Have yourself a pint and celebrate, it’s almost time for National Metric Week! The Charlotte (FL) Sun Herald reports that Florida Gulf Coast University kicked off this year’s festivities a bit early by becoming the state’s first university to introduce metric speed limits along its campus roadways. Tony Planas, a FGCU math instructor and advocate of the much-maligned-in-America base-ten measuring system, paid for the recently installed signage. But Mr. Planas may have many miles to go before his metric dreams are realized.  Since Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, the US has only inched forward with its metrication efforts. Despite the proliferation of two-liter soda bottles and 5.7-liter engines from sea to shining sea, the US remains the only nation in the industrialized world, aside from the UK, that still uses traditional English measurements for its speed limits. 

According to a survey by NEWCARNET, 87 percent of British drivers want to see the demise of "sleeping policemen" (a.k.a. speed humps or speed bumps). Introduced in 1991, these "traffic calming" measures range in size from 75 to 100mm high (three to four inches for the metrically challenged). The survey claims sleeping policemen are responsible for damage to cars and buildings, increased road noise levels and injuries to drivers with bone conditions. Their detractors also consider them a dangerous distraction that slows emergency vehicles, and oft times diverts heavy traffic onto less suitable roads. The speed bumps' safety value is also a matter of debate. When Barnet City Council removed all of their sleeping policemen in 2005, accidents had dropped by 14.9 percent. Despite all this– and an anti-sleeping policeman petition that garnered 6,622 signatures– don't look for their extinction any time soon. The UK government has proven itself almost entirely unresponsive to public objections to road safety measures.

The University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute have released the prosaically titled report "The Effect of Lead-Vehicle Size on Driver Following Behavior." Its authors gave randomly selected drivers (Hey! You!) video-equipped cars for two to five weeks, and then studied their driving behavior. The result: passenger car drivers followed light trucks at shorter distances than they followed passenger cars by an average of 5.6 m (18.6 ft), but at the same velocities and range-rates." Bizarrely enough, when drivers could see through, over or around lead vehicles, they maintained significantly longer (i.e., safer) following distances. The study's authors have a message for truck-tailgating drivers: being able to see a big ass vehicle's stop lights ain't enough. Back off jack. (Only in more scientific language.)

Just as humans get recalled by their Maker, so do hearses. Consumeraffairs.com reports that Cadillac is recalling 1049 hearses built in 2006 and 2007 because of a "potential fire hazard." It seems some of the hearses have faulty fuel neck assemblies that could leak while refueling or while the vehicle is moving, resulting in a "potential fire."  (Is that more serious than a real fire?) Since the fuel tank is under the… uh… cargo area, there's a chance the vehicle could become a rolling crematorium. Dealers will replace the fuel tanks in the vehicles being recalled. Humans who have been recalled are on their own when it comes to dealing with "potential fire."

Yup, it's a trend! This is our third example of safety advice so glaringly obvious that we can only assume its target audience will need someone with a higher IQ to read it to them very, very slowly. This time it's not a press release. It's an actual, honest-to-God story from an intern at the Daily Press in Newport News, VA. Katie Bahr lowers the bar for local drivers, telling them "When a school bus stops and its red lights are flashing, no cars are allowed to pass the bus from either direction until it is moving again, state law says." For riders, Bahr turns to David Benware, the director of transportation at Hampton City Public Schools. "Make sure the bus has come to a complete stop before beginning to approach it from the outside or — if you're on the bus — before getting out of your seat." We'll add that children should remain seated when the bus is in motion. 

After blogging the press release on underground parking garage safety (park near a light), we've become aware that re-packaging the blindingly obvious is putting food on the table of public relations companies. It may not be enough for a regular feature, but your comments on the garage story were amusing enough for us to offer you this tidbit from Graco Children's Products. After telling carpooling school parents to make sure all the kids have the right-sized car seat (presumably all made by Graco), the company advises motorized caregivers to place all children under 12 in the rear seat, choose the right car seat, make sure it's fitted properly and lock the doors. Oh, and keep a contact sheet "readily available" in case, well, you know. I'll start the bidding with this addition: seat siblings as far away from each other as humanly possible. 

After the collapse of the four-lane bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August first, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has released “sufficiency ratings” for more than 25K state bridges. The Pittsburg Post Gazette reports that some 6K of the state’s bridges (roughly 12.5 percent) need structural updates or replacement. That’s in addition to 54 bridges the state has already closed on safety grounds. Fixing the problem will cost an estimated $11b. Meanwhile, The Tennessee Leaf-Chronicle says fixing the state’s bridges will cost “more than $215m.” NJ.com says state officials estimate their bridge repair tab at $3b. And so it goes. A 2006 Federal Highway Administration study says at least 73,533 of the country’s 607,363 bridges (about 12 percent) are rated "structurally deficient," including some built as recently as the early ‘90’s. Next up: the political debate over how to pay for their repair. After that, stopping the skimming.

After enough inter-company Powerpoint presentations to stupefy marketing mavens in three companies (Google, Yahoo! and DaimlerChrysler Research, Engineering and Design North America), Mercedes is adding a "Search and Send" function to its OnStar-like telematics and emergency response system. You search for destinations on either Google or Yahoo!, press "send to car," jump in your mighty Merc, press the i button on the Tele Aid system and decide whether or not to start your odyssey (not Honda) or save the info for laterhosen. The feature will be available on the S-Class and the new C-Class from September 5; no word on retrofitting. Nor do we have any info on possible security breaches, as the system also allows "friends" to send you route guidance info. Given our recent report on compromised real-time traffic info, is that a hacker's heads-up or what? 

Once again, rather than address the problem, an automaker's using technology to try to mitigate the consequences. Gizmag reports Volvo will show a new technology at the Frankfurt Motor Show that evaluates a driver's alertness and reacts accordingly. Volvo claims that "up to 90 percent" of traffic accidents are caused by a distracted driver; so they've developed a system that uses an array of cameras and sensors to determine the car's movements and calculate whether the driver is at risk of losing control. If it decides there's a problem, it sounds an alarm to let the driver know they need to pay more attention to their driving and less attention to their cell phone, Blackberry, DVD player or whatever they're doing. If the idiot behind the wheel still doesn't react, the car will automatically apply the brakes or take other "preventative safety" actions. It's only a matter of time before a lawsuit claims the car should have taken over and prevented the accident while the driver was busy browsing MySpace on his PDA.

Reflecting the obesity epidemic sweeping our society, crash test dummies are porking-up. The Daily Mail reports that Euro NCAP, the organization responsible for crash test results in Europe, is introducing a 6'1" 224 lbs. crash test dummy. The heftier proto-human will accompany the current standard: a 5'9" 172 lbs. male (in the G.I. Joe sense of the word). Not wanting to appear sexist, Euro NCAP's also introducing a 4'11" 108 lbs. female to cover the lower end of the size scale. In the U.S., auto manufacturers abuse up to 18 different crash test dummies in a variety of children's and adult sizes, ranging from the aforementioned 108 lbs. female to a 6'3" 225 lbs. male. NHTSA uses five assorted children's dummies and two adult dummies: the 4'11" female and the 5'9" male. Just in case you were wondering.

The Chicago Sun Times reports that The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is less then enthusiastic when it comes to in-car systems aimed at preventing motorists from backing over pedestrians. The nonprofit group Kids in Cars figures that between 2002 and 2006, reversing vehicles killed 674 children. At the behest of Congress, NHTSA looked into the issue. The agency reported that “at least 183 fatalities occur annually," with no evidence indicating an statistical increase. But they admitted that they have little hard data on “back over” incidents, as many occur on private property (e.g. car owners' driveways). As for prevention, NHTSA spokesman cited its '05 official report that concluded that systems designed to detect persons behind a vehicle are "expensive, unreliable and gives drivers a false sense of security." In any case, most new cars lack these $300 to $600 backup systems because automakers usually bundle them with expensive navigation units.

USA Today automotive columnist Jame Healey sees dead people. "If the switch to smaller, lighter vehicles continues to grow, the result could be anywhere from dozens to thousands of traffic deaths that would have been avoided in bigger vehicles, according to fatality records and safety forecasters." It's an old argument (which doesn't necessarily make it a bad one), for which Healey trots out some old stats: a 2002 National Academy of Sciences' report that concludes "Small vehicles have higher fatality rates than larger ones." It's just the first salvo in a sustained stat campaign that, strangely, fights both sides of the argument at once. Or, if you prefer, takes a fair and balanced view. In the middle of the piece, a University of Michigan physics professor nails it. There are "lots of answers" to the question of small-car safety, Marc Ross opines. "There just aren't any simple ones." Perhaps that explains the discrepancy between Healey's sensationalistic opening and yet another wishy-washy USA Today headline: "People buy small cars even though they can be deadly."

The Auto Channel reports that Unitrin Direct Auto Insurance is offering a six percent discount to Georgia residents who pledge “not to do things that will take their attention off the road.” Georgia product manager Andy Mason hopes its “focused driver pledge” will increase awareness of the "great importance of staying focused while behind the wheel of a car." Customers solemnly swear (online or via hard copy) “not [to] read text messages, e-mails, GPS devices or load or watch DVDs while driving.” To check the legal niceties, we phoned Unitrim Prez Scott Carter. He told us the company doesn't spy on pledge-takers. Any driver who got caught breaking the pledge would lose their discount, not the entire policy. Oh, and he spoke to us from his cell phone– in the car.

CNN Money reports that side impact tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) rate the 2008 BMW 5-Series as "marginal." The result placed the Bimmer at the bottom of a six-member "luxury sedan" pack (providing you accept the Amanti as a member of that group). The IIHS test shows that you're be better off sitting in a Kia if your whip gets T-boned by an SUV at 31 mph. ["Good:" Kia Amanti, Acura RL, Volvo S80; "acceptable;" Cadillac STS, Mercedes E-Class; "marginal:" BMW 5-Series.] The test is not without controversy; to mimic a truck, the IIHS' side impact sled plows into the target vehicle ABOVE the car's side impact beam. In that case, side impact airbags are your best friend. In the 5-Series' case, air bags coddled the dummy's head, but chest and abdomen airbags "performed poorly." BMW's spokesman says the IIHS dummy was injured by the arm rest. "The issue is that depending on the location of seat, the location of dummy, the location of the sled, the results could change," Thomas Plucinsky told The Detroit News. "This was one test on one day on one car." And a bad day it was too. 

According to Tecnoride, Safeco Insurance is prototyping a black box which will rat out young drivers who run afoul of their parents driving rules. Safeco's "Safety Beacon" contains a GPS unit to clock speed and location, and a phone system to alert concerned parents. If the driver operates the car outside of several preset boundaries, the gadget can trigger an email notification to parents, along with a text message to the offending party. An Instant Locate feature allows parents to find a Beacon-equipped car (via phone or the ‘net), but it’s “not a breadcrumb-tracking device”. Safeco spokesperson Jim Havens says Beta tests indicate that teens become "better drivers" and transgressions "quickly fall off.” So, can parents expect lower insurance rates as an incentive to sign-up for a $15 a month subscription? “Lower rates, like raising rates, is typically the province of state insurance departments” says Havens. As 007 would say, you must be joking.