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SMART Grant - Advanced Safety Technologies for Transit

Updated: Aug 12

The primary goal of this demonstration project that was awarded in FY 2023 is to evaluate the effectiveness of and enhanced transit fleet safety from integrating advanced vehicle safety technologies on to vehicles in transit fleets; preventing death and injuries by reducing the number of accidents and the serious nature of those that cannot be avoided.



Each of the following advanced vehicle technologies are included in this project:


  • Cruise Control, when used correctly, contributes to a number of safer driving benefits by controlling the vehicle’s speed so there is less risk of the driver accelerating and speeding past other drivers, and reducing the potential for erratic driving behavior while also improving fuel efficiency by reducing or event eliminating unnecessary accelerations and decelerations.


  • Adaptive Cruise Control, when used properly, reduces the number of vehicle collisions by up to 14% based on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) data. It does so by controlling the distance between moving vehicles to a safe distance with automatic speed adjustments.


  • Forward Collision Warning reduced 50% of front to rear crashes, 56% front to rear with injuries, 41% large truck front to rear crashes, as well as 14% claim rates for damages to vehicles, 24% claim rates for injuries to passengers in other involved cars according to a National Safety Council (NSC) Highway Loss Data Institute and IIHS study.


  • Lane Keeping reduced head on collisions by 11% and injury crashes resulting from a head on by 21% according to a NSC Highway Loss Data Institute and IIHS study.


  • Data Logging provides the ability to analyze or visualize vehicle statuses and in the event of an accident it records information before, during, and after a crash. Data elements such as vehicle dynamics such as speed and braking status, and safety system performance. The data recorded provides future benefits for improved safety technologies.



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