table of contents - Research and Innovative Technology ...

U.S. society over the lifetime of persons injured
and killed in transportation-related incidents in
1990 are estimated at $135 billion.
Much work remains to be done to improve
understanding about the causes of crashes and
how to prevent them. Analysis of data from police
reports suggests that about 85 percent of the factors
contributing to motor vehicle crashes were
associated with the driver, 10 percent involved the
road environment, and 5 percent involved the
vehicle. We need to know more about the relationship
between human factors and crashes,
including substance abuse, fatigue, and the many
complex elements that affect the way vehicle
operators interact with the surrounding environment.
As information about human factors
improves, research priorities can be directed to
projects where remedies would have the greatest
potential to avoid crashes.
While airline travel is among the safest means
of passenger transportation, there has long been
a difference between the safety records of major
xviii
TRANSPORTATION-RELATED FATALITIES
Fatalities (thousands)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
�
�All other transportationrelated
Motor
vehicle
pmt
4
��
��3
1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994
5
2
1
0
Passenger-miles traveled–pmt (trillion)
SOURCE: See chapter 1, figure 1-3 and chapter 3, table 3-4.
air carriers and commuter airlines, which in
recent years have grown rapidly in revenue passenger-miles.
Commuter airlines in the past
were not required to adhere to the same safety
requirements as major carriers. New commuter
airline safety standards, promulgated in
December 1995 by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), will be phased in over
the next few years to bring commuter airlines
under the same standards, except where common
sense dictates different requirements.
Energy and Transportation
U.S. dependence on imported oil has grown
over the last decade. Imported oil as a share of
total U.S. consumption increased from a low of
27 percent in 1985 to 45 percent in 1994—just
slightly shy of the historic high reached in 1977.
Because transportation energy use is increasing
and domestic oil production continues to decline,
U.S. reliance on imports is likely to continue in
the future. The Energy Information Agency projects
that imported oil will supply about 60 percent
of U.S. oil demand by the year 2005.
While other sectors shifted away from oil over
the past two decades, the transportation sector
remains almost entirely dependent on petroleum.
In 1994, transportation used 22.7 quadrillion Btu
(quads) of petroleum products to satisfy 97 percent
of its energy requirements. Transportation
accounts for about two-thirds of total U.S. oil
consumption.
Highway vehicles account for the largest
share of transportation energy use, followed distantly
by air transport. For example, passenger
cars use 42 percent of total transportation energy;
light trucks, 20 percent; and heavier trucks,
16 percent.
Transportation energy use in the last two
decades increased only half as much as would be
expected, based on the growth in passenger travel,
because of improvements in energy efficiency
and changes in the modal structure. Most of