Towards ‘Vision-Zero’ in Road Traffic Fatalities: The Need for Reasonable Degrees of Automation to Complement Human Efforts in Driving Operation

Abstract

Human factors play a huge role in road traffic safety. Research has found that a huge proportion of traffic crashes occur due to some form of human error. Improving road user behavior has been the major strategy that has been emphasized for improving road traffic safety. Meanwhile, despite the training efforts, and testing for drivers, the global status of road traffic safety is alarming. This research highlights the seriousness of human factors on road traffic safety and provides actionable strategies to greatly reduce the negative impact of human factors on road traffic safety. Motor vehicle safety data that were made available online by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics were reviewed to evaluate the severity of traffic collisions. To evaluate the extent of human factors in motor vehicle traffic fatalities, data for Canadian motor vehicle traffic collision statistics were reviewed. The study confirms that human factors (such as driver distraction, fatigue, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol etc.) play a huge role in road traffic fatalities. The need for a reasonable degree of automation to help reduce the impacts of human factors on road safety and recommendations aimed at providing widespread support for a reasonable degree of automation systems in driving tasks are presented. Actionable strategies that can be implemented by policymakers to reduce global road traffic fatalities are also presented.