motorcycle crashes have increased 128% (NHTSA, 2008)." To identify factors behind this trend, VTTI engineers recently developed the first system capable of extended naturalistic data collection on motorcycles. Preliminary data collection is underway. The motorcycle pictured at left is equipped with five camera views: forward, rear, left, right, and rider; machine vision lane tracker, accelerometers (three axes), gyros (three axes), forward radar, GPS, and sensing on wheel speed, turn signals, and brakes.
Defensive Driving Tips Website for CMV Drivers
The final deliverable for the large–vehicle, naturalistic (open–roadway, non–test track) driving study conducted by the Center for Truck & Bus Safety at VTTI has been approved. This website was developed to raise the consciousness of CMV drivers about common driving errors and to provide valuable driving tips offering preventive measures CMV drivers can take to help avoid crashes. The website provides driving tips, interesting facts, video clips, a video description and training exercise questions and can be viewed at: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/outreach/education/driverTips/index.htm
Virginia Teen Driver Coach Safety Project
The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute has been independently approached by representatives from Bedford and Montgomery Counties in Virginia to design a program to provide education and comprehensive monitoring and coaching to correct the most critical unsafe behaviors of teen drivers and to provide a comprehensive feedback mechanism for both teens and parents. This initiative is currently in progress with implementation expected over the next two years.
Datasets Now Available for 100–Car Crashes and Near–Crashes
The following datasets and accompanying documentation are now available for 100–Car Naturalistic Driving Study crashes and near–crashes:
- video reduction data which contains detailed event, driver state and driving environment information;
- vehicle instrumentation (time series) data collected at 10 Hz;
- eye glance data which contains frame–by–frame tracking of participant eye glance location.
In the near future, video reduction data and eye glance data will be released for baseline epochs. The data distribution website is: www.access.vtti.vt.edu