and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> c-span's campaign 2024 coverage continues live with a three-day libertarian niol convention starting today at 3:30 p.m. eastern. highlights include iepdent presidential candidate robert f. kennedy, jr. followed by vice president of debate featuring former republican presidential contender vivek ramaswamy at 8 p.m. eastern. on saturday at 8 p.m. eastern former president and presumptive republican nominee will speak before the delicate. on sunday at 90 in eastern the party announces its presidential nominee for the november election. the libertarian national convention life today at 3:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now a free free mobile video app and online at c-span.org.

>> next testimony on roadway safety before a senate commerce, science, and transportation subcommittee from transportation policy advocates and local officials. they discuss roadway facilities, infrastructure needs, pedestrian safety and the integration of autonomous vehicles. this is an hour and 40 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the subcommittee will come to order. today, the subcommittee for

surface transportation, maritime, freight, and ports will examine the roadway safety crisis and the solutions that we must implementor in response. we certainly would like to thank my ranking member, senator young, as well as chair cantwell and ranking member cruz for the health and convening this very important hearing. every day unfortunately more than 100 americans lose their lives on our roads. if trends continue we expect more than 40,000 fidelity's this year, and hundreds of thousands ofof serious injuries. that means thousands of families are going to be torn apart by preventable crashes. those families deserve our recognition as we work to address this problem. that's why i wouldg like to enr into the record statements made by victims families who have written to this committee to s urge further action on roadway safety.

without objection, those letters will be introduced in the record. record. i also dedicate today's discussion to them as a families know all too well, safety situation on our roads constitutes a national crisis. in 2021, the national highway safety traffic administration estimated that the u.s. had the highest number of fatalities since 2005. unfortunately, the trend the trend has not significantly improved over the past two years. according to nhtsa, , roadway dk remain elevated05 with only a 3% reduction in 2023. these numbers do not reflect the harm done to our drivers and passengers, but also vulnerable pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists will continue to be disproportionately harmed on our roads. also overrepresented in these tragedies are black, hispanic, and native americans as well as americans living in rural areas.

we need a strong and comprehensive response and today will discuss a holistic safe systems approach to addressing the roadway safety crisis and how we can implement that approach all across our country. the state systems approach ensures that all aspects of our roadways account for inevitable human error. it emphasized building multiple layers ofr r protection so that even when mistakes are made, death and injury are unlikely. this framework focuses on five key categories. safer people and behaviors, safer vehicles, safer speeds, safer roads, and improving the post crash care. i believe emerging technologies are going to play an important role inn this endeavor. new intervention from digital infrastructure that improves crash response, to predictive road maintenance and active traffic management are absolutely essential to

achieving safe system goals. that also includes the safe and accountable development, testing, and deployment of autonomous vehicles which can help us reduce serious injuries and death on our roadways. i expect our witnesses today to discuss the principles and data behind the state systems approach as well as how we can better support communities and limiting the solutions on the ground. we have already made important progress. congress took one key step toward supporting roadway safety with the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021. theti law provides $5 billion in safe streets for all grants for local, regional and tribal communities to prevent roadway deaths and injuries using a safe distance approach and requires them to measure their success along the way. the bipartisan infrastructure law is also the first piece of legislation to establish requirements for complete street standards. these ensure that our roadways

can safely accommodate all traffic. that includes vulnerable road users like pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and people with disabilities as well as the elderly. and finally with theat help of michigander, tell you, the for sexual included honoring the abbas family legacy to terminate drunk driving accident a requirement for the inclusion of impaired driving prevention technology in our vehicles. today we will learn more about the challenges and the opportunities these provisions are opposing for communities on the ground. but the vibrance and infrastructure law was just the beginning. there is still so much more that we can and we must do. in order to address this crisis. our witnesses will also help us examine what solutions need to come next i would like to thank each of you for being here today and for the expertise that

you're going to share with this committee and for all you do each andan every day to make our streets and highways safer. we now invite ranking member young for any opening remarks that you have. >> well, thank you, mr. chairman. and i want to thank all of our witnesses for joining us today to discuss a topic of paramount importance. roadway safety in the united states. today, i want to highlight ourr nation's alarming roadway fatalities and crash statistics, discussed the significance of innovation and enhancing roadway safety, and call attention to the important role that tried and true infrastructure investments play in keeping our roads safe. every year thousands of lives are tragically cut short due to the vehicle crashes. in 23 alone nearly 41,000 people lost their lives on american roads.

this statistic is not just a number.e it represents parents, children, friends and colleagues whose absence leave a void in their families and communities. additionally, millions of crashes occur annually leading to severe injuries in substantial economic losses. these staggering figures underscore the urgent need for innovative solutions to make our roads safer. if we all come together in a bipartisan basis to prioritizent human lives over political and parochial interests, we can significant leverage technology to create safer roadways for everyone. one of the most promising areas of technological innovation lies in the development of autonomous vehicles, which have the potential to revolutionize roadway safety. unlike human drivers, autonomous vehicles do not get distracted, tired or impaired. they can react to hazards more quickly and make split-second decisions based on vast amounts

of data that no human could process.ke widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles could reduce traffic the top of these by up to 90%, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives each year in the united states. this technology isn't just futuristic. it's a tangible solution that can transform how we think about road safety, and massively reduce the number of deaths on our roads every year. however, the benefits of innovation extend beyond autonomouson vehicles. smart infrastructure is another critical component of a safer transportation ecosystem. intelligent traffic signals, for example, can adjust in real-time to traffic conditions, reducing congestion and minimizing the likelihood of accidents. connected vehicle technology allows cars to gimmicky with each other and with infrastructure, providing drivers with real-time information about road conditions, hazards, and traffic

patterns. this interconnected network and significantly enhance situational awareness and reduce the risk ofn collisions. this interconnected network can significantly enhance situational awareness and reduce the risk of collisions. further more, public education and awareness campaigns are essential to ensuring that drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and other road users can understand and embrace these new technologies. public acceptance and trust are crucial for the successful integration of innovative solutions into our daily lives. public awareness and education efforts are vital to addressing long standing roadway safety issues in a cost effective way. not the least of which is one that any parent should be extremely concerned about and that is school bus safety. specifically related to illegal school bus passings. school bus safety should be at the top of our list when it comes to roadway safety and

unfortunately it hasn't received the attention it deserves. estimates show more than 43 million violations occur during every 180 day school year. my stop for school buses act which chairman peters co-led with me was signed into law in 2021 and directed the department of transportation to review illegal passing laws and potential technological solutions. along with developing a public safety messaging campaign. with all of these things said, public safety campaigns and technological innovation on their own are not enough. we just also focus on improving our roadway infrastructure to improve safety. this includes maintaining road quality and focusing federal funding to -- focused federal funding to leverage state, local and private funding for infrastructure projects that will vastly improve roadway

safety. 97 miles of public roadways. hoosiers rely on transportation infrastructure. in evansville, indiana i've been working hard for years to secure federal funding for the i-69 ohio river crossing project to fill a crucial gap in the nation's transportation infrastructure as it links i-69 between indiana and kentucky over the ohio river. this type of project which will mitigate traffic congestion, improve roadway safety and significantly leverage nonfederal dollars is where federal infrastructure dollars should be focused. while the statistics on roadway fatalities and crashes are alarming, they also serve a powerful motivator for change. by embracing technological innovation and investing in our infrastructure, we have the opportunity to significantly improve roadway safety in the united states. autonomous vehicles, smart infrastructure and infrastructure investments hold

potential to save lives and prevent injuries. let us commit to supporting an all of the above approach to advancing roadway safety innovations working together to create safer roads for everyone. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, ranking member young. we're joined by the ranking member of the full committee. senator cruz. >> thank you, mr. chairman. last year 40,990 people died on roads in the united states. i expect that we will hear that number multiple times today. and that's because it's a tragic number, especially for all of those who lost loved ones. there are many reasons that go into this. one of which is lack of adequate infrastructure. lack of sufficient freeways. lack of sufficient space that creates more traffic. unfortunately the biden administration has consistently failed to prioritize new

freeways, has consistently failed to prioritize infrastructure and instead the biden administration has allowed itself to be distracted by political pet projects. things like bike lanes. things like the allegation that there are racist roads we need to be worried about. instead of focusing on the important task of building more roads. on this committee i'm proud to have led the way on multiple pieces of bipartisan legislation that have been signed into law to expand our critical infrastructure. passed unanimously and was signed into law.

that interstate is critically needed throughout west texas, east texas and each of the states that i-14 will run through all the way to the atlantic ocean. likewise, i was the lead author of legislation designating i- 27. the ports to planes corridor. that bill was introduced with another democrat, another member of this committee. i-27 will run from laredo, texas up north through west texas through the panhandle of texas into new mexico all the way up to canada. it will be a major artery for north south trade and commerce. likewise i was the lead author of legislation to build and expand four new bridges from south texas to mexico across the rio grande river. those bridges were being delayed by bureaucratic road

blocks put up by the biden administration. repeatedly i went to the secretary of transportation to the secretary of state asked them to stop those bureaucratic road blocks. they refused to do so. every one of those projects was delayed three, four, five years until i authored legislation streamlining the permitting of that legislation -- of those bridges. another way is public safety. sadly we have seen democrats spend much of the past few years disparaging law enforcement and we're learning that less enforcement of traffic safety potentially leads to more traffic crashes.

that makes sense if you think the police are not going to enforce laws and people are going to be more likely to break the laws. in his written testimony for today's hearing, mr. nelson notes that quote, rising traffic fatalities are correlated with drops in the enforcement of life saving traffic laws and parts of the country have seen a decrease in citations by as much as 50% for dangerous activities like speeding or impaired driving. an article from october 2023 titled the decline in police traffic stops is killing people points out that cities like seattle, new york city and st. louis saw traffic stops decline and saw a significant increase in traffic fatalities. previous research has also drawn a link between declines in traffic enforcement and

accidents. another notable issue is drugged driving. a 2022 research paper found from 2009 to 2019 let legalization of recreational marijuana was quote, associated with a 6.5% increase in injury crash rates and a 2.3% increase in fatal crash rates. biden administration rather than working to keep our families safe on the roadways has instead di creed it will classify marijuana from a schedule one substance to schedule three. the american trucking association quickly followed this news with a letter highlighting that rescheduling marijuana without an explicit allowance for a test for its use would create confusion and result in quote,

topics. >> our first witness is sam krassenstein. serves as the chief of infrastructure for the city of detroit. he is responsible for leading the city's infrastructure and transportation priorities. collaborating with state and federal partners. executing major projects and overseeing grant funding. he has an mba and a masters in urban planning from the university of michigan. welcome, mr. krassenstein. please proceed. >> good afternoon. i'm humbled at the opportunity to appear today at this important hearing to represent the city of detroit and the state of michigan as a transportation official proud detroit resident, motorcyclist, husband and father. i'm here because detroit has the unenviable position of having the second highest traffic fatality rate in and the third highest rate for pedestrians in the country. last year alone we lost 132

lives to traffic violence amidst the 40,990 people killed nationwide. our street network was built for a city of nearly two million people. almost three times our current population. like many urban areas nationwide, overbuilt streets creates the perfect scenario for speeding, dangerous driving and treacherous conditions for our most vulnerable residents trying to catch the bus or cross the street on foot. we had an opportunity to make real change with new programs like safe streets for all. we've been extremely fortunate to receive two grants totaling $49.6 million across 2022 and 2023. systematic infrastructure improvements across 30 miles of roads. basically the roads with the highest rate of crashes resulting in it injuryes. many of these intersections are

partially or under county or state jurisdiction and required close collaboration to be able to apply. last week in partnership with michigan d.o.t. we submitted another ssa request this time for a pilot for safety county measures. the part within detroit is one of the most dangerous roadways in the state for drivers and pedestrians alike. grashet is the perfect example. it's a nine lane surface arterial street that cuts through the heart of detroit's east side. the road design has been virtually unchanged since 1956 when streetcars stopped running. the posted speed is 30. we're discolonelled from completing a speed study as state law would be required to

-- since 2017 this eight mile stretch of road has had 159 pedestrian or cyclist-involved crashes, 45 fatalities and nearly 1200 injury crashes. if these aren't the result of drunk drivers or people texting but the result of a road that no longer meets the needs of the population it claims to serve. while it is also one of the busiest bus transit corridors, there are multiple sections that don't have as much as a marked crosswalk for at least half a mile. when someone gets off the bus after a long day at work and needs to get to their house in the neighborhood on the other side of the street, we're asking them to walk more than a mile to avoid crossing 100 feet at an unprotected location. 100 feet is wider than some sections of 395. unsurprisingly, people don't do this and take their lives into their hands on a daily basis. the data reflects this with 33 pedestrian fatalities or serious injuries occurring at these unsignallized and unmarked crossings. in spite of all this there's little irrelevant the city can

do without our state d.o.t. since it's their road. weave been working to figure out a plan for roads only to be given outdated vehicle centric design criteria, maintenance obligations and lack of funding as obstacle the preventing us from addressing the sobering number of crashes, injuries and fatalities. while the program has created an opportunity for cities to seek funding to address safety challenges on larger corridors. its discuss is dependent on having the continued cooperation of state d.o.t.s and county road agencies that historically have done little to prioritize safety or funding and have little incredittive from the federal government to do so. there's more you can do to change this. the updates to the manual for uniform on traffic control devices basically the bible for traffic design if you're unfamiliar with the acronym are a welcome start in building safer streets legislation have

the potential to provide tremendous value to local governments making it easier to add safety elements to projects. as i close today, i request you to consider how many lives can be saved by funding programs like safe streets for all. it's critical to have dedicated safety funding that does not have to compete with maintaining roads and bridges. we've gotten used to not treating streets as public spaces but only as ways to move traffic. if 40,90 people were killed annually in any other setting there would be public outrage and demand for an immediate change. we have normalized the traffic violence we have seen as accidents that just happen rather than crashes that can be avoided. we have a responsibility at all levels to change that and make these spaces safer for the people that use them. i appreciate the work of the subcommittee and the committee as a whole on this important subject. thank you again for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the city of detroit and local governments across the country. thank you. >> thank you, mr. krassenstein.

our second witness is laura chase and she's president and ceo of the intelligent transportation society of america. she currently serves as an advisorn't united states department of transportations transforming transportation advisory committee to help the department navigate how to incorporate advanced technology into our transportation system. you may proceed with your opening remarks. >> thank you. thank you, chairman peters, ranking member young, members of the subcommittee. i appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important topic of roadway safety. in addition to the roles that chairman peters just mentioned i'm also a mother of three children including two teenage drivers. the topic of transportation safety is near to my heart. in every facet of my life i see opportunities to make transportation safer so kids going to school, parents returning home and a routine trip to the grocery store doesn't end in tragedy. its america is a nonprofit

association which has been at the forefront of bringing together government, industry and research to advance our vision after better future transformed by technology and innovation. one that is safer, greener and smarter for all. the status quo approach to addressing transportation safety is insufficient. doing the same thing we have always done will yield only incremental results. we need a mind set shift to address the more than 40,000 transportation fatalities each year. we need to embrace all of the above approach to improving safety on our roadways. these solutions including digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, automation are not just nice to have. they are essential to improving safety and achieving our goals of vision zero. the u.s. spends billions of dollars every year on transportation and infrastructure yet we don't see meaningful progress on lowering traffic fatalities.

of the 673 billion in spending in the iiha, only $800 million was dedicated for technology deployment. even though technology investments can often provide more cost effective solutions. clearly the amount of funding is inadequate. the u.s. also needs to adopt a proactive approach to improving safety. rather than the often standard approach of reacting to tragic events that could have been prevented. to be proactive we must move from focusing on physical assets such as roads, bridges, guardrails and speed bumps to harnessing the power of innovation, data and technology to improve safety. fully deploying a layered approach of physical and digital infrastructure assets is the way we will achieve vision zero. technology provides the opportunity to proactively address safety in myriad ways at intersections, on highways and congested urban environments and in rural

areas. digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence can recognize and predict dangerous conditions that were previously unidentified. helping road users and transportation agencies address these situations ahead of time. v to x communications provides more information about hazardous conditions around them or impending collisions and key things beyond their line of sight. so it gives them more time to react and make better decisions and improve safety. automation is another proactive solution to enhance safety. technologies are responding to driver action or inaction to correct vehicle positioning, brake for pedestrians and more. technology can also make static infrastructure dynamic. such as changing speed limits in the event of congestion or adverse weather, or extending traffic signals in real time when a pedestrian's in a crosswalk and needs more time. technology can take us from a reactive system to a proactive system that addresses issues before they result in a death. the good news is we can do more

today to integrate technology to ensure that these tools being developed here in the u.s. are also deployed here at home to improve safety. this includes finalizing u.s. d.o.t.'s deployment plan to help advance this life saving technology at speed and scale. it also includes prioritizing technology into the safety systems approach, complete streets, the new car assessment program and other u.s. d.o.t. policies and guidance and prioritizing technology deployment under other discretionary grants such as safe stride streets and roads for all. congress also has an opportunity to reimagine the future of transportation technology when it reauthorizes surface transportation programs in 2026. this includes incorporating technology at every step in the process. from planning to construction to operations. and rethinking how we approach technology from policy to funding to procurement. deployers need substantial and certain funding for technology that's incorporated at the beginning of a project's life

cycle. we must also update our policies and best practices for procuring new kinds of technology and software. american innovation continues to lead the world. we have the opportunity to harness this innovation in the communities where we live, work and play to realize better safety outcomes for all. as a mother i long for the day when i don't have to say to my children call me when you get there safely. we can make that day a reality faster by leveraging technology in a more holistic way. thank you for the opportunity to appear today and i look forward to your questions. >> thank you, ms. chase. our third witness is jake nelson who serves as the traffic safety advocacy and research director at the american automobile association. probably better known as aaa. mr. nelson applies research and the sciences of public health to aaa's public policy development, governmental advocacy and consumer education activities. mr. nelson holds an undergraduate degree from the university of michigan. graduate degrees in public health and public policy from

george washington university and the university of chicago. mr. nelson. welcome to the committee. you may proceed why your opening remarks. >> from the more detailed testimony submitted from the record. why the spike in highway deaths and what we can do about it. here's what aaa research has uncovered about what's happening on roadways and to whom. since the pandemic speeding, drunk driving and nonuse of safety belts account for most of the increase in traffic deaths. the post covid spike and fatalities has hit disadvantaged populations, particularly people with no education beyond high school and black and hispanic populations. urban deaths have increased. since 2013, pedestrian deaths have increased 81% percent and urban areas and dropped 10% in rural areas. this shift in traffic mortality

has happened mostly on urban and suburban are multilane lead high-volume roads designed to move vehicles in and out of cities. today they have people who live, work, and shop all along these roads. traffic deaths have spiked at the same time as behaviors of junk driving have dropped. labor shortages across the procession are important here. when apprehension for breaking laws drops, risky behaviors go up. most drivers reduce driving during the pandemic and a small proportion increased their driving and are riskier than ever. accounting for their age, gender, and how much they

drive. drivers admit to engaging regularly in speeding, red light running and driving within an hour of using cannabis. a 24 percent increase in drunk driving. the bottom line, visible enforcement of traffic laws saves lives. we stand a much better chance of police enforcing laws with city support. what got us to this point will not move us to zero deaths. there are five key recommendations to move the needle. i will focus on three. first, support for law enforcement. congress can increase funding for states through section 1906 and establish a standard of excellence for traffic

enforcement. the limiting factor is the lack of guidance and technical support available to them to standardize, analyze, and interpret traffic stop data. and to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to address inequities illuminated by these dittos. we all benefit from making traffic enforcement more equitable. using resources more efficiently and maximizing roads safety. number two, better coordination between state and local governments. with higher speed and state risk. aaa research shows that it jumps on roadways. stronger coordination will allow vocal road authorities to work on this spillover effect. number three, stronger congressional oversight over

halt implementation. failed to issue a final rule by the deadline. congress can ensure that they have met the same deadline. once this penetrates the passenger vehicle fleet, it will save 10,000 lives annually making it the most effective safety countermeasure since the safety belt. aaa recognizes that the challenges in front of you are not easy. that is how the u.s. can sprint instead of crawl towards saving lives on the nation's roadways. thank you for the opportunity to testify. i look forward to your questions. >> thank you, mr. nelson. the codirector of the university of north carolina highway safety research center serves as codirector for the

bicycle information center and director of the collaborative science center for road safety whose mission is to advance transportation safety through a multidisciplinary systems-based approach. a phd in epidemiology from the school of global public health with a concentration on injury prevention and also holds a masters in regional planning masters in regional planning >> thank you, chairman peters, ranking member young, and distinguished members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to speak today. my name is laura sought, could record highway safety research center at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. as an epidemiologist with background in transportation planning my guiding light is to improve the well-being of our communities, the prevention roadway injuries and fatalities. it's a tragic state the rate in the u.s. has been steadily increasing since 2010. moving in the opposite direction of other high income nations. traffic injuries that require millions of emergency department visits each year and creates significant burdens for

families, healthcare providers, employers and the broader community. our economy and public health depends on our people and families arriving safely at the jobs and schools, and returning safely to their homes and communities each day. roadway crashes are preventable and we have many available tools and practices that can be applied to improve safety. the safest a focus on five key objectives. safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and post crash care. eachst to its effect is it's a safe system approach places a clear focus on the primary mechanism of injury in roadway crashes. kinetican energy above human tolerance levels. kinetic energy can seem like an abstract term but who knows what excess kinetic energy looks like on our roads. we know it when we see pictures of vehicles torn in half from a t-boned crash. wewe know when we see pedestrias literally knocked out of their

shoes and thrown hundreds of feet from the site of impact. we know a lot about how speed is playing a role in our road safety crisis. we know the past we drive, the more prone we become to making errors.re and the more time and distance we need to respond to a hazard and avoid a a crash. most importantly we know higher speeds in concert with larger vehicles are a key factor behind the spike of the tafties we are seeing among pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and construction workers whose bodies are simply not designed to withstand impact speeds above 20 miles per hour. fortunately, research indicates even relatively small changes in speed can improve safety for all road users significantly. a 5% reduction in average speed can cut the number of fatal crashes by 30% making a significant step toward her goal of zero. with many well-established treatment be applied to help naturally cute drivers to adopt

context appropriate speed. many states and local agencies have created ambitious speed management plans and what progress is being made there remains a critical need to build local capacity and political will to enhance cross sector coordination, chainlike delivery speed management tools, and ensuring that safe and appropriate speeds are inherently baked into our roadway design, operation and maintenance practices. opportunities exist for vehicle designs and technology to help us reduce the kinetic energy and our system. features like intelligent speed adaptation are now becoming standard practices in other countries. we need to be ready and willing to apply global innovations to also save livescl in the u.s. as we improve our safety plans and infrastructure and test out new technologies we must further invest in modernize our safety data system. we can't manage what we don't measure. we need data to be timely,

accurate, consistent, accessible and complete. we must enhance or data requirements and standards, put in place sustained funding and dedicated court didn't get it, and establish clear performance metrics related to speedne management to show accountability in our implementationan of safe system efforts. as we adopt new technologies we need better data related to usage compliance and failures to help us understand and improve their safety performance and public acceptance. we need to safer system in u.s., one in which people can make mistakes and be human and still make itre home on our roads. a focus on addressing kinetic energy as a root cause of the telly offers tremendous bond for creating a transportation system that is safe for people of all ages and abilities. university researchers are well positioned to support this work in collaboration with the many partners dedicated to gimmicky safety and well-being. thank you for your time and leadership, i welcome the

discussion on these critical issues. >> thank you, dr. sandt. our fifth witness is jeff farrah, chief executive office of themm autonomous vehicle in industry association. the association represents more than 20 of the leading companies developing autonomous vehicle technologies. you may proceed with your opening remarks. >> chairman peters, ranking member young, members of the subcommittee it is an honor to testify today take her as a former staffer. my written testimony provides detail onre unacceptable numberf fatalities and injuries on u.s. roads. i want to spend my time talking about solutions, specific how autonomous technology can help address our nation roadway safety crisis. what was once an aspiration for our country is now a a realit. today autonomous vehicles are here and as reported last month our members have driven nearly 70 million autonomous miles on euros u.s. public roads. equivalent to 293 roundtrips to the moon. autonomous vehicles can play an important role in addressing

roadway safety. our country has hit a wall and reducing roadway deaths and it is a wall built on human behavior like speeding and appeared distracted driving. these errors are the only one because of more than 40,000 deaths on a roads unfortunately they do notll engage in any of these behaviors. what we referring to recent autonomous vehicles. these vehicles usinge drivers teachers that we singled out on a roads. with driver assist technology human driver must causally be engaged to take over at a moment's notice. with tony autonomous vehicles that human has no responsibility for the driving task. autonomous driving is a marriage between hardware and software, and delivers sensitivities, keep abilities and reaction times well beyond that of the human driver. the sensors on his ev give it a 360-degree view to detect, track and reactive objects of people he went hidden from human perception due to other vehicles, buildings and obstructions. particularly relevant to the suit is how evs are developed

to detect vulnerable road users such as motorcycles, pedestrians, cyclists and construction workers and safely respond to the unique behavior. we've all been in situations where pedestrian stepped off a curb and was not visible to to a parked car or motorcycle with lane splitting apart from behind and was undetected until split-second before the motorcycle went by. noww imagine a world where vehicles do not have human limitations because they couldld seek to objects and a few hundred meters in every direction including the on the vehicles headlights. this is the promise of autonomous vehicles to america's vulnerable road users. the industry recognizes the new technology to most americans and strongly committed to building public trust. we believe public trust is essential to the acceptance and the public trust must be earned and maintained by the industry. to achieve that objective last month avia announces trust principles. avia is her sickly importance of transparent interactions with

government officials and public, deep engagement with law enforcement and first responders and upholding the highest cybersecurity and privacy standards. autonomous vehicles are very much an american success story. our country can and must lead on this area globally but we need to support a policy makers. i want to turn to a couple of policy recommendations that will help industry address the roadway safety crisis. leadership on avs is imperative. competitive countries are moving forward policy frameworks and states are increasingly taking the lead on 80 policy. 25 u.s. states now have 80 diplomat statute and are welcoming the technology. i encourage federal action in a couple of areas. first, congress should act on federal legislation like the av start item senator peters and senator thune. we are grateful to both centers for the long-standing leadership on 80 policy and recognition the technology will make our roads safer. our organization was especially excited to see avs called out

by the bipartisan sends a working group that is led by senator chuck schumer, brown, heinrich and young. the working group includes committee action on aga federal framework for testing the point of avs across all modes of transportation and noted this is particularly important and strategic competitors like the chinese communist party are acting. second,ac the av industry as a pressure strong interest from transportation on out avs can increase safety on american roads. we need action from d.o.t. in key areas. for example, i propose rule on its step program which was first announced in july 2023. avs present an opportunity for rematch of vehicles are designed and promote safety and accessibility. according to nhtsa 80 step of the cards toan plymouth next-generation vehicles and open up a wealth of data to up make progress towards establishing an effective governance structure for autonomous technology. another example of what should take immediate action is by

granting the still pending industry exemplary request to about 80 trucks to use alternative warning devices to signal when a vehicle is stopped on the roadside. thank you again for the opportunity to testify for another 42 any questions you may have. >> thank you, mr. farrah. i want to thank you for being here and also thank you for all the great work you are doing in the city of detroit. as you mentioned in your opening comments, unfortunately detroit has historically struggled with high numbers of roadway injuries and deaths especially among the black community. my question for you, can you speak to theha importance of sae streets for all funding in the city of detroit in terms of enabling various safety interventions that would otherwise not simply be possible? and can you speak to a detroit is addressing some of the socioeconomic and racial disparities in roadway safety

using this grant program? >> thank you for the question, chairman. so for the first part of the question on the board's of the safe streets for all program, the program is vitally important for cities like detroit where within the city limits with 3100 linear miles ofrt road some of which are under our jurisdiction that many of the larger roads most dangerous roads are not. safe streets forfo all program gives us a dedicated funding stream that we don't need to worry about making the hard choices between state of repair and saving lives on safety projects. this gives us the opportunity to have dedicated funding to just focus on safety on streets that of an overbuilt in detroit and, frankly, that way too many crashes, , injuries and the toddlers. second part of your question, chairman on how we addressing socioeconomic factors into this. that's frequent and all would we do and everything which roads with paid to which intervention there were padded to take every equity-based approach across both a a public works teams ad

are planning teams that we engage neighboring groups looking a commercial corridors and look at the data as well. we do trye to take a very balanced approach with women make those investments throughout the city. >> thank you. ms. chace, in addition to serving as chair of this subcommittee i'm also the founder and chair of the senate motorcycle caucus. i am an avid motorcyclist myself, and share that with a number of my colleagues hibbert may is also motorcycle safety month where we raise awareness, motorcycle to settle motorcycle is unfortunately perished on a roads irate 22 times the rate of motor vehicle occupants. my question for you is, what sort of technology interventions are most likely to benefit motorcyclist as well as other vulnerable road users, and how can we get this up and running as quickly as possible? >> thank you for the question,

chairman. probably the most effective technology would be vehicle to everything technology for motorcyclists. these technologies as you know provide situational awareness to both the drivers of cars, motorcycles and other road users to alert them, the drivers of the use of vehicles, of impending collisions or hazards that go beyond the line of sight so that the drivers can make better decisions, avoid a crash and improve the safety on the roads. this is really critical when you talk about motorcyclists or other road users who do not have the protection of the vehicle. i would say vehicle to everything technology would be the top technology solution. there are also technology solutions being developed by bw and bosch, for active in a motorcycle safety space what we call networked digital alerting.

alerting may be other key information about the roadway conditions or weather. things that wouldn't essentially be a safety of life issue but could be really critical information to motorcyclist or a cyclist. those solutions are being developed by those companies. in addition, the american motorcycle association has been a part of a larger coalition for many years nowow supporting scae deployment of these technologies so we can, in fact, protect that only drivers but also motorcycles, , bicyclists and other vulnerable road users using our system. >> thank you. mr. farrah,or as you know i strg support avs. i believe they can play a major role in achieving our goals of preventing roadway fatalities. i pray she to mention working on that with snort soon. self driving vehicles and need

to gain and keep public trust that you mention. accepted and sure there's also transition for affected workers with the new technology. the committee is in receipt of letter some unions representing workers who work in and around vehicles that share their priorities and concerns with self driving cars. without objection i willl be entering those into thele recor. mr. farrah, how are you and your members working with transportation workers, affected communities and the public to build trust and transparency? and what do you think the best approach is to deal with this challenge as his industrywo continues to develop and unfortunate incidents will inevitably occur but, that something you need to be thinking about. >> thank you very much for the question. i appreciate your leadership. as i mentioned in my opening statement a recent initiative was released of our trust principles. one of the things that comes through in that document is we are articulating our very strong belief wein need to have

incredible amount of local engagement. this means prior to companies going into cities speaking with local leaders come with law enforcement, with public, with first responders, with leaders whether in labor and other loss of life, it'sbe very important that walks ofof life, important what our intentions are, how we can increase safety, how it is we can help with supply chain challenges, how we can assist city lives leaders with ay opportunity and whatnot. this very, very localized operation is something we're very proud of and do something industry has devoted a significant amount of resources to work. >> well, thank you. we're in a process of voting right now some going to go vote real quickly. i'm going to hand the chair over, or the gavel to the ranking ranking member and i will go vote and be back to relieve you. >> great. works for me, thank you, chairman. mr. farrah, thank you for that

reply, and thank you also for mentioning the ai roadmap that we released last week. in that bipartisan roadmap we encourage committees to continue the work on developing a federal framework for testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles, and we highlight that it is particularly critical as her strategic competitors, most notably the chinese communist party, continue to race ahead and attempt to shape the vision of this technology. just yesterday in fact, the uk, there a the act became law. they will have driverless cars on the roads within two years. says current reporting period so mr. farrah, where does the u.s. stand in the global av competition to your mind? and what are other countries doing differently in support of

innovation and the point? >> senator, thank you very much for the question. the way i think about this is about over the course of the last dozen or so years you've had an incredible american success story in terms of bringing autonomous driving to where it is. but the reality is this is gone noticed by many of the countries around the worldld that also wat to safer roads, more accessibility, by chain benefits. benefits. they are racing to keep up and certainlyth china is one of thoe countries. while our country, we are firmly in the lead, we have the best companies in the world, the deepest capital markets. we're headed technological innovation. we are struggling when it comes to public policy. we need to have a federal framework in place that supports the development of autonomous vehicles. we need to have actual legislation such as av start, action on rules at the department transportation. the federal government is behind were a lot of the state park with your take a lot of action in recent years. >> it's incumbent upon us to listen to these entreaties and

to act after duly studying the fact and consulting with all stakeholders. we have been involved in such consultation in preparing for action for some time. so does seem like the uk is prepared to go ahead, it seems like we ought to be. especially seeing as we're leaving in innovating many of these technology areas. is that consistent with yourep assessment where the technology is? >> we actually have the best companies in the world here. we need to b make sure we have a framework that support those companies going forward. >> mr. farrah, to move on to another important topic, many of you touched on in your opening remarks, and i will get to many of you. nearly 41,000 people died on the roads last year. just a massive, massive number, and i was trying to contextualize this number.

because i believe this goes underreported at least as compared to a lot of other sort of disasters that afflict families and communities. the cdc reports that every year the number of u.s. murders involving a firearm is half that number, is half that number. so i actually think it was completely accurate when secretary buttigieg recently said human drivers are not just problematic,er they are murdero. again, he was talking about the opportunity for not adopting the latest technologies. they are murderous, , and we've been bathed in this level of carnage all our lives. he put it more graphically that i think i would but nonetheless, can you tell us, mr. farrah, how avs will help decrease the number of fatalities and share any projections on houston mythically it will decrease by your estimates?

>> senator, i appreciate the question. the reality is we've been desensitized to this as a country and is not acceptable. it will take hearings like this, take action at the federal and state level to address this. for our part in the industre development of autonomous vehicles we believe willth be oe of theed sweetest solution thats out there. human behavior is what's driving a lot of the deaths and other types of crashes we are seeing. autonomous vehicles don't suffer from a lot of those human frailty. they don't text while driving they don'tis drive in. they don't drive distracted and we don't have to accept in longer all of these types of human conditions that are there. we will continue to see autonomous vehicles roll out to liberty in american communities. that is great news that our expectation is correspondingly we will see a reduction in crashes and a something we need partnersty on. >> we certainly have, we've got to let a predicate of trust in order to enable that to happen,

i absolutely understand. i'm going to recognize senator klobuchar and we'll get back to our other witnesses. >> thank you very much, mr. chair, thank you. it is wonderful to be here with all of you, and i think, you know, i've cared a lot about this issue foror quite a while starting out with when i was a prosecutor on dwis and we had to change a lot in minnesota for repeatis felons driving with repeat dwis. we had a guy that i think 17 dwis and he told officer he moved to minnesota because we didn't have enhanced penalties when colorado did. that was good evidence for me. but then when i got it i did a lot of work on distracted driving. .. hanced penalties. then when i got here, i did a

lot of work on distracted driving. the transportation system is one of the best in the country. number four for transportation infrastructure and we have so many fatalities due asky fatalities due your testimony, you know how about the investments like broadband and improved safety in our transportation system. >> thank you for the question, senator. yes, rural communities do base the brunt of traffic fatalities. we've seen, there are significant positive impacts from technologies like a-dot systems which in iowa, lane departure is one of the leading causes of crashes in rural areas. so, these advance driver systems, level two out of partial automation, staying in their lane, not staying in the

median strip is actually a critical safety intervision. in addition in the physical world, many of the rural states put rumble strips to help drivers understand with a response when they might be drifting from the lane and then with regard to broadband, communications really is the backbone of transportation in the 21st century. it will continue to become even more important as we move forward and incorporate more advanced technologies into our system and really, at its base level what it allows us to do is to transmit and share critical information in various different ways to road users and that is key and we need to be investing in that backbone of broadband and the communications infrastructure as part of our transportation programs and funding. >> thank you, thank you. mr. farrah, what i was referencing before distracted driving. it takes just five seconds to

drive across an entire football field and i say with my friend here, senator young. we once competed on a vikings indianapolis game. if i remember, i think the vikings had the biggest comeback in the history of the nfl, but it happens. okay. so, but almost as good as the timberwolves against colorado this week. but the football field, to get more serious here, five seconds to drive across a football field, five seconds. in 2022, you think about people looking at their phone, looking away. and 2300 people died involving distracted drivers. and in prairie, minnesota, she died and her dad is a huge advocate when the driver of the car she was riding in, reached to grab something in the back seat and this happens over and over again. and your testimony notes how

almost 3% of all drivers are looking at or using their hand held device. in your view, how important can technology be for combatting distracted driving. >> senator, thank you for sharing the information. and it's tragic and it's nationwide and happening every single day. i think that distracted driving is a huge, national problem, it's something that our expectation is, autonomous vehicles that we can very much help to address that and the autonomous driving system does not get distracted and you don't have to have the situation now for many people the temptation is too great to look at the phone at the traffic light or going at a certain speed and then we all know what happens. we're trying to fundamentally remove that distraction that's persistent across our country and remove from the occasion and help technology drive down the deaths. >> while at the same time with the laws on the books, not everyone is doing that.

so it's really a balance and to me you've got to do both things. we've tried to put incentives in place for distracted driving, going back to second lahood, actually. thank you very much for your work and with that, i'll turn it back to you. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. i'll recognize senator capito now. >> thank you all for being here. i didn't get to hear all the testimony, but i did get a hear quite a bit. i had some other questions, but here is the one thing that i haven't heard. i haven't heard one person mention the increased weight of an electric vehicle. the president has said that by 2030, we're going to have 50% of our cars are going to be electric vehicles. so i did some brief stuff on my phone, a gmc hummer weighs 3,000 and the battery itself weighed 2900 pounds.

the gas gmc sierra, i guess comparable to a hummer if anything is comparable to a hummer, 6,000 pounds. there's a study that says baseline fatality increases 47% for every 1,000 added to car. so, we can't regulate or we can't legislate if we reach that's goals, which are doubtful, but going in that direction. if we're looking at heavier vehicles. this has been brought to my attention by our west virginia d.o.t. can the guardrails withstand the impacts. and when you talked about fatalities, it's mass versus velocity. people aren't slowing down. the electric cars get up and go pretty daggone fast. and does anybody have any

suggestions? i'll start with miss chace. >> thank you for the question, senator. i do think it's a question that we have to address collectively as we move forward. and i think that our north star of safety. and while we appreciate the significant client impacts of transportation, and we understand that we need to move to a more sustainable transportation system we need to be prioritizing safety. as i mentioned in my opening remarks and my written testimony. we believe we need to move to a proactive approach. to me, part of that means preventing crashes before they happen as opposed to mitigating the impacts. obviously, we need to do both, but if we take an approach that's proactive to prevent the crash from happening, that's where america believes we can leverage our technology tools in the best possible way. >> mr. nelson? >> thank you for the question, senator. at triple-a we support consumer choice and what kind of--

>> i'm not debating with ev's. these are heavier vehicles and we're talking about safety. >> you're speaking our language and we've given thought to the safety proliferation a passenger fleet involving ev's and you highlighted issues about stopping distance. how quickly these vehicles can reach higher speeds. and think of a parking garage full of ev's. >> one collapsed in new york city. >> and size and weight-- >> i'm not hearing any solutions. >> i don't think we have solutions yet because we don't have a high penetration of ev's in the u.s. complete, but certainly, we should be approaching as a first, do no harm as a policy move. and we haven't seen at triple-a much efforts thinking how to proactively address these implications that are infrastructure and also on safety. we've seen no action.

>> i think this would be smart in terms of these types of vehicles, because if any of the goals are actually met, this is going to be a large part of our complete. doctor, do you have a comment? >> yes, thank you, senator. >> yes, as i've spoken about, in my earlier remarks, kinetic velocity mass squared and a lot of the tools in our existing tool belt address the exiting speed side. we have with the investments opportunities a lot of the built-in environment to address these managements, to create safe and appropriate speeds for different vehicle types in different contexts and some technology on the vehicular side as well, with regard to

intelligence, speed assistance and intelligent devicesments i'm not being confrontational here, i'm clarifying, you would have governors in your specific vehicle that wouldn't let you go a certain mileage or a certain speed? i know there have been bills up there, semis shouldn't go more than 70 miles per hour if that's the posted speed limit. is that what you're talking about there when you talk about technology? >> there are technologies that exist on large truck fleets, yes. >> right. >> but also, what we're seeing in other countries is intelligence speed adaptation systems. >> what does that mean? >> they can provide warnings to drives when they're over the speed or they can actually address the pressure that needs to be applied to accelerate a vehicle, to give sort after physical feedback to the driver so that they don't continue to accelerate over the rate of the posted speed. >> because they're doing that now in europe.

they are. >> okay. >> and mr. av over there, west virginia has a great av law that we passed and the future-- i might be out of time. i am, thank you. because we have a vote, i better go. >> thank you. >> senator fisher. >> senator capito i have an answer to your question. you've asked about is there any testing going on for the safety there. last year, the university of nebraska conducted the first of its kind crash assessment, they crashed an all electric pickup truck against a standard highway guardrail to investigate the efficacy of current safety measures in light of the increased presence of heavier ev's. during the test this ev plowed through the guardrail and traveled into the opposite lane of traffic. in january, a group of engineers warned that increasing ev's weight con bine

combined with reduced, and reduced safety especially for parking structures. so testing has been done and i assume there will be more done in the future and you brought up, also, with trucks and the weight of trucks, their batteries, obviously, are much, much heavier than 3 or 4,000 pounds. so, yeah, there are a lot of research needs to be done there, right. >> let's see, miss chace. a recent report found that 20% of the u.s. population lived in rural communities and senator klobuchar addressed this and rural accounts for 40% of all traffic fatalities. nebraska, i'm sorry to say, the second highest urban to rural fatality rates in this country.

and you mentioned that rural roads have rumble bars and in nebraska on every highway which helps. you mentioned some infrastructure changes, but in the near-term, do you have any ideas on upgrades that we could see for infrastructure that maybe could have some big safety gains there? >> i mean, it's very, very concerning when we see that a continued growth and percent percentage. >> thank you, senator for that question. we know that rural areas, that they can benefit from vehicle to technology and this is the technology that the public agency can deploy today and there are grants available today through the infrastructure law to access these funds. but they can deploy these

roadside units to be able to communicate with fleets and then other drivers in they're deployed in the vehicles. they can provide, you know, curb speed warning alerts if the vehicle is going too fast into a curbment weather warning alerts and we've seen great success in wyoming using primarily weather warning alerts because of the quarter there and the attacks and winds and the risk of semis tipping over. so, those-- and actually, they have a lot of data that shows that there's been significant reduction in crashes. so, i think that that's an important technology to be deploying and investing in today. understanding that some of the safety benefits will come, you know, immediately and more will come in the long-term. as this technology gets deployed ubiquitously and

scaled throughout the transportation system. >> i was interested to see in your testimony you said that rising traffic fatalities coronated with the drops of the life saving draft safety laws and you noted that citations for dui's and other dangerous driving have decreased by 50% in some regions. i notice that you attributed this to much of the staffing, that law enforcement are facing right now and i have a bill that i hope the president will be signing recently passed the senate and the house and it addresses that staffing concern. it also contains a new gao study to assess the law enforcement staffing crisis nationwide and the impacts on public safety. to you-- do you believe that traffic fatalities should be among the

public safety impacts that my bill hopefully soon law, that that study should evaluate? is that something that once we get this signed, we can recommend that that be included? >> absolutely. because i think we need to underscore the importance. the important role that law enforcement plays in enforcing proven life saving laws. research is crystal clear that when risk of apprehension goes down that risk taking behaviors go up and the international association of chiefs of police did a survey of law enforcement agencies nationwide confirming the concerns with staffing shortages and tied it to negative perceptions of law enforcement overall in the united states. as i noted in my testimony, one the ways we can help to address that is to offer more support to law enforcement through accessing better data, stop

data to increase transparency and communicate with the communities they serve and protect. >> and i'll have my staff reach out to you and information that we can hopefully guide where the community will be looking and the senate will be going? >> we'd love that. >> i know a couple of members will be on their way. and senator young, he needs to vote and i'll deter to-- >> thanks to our amazing witnesses. i've learned a lot by. >> one of the things i'm struck by, mr. farrah, talking about vehicles, not only saving lives year on year, it's the amazing impact they could have on changing the quality of life, on countless individuals who today rely on friends, family, and others to drive them around

their communities. mr. farrah, how will the development of av's impact the blind, the elderly and others that are unable to drive? >> thank you for the question. it's near and dear to my heart. we work in the organizations you mentioned. they're interested in how av's are transformative for their communities. you mentioned the elderly. my grandmother is completely reliant on fortunately the fact that she has sons and daughters that live locally and can take her places and do those things. many are not fortunate to have those situations and they've lost the liberation with being able to come to drive and we can redeliver this to people who have the fact of life and you talk about the visually impaired. it's important to note you have massive amounts of understatement and unplacement in the blind community. they're not able to get to many

other occupations like many are able to do. you look at the autonomous vehicle, it's an opportunity to move around more freely and have again, the independence that so many people take for granted. >> thank you. ms. chace. i'm going to turn to you, neither congress nor the executive branch have provided regulatory standards for safely deploying autonomous vehicles and i'd like to get your perspective on what impact the lack of a clear federal standard has on state on local government? >> thank you for the question. so, our state and local public agency members have expressed continued frustration with inaction from this in particular, because what it's done, it's transferred the risk and responsibility for assessing the safety systems of these autonomous vehicles to

the state and the localities and that's the federal role. so there's great desire from the community. both public and private sector, to move forward with av framework, steps, that was mentioned earlier. >> thank you. i'm going to turn to my final question to dr. sand, it pertains to a type of infrastructure that's been around for a generation. my dear mother lives in the town that's now known as the roundabout capital of the world. caramel, indiana. the city of caramel, indiana have installed roughly 150 roundabouts over the last 30 years. while the city's population has quadrupled during that time-- it's actually grown a lot more than that, but we're playing it safe, the conversions to roundabouts have resulted in a 47% reduction in injury crashes

overall and a 90% reduction in traffic fatalities. additionally, the annual average amount of time saved in 2020 was five days or 120 per motorist as roundabouts provide for increased flow without stopping. dr. sapped, can you talk about the roundabouts and road safety or efficiency in our network. >> thank you, senator young. it's great to hear about indiana. and it's one of the things we can claim with our speed management tools. and we see the research pointing to up to an 88% reduction in fatal injury crashes. they reduce conflict points at the intersection where injuries

can be most veer severe. and they reduce approach speed and delays at the intersection. and what's fantastic with the roundabouts we're seeing in the united states, they have versatility of design in different contexts. so we've seen successes, for example, in school zones in wisconsin, in kansas d.o.t., they worked with their community to make roundabouts work for the trucking industry they work for safety and mobility. thank you for sharing your story. >> well, thank you very much, doctor, for speaking to that question, and i tell the chairman because i know he's captivated by my inquiries related to roundabouts, you can access a 30 minute tutorial on roundabouts, if you go to the

freaknomics episode where mayor in caramel speaks about the fuel benefits and we're preaching to the gospel. >> thank you. it sounds like must-see tv. we'll be sure to tune in. mr. nelson, i've got a question for both of you. if each you could speak to potential improvements that you think we can make to the safe streets for all grant program, to improve our community's ability to make the most of them. they've been out, but to have your input as to how we can make them better. we'll start with you, mr. nelson. >> thank you for the question, senator. one of the benefits of the ss4 grant program it targets communities and one of the benefits of that, if we're serious about driving the

number of highway fatalities in the nation closer to zero we need to follow the data and it's going to tell a story pretty quickly that it's predominantly in lower income underserved communities. one of the benefits of bringing these kinds of funds to the local community is addressing the very population that is bearing the predominant brunt of the highway safety program. one of the ways we can improve the grant is improving on states and localities to engage in public engagement and participation, so this is more than just a listening session of local residents, it's more about making sure that they understand what the safety experience is in their community and if they understand what the various infrastructure, counter pressure solutions are available to them and the considerations relative to each and that their input about which of those counter measures they would welcome most into

the community, i think should be adopted and implemented into the outcome of that project. it's how we are going to build demand and support from these kinds of investments from the people in those communities and we can foster more in the future. >> very good. >> thank you for the question, chairman. to start, we're supportive of the safe streets for all program and i think the current design for benefitting local governments is extremely important. so off the bat we're happy that the program exists. in terms of changes we would propose to make for the safe streets for all program going forward. a couple of things can come to mind. how do we have cooperation between cities and others who may not be eligible to apply. in my testimony i talked about the value of the state d.o.t.'s and the largest roads. right now they're not eligible to be able to participate in the safe streets for all program and i think that's a

good thing and i think where we need to get creative, they own the most safe streets. knowing they're eligible to apply and a match requirement, it's difficult for cities to justify spending its dollars on someone else's roadways and right now they fall outside of the purview of safe streets for all unless you're applying on behalf of another jurisdiction. the second area, whether or not that there is-- i would look carefully at the balance between implementation funding and the planning and demonstration project funding. i think both are incredibly valuable, but as more and more communities go forward and have safety action plans, it would be very important in how the demonstration dollars are spent to allow safety measures to be piloted for the projects. between those, i think there's doing fine tweaking to an

otherwise great program. >> thank you. you're an epidemiologist by training and in your testimony, you discussed taking a public health approach to roadway safety in order to improve outcomes. so if you could please describe exactly what you mean by a public health approach, and specifically when it comes to how we improve both data collection, as well as education related to roadway safety. >> yes, thank you for that question. in public health, i think the approach is very compatible with what we've been talking about with the safe system approach. it means that we take a holistic and proactive approach to prevent and reduce the likelihood of risk of injury or any other negative health outcomes. and another important parallel is that in public health, we follow what's known as the social ecological framework for much of our development. what that means, we recognize

that individual behaviors stem and often are influenced by a broader social environment and broader physical environment. we can change human health and behavior by recognizing the systems in which the people are operating and looking at the social and physical environments. so by the safe system approach. it's very much aligned with the approach that public health practitioners use. with respect to your question around data, we can see that it offers tremendous resources and challenge how we can improve our data systems. there's a lot of complementary data resource, including our trauma. our e.m.s. data that can supplement the date that that we collect from our law enforcement officers and we see

great examples of timeliness and data collection within the public health community and opportunities to link that data and understand the nature of our risk. with respect to the question about communications, public health does a fantastic job in many ways of engaging the community and having really strong messaging around health communications and health behaviors so that's a really great opportunity to coordinate and build partnerships with the transportation community as well. >> thank you. senator markey, recognized for your question. >> thank you, mr. chairman, very much. we've heard a lot today about how technology can potentially make cars safer, but we don't just need safe cars, we need safe streets, not only for drivers, but for pedestrians cyclists and public transit riders, these road users are particularly vulnerable. just look at the numbers 1994,

21% of people killed in motor vehicle accidents were outside the vehicle, 21%. in 2022, that number rose to 36% of those killed were outside the vehicle. pedestrian death tolls, tell a similar story, in 2011, 4400 pedestrians were killed by motor vehicles, in 2022, that number was 7500 people. and that's why the streets act, the bill mandates that all new construction along dangerous roads must include complete streets, elements like bicycle and pedestrian paths. and detroit works hard to include complete street design elements in its road structure. do you agree that we must prioritize complete streets at the federal level in order to make our roads safer? >> thank you, senator, for your question, for your support on road safety and complete

streets. absolutely. i think that for any street design. having a complex appropriate complete street is important. that doesn't mean that you put bike lanes on every single street, but having a solution appropriate for the roads. that could be letting them cross safer. use bike lanes for traffic calming measures or having painted crosswalks so the pedestrians can safely across the street. i think there are a variety of counter measures that we use, anything to do to complete the safer streets action on any new street, especially the streets that receive federal funding, i think is extremely valuable. excellent. i'd like to pivot to another important topic, autonomous vehicle safety and increasingly including new software in vehicles and assist drivers with accelerating, breaking and turning and yet the driving

assistance features are designed for use under roads under certain conditions, in a word, the driver behind the wheel. these features are especially dangerous when the automakers give them misleading names that lull drivers into a false sense of security. the worst offender, of course, is tesla that created an autopilot mode that should be called semi pilot. and do drivers understand that autopilot mode can only be operated on certain roads and requires active driver engagement or do they get misled into thinking they can just push the button and they can go to sleep? >> senator, thank you very much for the question. as i mentioned in my opening statement, as well as my written statement. i think it's imperative that we distinguish between driver assist, versus actual autonomous vehicles. in the latter, the human in the

vehicle has no responsibility for the dynamic driving task. when you have a driver assist feature, it's imperative that the driver understands what their obligations are, they need to be prepared to take over at a moment's notice and many people had confusion that led to this and what you're getting at. >> that's why i urge the national safety administration, and-- demanded tesla to stop icing this dangerous branding, and i'd also like to discuss a critical safety issue with driver assistance features like tesla's autopilot and full autonomous vehicles. these can only be safely operated under certain conditions and locations such as highways in sunny weather. in the autonomous industry, these are known as the operational design domain which identifies where and under what

conditions a driving assistance feature like tesla's autopilot are a draw autonomous vehicle can safely operate. by contrast, these automated vehicles or autonomous vehicles are specifically not designed to be operated in other road conditions such as dangerous winding roads with cross traffic. again, mr. farrah, you represent many manufacturers who are testing full autonomous vehicles. can those vehicles operate outside their operational driving domain? >> senator markey, again, thank you for the question. the state of the industry, the state of technology right now is that our members are operating at level four. that does mean, as you said, that they are confined to an operational defined domain, that's a set of safety limitations put on the vehicle, whether it's geographic or what you mentioned. right now they remain within the odd. can be something like the city

of san francisco or phoenix and scottsdale. it could be a stretch of highways things like autonomous trucking and we'll make sure we continue to roll it out safely. >> thank you. and should autonomous vehicles or with driving assistance engage outside of their operational design domain? >> i cannot speak to the features in terms of the state of the technology. i can only mention where they are now. >> again, my feeling is that there's absolutely no reason that driving vehicles like tesla's autopilot or full autonomous vehicles should be operating outside of the design domain. thank you for that hearing, mr. chairman. and thank all the witnesses for their expert testimony. >> thank you. senator luhan, you're recognized. >> thank you, representing the

hall's act in your testimony. i was able to work with rick scott, senator capito and our chairman gary peters, who is also a champion for road safety. to get this landmark included in the infrastructure law. and once implemented as many as 10,000 lives a year could be saved by the inclusion of this technology. over the past two years, i've been encouraged to see industry partners stand up and become part of the solution to get impaired driving technology in vehicles. in december of last year, general motors ceo mary barra said that technology to passively detect alcohol. cars exists and it's coming soon. as ccs, magna introduced the latest test car with safety technology, with an interior

sensory technologies to detect driver impairment. mr. nelson, after the hall's act in 2021, how is the technology available on the market changed? >> thank you for the question, senator. before i respond to your question, i want to on behalf of the safety community and especially victims and survivors, thank you for getting hall's over the finish line. and how the technology has evolved since the implementation, to your point, these technologies, existed already. before it became law, but certainly, making it into that legislation spurred innovation. there's no question the technology to make it happen, whether it be alcohol, or massive detection of alcohol or monitoring, they're working to

implementing. and allow 37 people to die on our road and every day that it's delayed. >> let me ask you to a follow-up, why is it important that the nhtsa issue there, and november 15th, by 2024? >> again i think that every day we delay that rule making, we allow 37 people die on roads. it's a life or death situation. >> i appreciate that and now having sat in many vehicles, including the test vehicles that magna was showing, one of the largest suppliers to gm if i'm not mistaken, it's impressive to see what people have already developed and possibly learn the number of patents, and that's encouragings, and that's one of the goals of this, to encourage to provide solutions as well. thank you very much for that as well.

now, miss chace, i appreciate you talking about transportation safety. and future innovations in trance sayings safety rely on broadband to keep drivers and vulnerable road users safe? >> thank you, senator. the answer is, there's more than one way to communicate. broadband is a key solution, but there's dedicated spectrum for safety critical collision avoidance and x-communication. and wireless option and there's many ways to communicate, core safety information to road users. it's a key backbone of our system, but it's not the only way to communicate. >> is broadband needed for wireless towers to work? >> broadband is needed for ubiquitous communication and

infrastructure. >> so, i'm not trying to be cute here, but the way that i understand the tower that-- well, that a mobile phone providers depend on, there's fiber that goes to a tower and that tower has antennas, and provides a canopy to cover things of that nature. the hard wire to that tower, that's necessity, correct? >> so, i can't speak to the exact specifications. >> let me go on then. the reason i'm asking the question, let me ask the question the way you answered. if there's no connectivity. is that going to benefit the future acting safety technologies? so if they don't have wireless, there's no broadband, there's no canopy in a rural community. do they get the benefit from the same technology, that has connectivity with wireless providers or canopies built by

the folks in the community? >> so, those technologies need to be prioritized in rural areas for sure, for more reasons than just transportation safety, of course. there's significant economic and other benefits that come from having that type of connectivity. those solutions will enhance some of the more modern technological advances in transportation safety. but there are solutions, even right now, there's an example of sensor and ai-based solution on an indian reservation who does not have robust connectivity and able to actually track and understand the near misses and such at an intersection using the contained solution that's not dependent on a broadband connection. so i would say to you, there are additional ways to bring those solutions it rural communities, but i agree with you that broadband connectivity and cellular connectivity.

building that out in the future to all of our communities is important. >> mr. chairman, i don't disagree that, whether it's lidar or other sensors, is going to help the community. the other bells and whistles that require access. if there's not connectivity in the community, this he don't get that and deserve the same safety that's going to be in a vehicle in the biggest cities in america. that's the point that i was trying to make. mr. chairman, if you'd indulge me quickly, is it mr. farrah? >> because of the question mr. markey was asking with the level three vehicles. if i'm correct, when it's a level three, it will alert you if you're not in a certain state. if you have to touch it or even with a tesla, your session is turned off and you have to use

your hands the whole time until you turn off the car and park it and the rest. is that correct? >> senator, yes, we refer to that as conditional automation. >> is it legal or illegal for someone to buy a weight and strap it to the steering wheel and let the vehicle drive itself? >> we're a level four, level five. >> you don't represent all self-driving platforms, only four and five? >> we represent at-- >> i'll save my question for someone else, gary. or i'm sorry, mr. chairman. it's my understanding that folks who have level three cars that there's manufacturers that sells gizmos that hook onto the staring while. i'm seeing people nodding yes. not saying that they've done it. they attach it to the steering wheel and i don't know if that's good or bad.

someone found a loophole so they're selling these things. it's just something that smart people should take a look at, mr. chairman. >> threw, mr. lujan. thank you for being here today. and taking time out of your busy schedule to provide testimony and work through the issues. the hearing record will remain open for four weeks, any senators who wish to submit statements for the hearing record, do so by june 4th and witnesses will have two weeks or until june 18th to respond. this hearing is now adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] flaud naude [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> today, vice-president kamala harris and kenyan president are attending a kenyan business forum hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce, held to highlight global taste and security, in response to russian and chinese influence throughout the african continent. 10 a.m. on c-span and available at c-span now our mobile video app and c-span online at

c-span.org. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? no, it's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with a community center to enable wi-fi listening so students and families can get what they need for anything comcast supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> k through 12 public school officials from california, maryland and new york condemneded anti-semitism and defend the district's policies at a subcommittee hearing. their testimony followed multiple allegations of anti-semitism in school settings after the deadly hamas terror attacks in israel on october 7th of last year.