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Volpe Center Highlights - March 2001

Safety

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility | Human and Natural Environment |
Economic Growth and Trade | National Security | Papers and Presentations

Promote public health and safety by working toward the elimination of transportation-related deaths, injuries, and property damage.

Volpe Team Commended by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

The Volpe Center provides technical and management support to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Integrated Products Team for Surveillance. As part of this effort, the Center has participated in the development of the Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X), an integrated system comprised of: an X-band radar that scans an airport surface, digitally locating aircraft and ground vehicles; a multi-lateration/automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast subsystem that tracks transponder-equipped aircraft on the surface and approach routes; and a data-fusion system that blends information from the sensor subsystems and provides a unified surveillance "picture" of the airport situation. The ASDE-X is a key element of the Volpe Center's support to the FAA in meeting one of its top priorities: preventing airport runway incursions.

At a ceremony held on February 27, 2001, the FAA recognized the efforts of the ASDE-X Project Team. Volpe team members recognized were Mr. Frank Coyne of the Airport Surface Division and Dr. Tom Seliga and Dr. Mike Geyer both of the Surveillance and Sensors Division. The Volpe team was also commended for its "outstanding level of engineering expertise" in a letter to the Deputy Director of the Center.

Vehicle Crashworthiness Research Support (NHTSA)

During the week of February 12, 2001, Mr. George Neat, Chief of the Vehicle Crashworthiness Division, and sponsor Dr. Thomas Hollowell, Chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Crashworthiness Research Division, participated in meetings held in Wolfsburg, Germany, on vehicle aggressivity and fleet compatibility. Several groups are working on a common safety problem resulting from the disparate types of motor vehicles operating on the highways. Vehicle designs intended to protect the occupants of motor vehicles have resulted in "aggressive" vehicles that cause excessive injuries and fatalities to the occupants of the other vehicle in various crash scenarios.

Dr. Hollowell and Mr. Neat attended a workshop sponsored by the European automobile manufacturers on February 13 and 14, 2001, that addressed research being conducted in this area by governments, academia, and industry around the world. Much of the discussion focused on the development of new crash tests to address the vehicle compatibility issue; there was notable progress toward finding candidate solutions. Material presented at the workshop by Dr. Hollowell included results of research conducted at the Volpe Center.

In the United States, the emergence of large sport utility vehicles and the increase in sales of vans and pickup trucks have exacerbated the problem of "aggressive" vehicles. Volpe research for NHTSA will help determine the best combination of vehicle characteristics to reduce fatalities and injuries in motor vehicle crashes between dissimilar types of vehicles.
(Model courtesy of Mr. George Neat)

In addition to the manufacturers' workshop, Dr. Hollowell and Mr. Neat participated in a Compatibility Working Group meeting of the International Harmonization of Research Activities. Mr. Neat also attended a meeting of the European Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Committee Working Group 15 on Vehicle Compatibility.

The meetings were directly related to fleet compatibility research performed at the Volpe Center for NHTSA. The Vehicle Crashworthiness Division has developed a prototype fleet systems model to evaluate the impact of vehicle design changes and the introduction of new safety systems on the U.S. automobile fleet. Ultimately, the model will incorporate projections of the U.S. fleet into future years and will enable determination of the best combination of vehicle characteristics to reduce fatalities and serious injuries in motor vehicle crashes.

Aviation Safety Program Support (NASA)

To assist NASA Langley Research Center in evaluating the safety benefits of the NASA Ames R&D program, Dr. Sherry Borener of the Accident Prevention Division and Mr. Walter Gazda of the Economic Analysis Division conducted a workshop at the Volpe Center on January 25 and 26, 2001. Because the NASA sponsors were interested in learning how safety benefit estimation had been done in non-aviation programs, an array of Volpe staff from various disciplines provided project-level descriptions of their methodology, and participated in a round-table discussion on how those techniques could be applied to estimate safety benefits for NASA's aviation safety programs.

Approximately 15 Volpe Center participants discussed their projects in the context of: topic area (e.g., economics, human factors, materials research, systems analysis and integration); method (e.g., experiment, forecasting and mathematical analysis, decision analysis); data requirements (e.g., institutional, operational, organizational input); analysis; and results. During the second half of the workshop, Volpe aviation safety experts provided background on data availability at the Center, ongoing aviation safety analyses, and possible overlap with NASA programs.

This workshop is an excellent example of the Center's value as a multimodal research center. The integration of multiple disciplines provides a comprehensive perspective that benefits from lessons learned across many transportation modes.

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