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Joseph F. Rice School of Law

  • Bryant Walker Smith at podium speaking

Innovating for safety

In the final days of 2023, Bryant Walker Smith was named vice chair of the Department of Transportation’s Transforming Transportation Advisory Committee (TTAC).

Just over a year later, and two years ahead of schedule, TTAC delivered its formal recommendations to DOT on artificial intelligence, automated driving, project delivery and innovation for safety.

Catch up quick

In response to an executive order from President Joe Biden and instruction from the secretary of transportation, TTAC met throughout 2024 to consider:

  • The safe and responsible use of artificial intelligence in transportation;
  • Automated driving policy needs on data, first responders, and the workforce;
  • The role of technology in improving project delivery; and
  • Emerging, overlooked, and underleveraged innovation for safety.

The committee comprises 30 appointed members representing a wide range of perspectives from academia, industry, civil society and the government.

Smith, associate professor at the Joseph F. Rice School of Law and (by courtesy) the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing, was one of seven “special government employees” appointed solely for their expertise. In a personal statement in the report, a fellow expert commended “Smith’s enthusiasm, effort and encouragement of others.”

Why it matters

“Whether project delivery or AI or automated driving or safety, there are all kinds of transportation organizations and forums, but the only one that can really coordinate the coordinators is the US DOT,” Smith says. “US DOT has a critical convening function, and I think it demonstrated that with TTAC.”

Almost everything in life implicates transportation and making smart policy choices now can mean the difference between a tragic status quo and a better life for everyone.

For example, TTAC’s report notes that driving in South Carolina is three times deadlier than driving in states like Massachusetts and countries such as Canada and Australia. Learning from these examples could save hundreds of lives every year just in South Carolina alone.

Details

The report is divided into four chapters. The chapters on artificial intelligence and automated driving make scores of recommendations for managing risks and realizing opportunities. The chapter on project delivery describes six pillars for making good transportation infrastructure projects happen faster and cheaper.

The chapter on Innovation for Safety is the shortest and presents four concrete solutions. The first two speak to the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

  • Adopt the international standard for adaptive driving beams so more vehicles are built with this visibility-enhancing technology.
  • Regularly update the criteria the New Car Assessment Program uses to award stars for vehicle safety.

The second two solutions address DOT more broadly, and are equally relevant to state governments:

  • Recommit to the Complete Streets approach, ensuring streets are designed and maintained to safely serve the public regardless of age and ability.
  • Emphasize high-visibility enforcement of safety-related traffic laws, especially through the responsible use of speed and red light cameras.

What they’re saying

"In everything from traffic safety to new technologies, policymakers don't have the luxury of time. But while acting quickly is necessary, it is not sufficient. We need policies that are sound, holistic, effective, and fair. And unless we define our goals, 'efficiency' is at best a platitude and at worst disguises and distorts our values. Fundamentally, we need to ask whether we are making life better for people today and tomorrow," Smith says.

View the full report


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