PROBLEMS IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN EQUITABLE EXPOSURE DENOMINATOR IN ACCIDENT, INJURY AND FATALITY RATES
Vehicle miles are not considered to be an accurate nor an equitable method for comparing accident and fatality rates among states. Primary exposure factors other than vehicle miles are neither accurate nor equitable as exposure denominators. With the exception of rural/urban mix, secondary exposure factors are difficult or impossible to resolve differences among the states. Vehicle consumption items other than fuel are a poor source of vehicle mileage estimates. The author concludes that vehicle mileage is the best indicator of exposure and should be continued with more realistic fuel consumption conversion for unmeasured road mileage computations and motor fuel consumption is the best estimation tool available. It is recommended that the applicable agency of the US DOT should make a study of fuel consumption and produce a fuel consumption mpg standard annually for use in computing vehicle miles. The national standard mpg for passenger vehicles should be adjusted for high mpg travel and low mpg road mileage for each state to obtain a conversion value for highway passenger vehicle gasoline sales into passenger vehicle miles. Lastly, the possibility of using satellite reconnaissance to measure vehicle traffic for vehicle computation to parallel and eventually replace the present methods of vehicle mileage computation should be examined in depth.
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Corporate Authors:
Idaho Transportation Department
3311 W State Street, P. O. Box 7129
Boise, ID United States 83707-1129 -
Authors:
- Semans, T
- Publication Date: 1977-9
Media Info
- Pagination: 10 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Automobiles; Crash exposure; Fatalities; Fuel consumption; Traffic crashes; Vehicle miles of travel
- Uncontrolled Terms: Exposure
- Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00172447
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Apr 26 1978 12:00AM