Volpe Center Highlights - August/September 2001
Director's Notes
Director's Notes |
Focus |
Safety |
Mobility |
Human and Natural Environment
Economic Growth and Trade |
National Security |
Papers and Presentations
Anticipating Vehicle Crashworthiness Requirements
Today, highway safety is made increasingly challenging by the growing number and variety of vehicles and technologies. Keeping pace in an ever more complex and mobile world requires sophisticated tools and creative, integrated approaches to problem solving. However, here at the Center we have always known that keeping pace is not enough, that we must be able to anticipate and rapidly respond to evolving national priorities.
The first goal of safety is to prevent accidents. Nevertheless, given that some collisions will be unavoidable, it is critical to protect vehicle occupants insofar as possible. For the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Volpe Center develops innovative software modeling techniques to measure vehicle crashworthiness, and applies biomechanics to analyze crash scenarios. This issue's Focus article discusses our work in these critical areas. As we at the Center work to anticipate the future needs of the transportation community, we see that our expertise in crashworthiness will become even more valuable, and we are taking steps to ensure that we have the right people and technology to meet the safety demands of the future.
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