The size of the U.S. police-reported motor vehicle crash problem is analyzed in four dimensions: crash involvement type/role (e.g., single vehicle roadway departure, left turn across path); subject vehicle body type (i.e., passenger cars, light trucks/vans, heavy combination-unit trucks, medium/heavy single-unit trucks, and motorcycles); type of metric (i.e., crashes, involved vehicles, persons killed/injured, and monetary cost); and problem size referent (i.e, U.S. annual, per-crash, per-vehicle, per-driver, and per mile traveled). A valid assessment of market opportunities for ITS or conventional crash avoidance countermeasure requires a precise understanding of the target crash involvement types addressed, the types of vehicles likely to be equipped, and the pattern of countermeasure application (e.g., factory-installed versus "pay-as-you-go"). Monetary assessments of crash problem size may be based on narrow economic loss criteria or comprehensive societal value criteria. From a cost-benefit perspective, the most meaningful target crash problem size statistics for many ITS devices are monetary measures of the expected lifetime target crash experience of individual vehicles of different body types. (Author/publisher)
Abstract