Transcript 0:00 [on hold music] Welcome back to the Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to the Peggy Smedley Show. 0:15 My second guest today teaches and conducts research in the areas of freeway traffic operations, intelligent transportation systems, geometric design, traffic safety, work zone driver behavior, and traffic simulation. 0:30 Some of the research, uh, he's involved in evaluating variable speed limits, smart work zone deployments, diverging diamond, hurricane evacuation, and connected vehicle applications. 0:44 Please welcome Praveen Edara, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Missouri. Praveen, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. 0:57 So, Praveen, I'm delighted to have you on because I think some of the stuff you're doing just completely falls in line with what you're-- what we've been talking about. 1:06 So I'd love for you to talk about the latest research you've been, uh, engaged in, because I'd like to know how, uh, how did you come up with, uh, some of these amazing findings as of late? 1:19 Yeah, happy to, um, happy to talk more. 1:21 So we recently, um, uh, started working on a, um, Federal Highway Administration-funded research project, uh, where we explored, um, the data, naturalistic driving study data collected through the, uh, what they call Strategic Highway Research Program 2 or SHRP 2. 1:43 So that's the first time, uh, uh, anyone has collected, um, uh, naturalistic data with using all kinds of sensors and cameras within the vehicle, uh, looking outside the vehicle, and so forth. 1:57 So, uh, that was done part of the SHRP 2, uh, project. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute led that study. 2:04 And a couple of years ago, there was a call through Federal Highways on, uh, researchers who want to, uh, use that data to come up with new findings. So we proposed a topic on work zone research, and, uh, we won. 2:18 Uh, we were one of the six awardees looking at different topics, and our emphasis was work zone. 2:23 So, uh, what we did, we, uh, looked at, uh, different kinds of methods to process that data and, uh, try to understand more of the causal factors for work zone crashes, uh, what factors contribute to the increased risk, if you will, uh, when someone is driving through the work zones and so forth. 2:41 And some of the things we found, um, again, um, like you mentioned, they're in line with, uh, uh, some of the broader research going on in the country on naturalistic driving. 2:52 One of it being, we found a driver who is distracted, especially, uh, any forms of inattention, uh, and, uh, while driving through the work zone, they are about twenty-nine times, um, uh, more likely to be involved in a crash or a near crash event, which is near crashes, uh, it's almost a crash, but they avoided using some last-minute maneuvers or the situation changed, uh, uh, in a way that it didn't end up in a crash. 3:21 So that was, I would say, the, uh, the number one finding. 3:24 And we had some additional, uh, findings also in terms of as the duration of the distraction increases, your risk further increases also, which is, um, uh, which is something we would expect. 3:38 But using this naturalistic data, we have real evidence on by how much percent or how many times does the risk go up. 3:48 So, you know, wh-why is it that people think in a work zone, and I was asking this to R-Ray earlier, why is it that people don't understand work zones are very dangerous areas? 4:02 Why is it people don't get it when they go through this, that they are going to risk workers' lives? I mean, are they just clueless? I mean, what is the deal? Um, yeah, that's a very good point. 4:16 Um, you know, it could be out of, uh, purely out of habit. 4:19 Maybe they, they do it, um, on a normal piece of roadway, and, uh, you know, habitually when they're driving through the work zone, they may not, uh, put it away. So again, uh, like you mentioned, it's a very, 4:33 uh, very important, um, uh, part of our roadways. You know, we do have workers working right next to, uh, high-speed vehicles. 4:41 That's their livelihood and, you know, um, you know, it's, uh, uh, it's upon us as both public and, uh, uh, state agencies and so forth and cities to make sure workers are safe and even the motorists are safe while driving through the work zones. 4:58 Because I think this tells us a lot about driver behavior, that drivers are just-- they, they just think it's not gonna happen to them, that they think they can do-- they can multitask, they can do all kinds of things, and they don't pay enough attention going through worker-- work zones, right? 5:16 Yeah. That's very, that's very true. Yeah. 5:18 It's, uh, uh, it's definitely driver behavior, so that's why, you know, we would even, uh, look into some behavioral countermeasures, um, and that includes, uh, enforcement, higher enforcement, be it or, you know, maybe additional message signs and so forth to just catch their attention and say, um, you know, "Put your phones away," or if you're distracted, any other forms of distraction, it's not, uh, it's not worth, um, uh, your life, um, or, you know, the-- you're risking the lives of workers, um-Working right next to the road Now, you know what I said earlier again, I think when they get put behind bars, those big bars, they might change their mind about, you know, driving distracted, 'cause I think they don't get it. 6:03 They're risking a lot-- workers' lives. 6:05 Workers are trying to make their r- commute easier and better by fixing the roads, and yet they're so selfish, they're on their phones doing everything else, they don't realize they could kill someone. 6:15 I mean, it just-- it's absurd to me to think that they-they're so self-absorbed into their phones that they don't realize they could hurt somebody else on the road. I, I don't understand that kind of thinking. 6:27 That's right. You know, that's why any preventative measures we can take, uh, before any, uh, bad things happen, that would be, that would be the best case. 6:35 So what kind-- can these kind of findings, that you found some really good information, help other, you know, state transportation, the federal highway? 6:45 I mean, I, I have to think when you share information like this, I mean, they're finding all kinds of things about people being distracted, they're doing all kinds of results. 6:54 I mean, what are you doing with all these r-r-research? What do you do with all these, these numbers? Wh-what, what's the goal behind this? D-what, what do you hope to achieve? Yeah. 7:04 So, um, in terms of policy, there could be some implications here on-- I'll give you an example. 7:10 In Missouri, we have, uh, MoDOT, um, has initiated the Buckle Up, Phone Down campaign, uh, for several months now, and that's, that's very relevant to work zones also. 7:20 And l-like we found in the study, um, you know, well, cell phones are just one example of many distractions a, a driver, uh, uh, experiences. So 7:32 that's one example where, you know, public education campaigns would help, uh, in better educating drivers that it's not okay to, uh, uh, be inattentive w-while driving through the work zones. 7:45 Um, you could have some states enact laws. Um, you know, we have, um, uh, some states where work zones are now, uh, are places where you don't use the-- you don't get to use your cell phones. 7:57 So, um, yeah, any behavioral countermeasures, as we call it, um, be it enforcement, be it educational, um, policies, all those are at play. 8:08 Um, that would be, um, our research would serve all those, um, kind of policy analysis. 8:15 When you look at doing research like this, and, and y-you guys are doing a lot at Mizzou right now to try to figure out what's going on with roads and, and trying to improve roads in general and infrastructure. 8:28 When we look at all the different things that are happening right now and looking at using technology and things like this, do you think that there's some other things that'll come out of research like this and what you could do with technology? 8:43 Yeah. Well, what our hope would be is to, um, you know, help the driver not, not be distracted, pay attention while they're driving through work zones. 8:53 So any form of technology, be it within the vehicle, uh, you know, in-vehicle alerts to the driver approaching a work zone, or it could be outside the vehicle where we have these, um, what we call dynamic message signs or changeable message signs that most states use. 9:11 We can display messages, um, you know, to increase their, uh, a- how alert they are, uh, while driving through the work zones. So yeah, there is all kinds of technology, uh, that, uh... 9:23 And some of it we study here at MU, some, um, you know, research going on elsewhere in the country, all looking at, again, with the same goal of how do you improve, uh, work zone safety, worker safety, um, by, you know, making sure drivers are paying attention, they're following the speed limit, the reduced, uh, posted speed limit, uh, complying with it, and so forth. 9:48 Is-- i-what is the biggest distract-- distraction you're finding? Is it that they're, they're, you know, they're using their phones, they're, they're talking on their phones, they're talking to each other? 10:00 What right now seems to be the biggest distraction? Now, it's a combination. 10:06 So in the, the dataset that, uh, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute collected and made available for researchers, they have over fifty different kinds of driver behavior. So-- and that's five zero. 10:18 So we had to, uh, group them into four different areas, and one of them was, uh, inattention. We also had illegal maneuvers and so forth. 10:27 And inattention could be you're looking away, uh, eyes off the road to check your phone messages. It could be, uh, reaching out to, um, you know, a water bottle that you dropped, or it could be any form of inattention. 10:40 Uh, so that's a little hard to, uh, dig deeper into. At least we didn't, uh, go to that level. We just say, inattention, this is how the, uh, risk goes up. 10:51 And I presume the cell phone is one of the biggest contributors of, uh, why we are distracted, uh, when driving in the-- within the vehicle. 11:01 Are work zone distractions or that inattention going through work zones, are they increasing? Are they staying the same? What, what, what did your research tell you about that then? 11:12 So this is the, uh, the first, uh, uh, dataset that was made publicly available. So using this, uh, um, data, we found that the risk is twenty-nine times higher. So we don't know. 11:27 We haven't done a cross-sectional study over multiple years because the data was only collected over, um, uh, one short, uh, time period in six different states. So that's all we have available. 11:39 So maybe in the future, as the federal highways invest more or SHRP 2 or SHRP 3 program invest more, we'll have, uh, more opportunity to see if it's varying over time, uh, the level of distraction and how that affects, uh, work zone safety. 11:56 Well, ultimately, the idea would be is to make workers safer, to make less accidents, and, and to make ideas on how to make road safety better. Is that-- was that ultimately the goal? Oh, absolutely. 12:09 One hundred percent, that's the goal. 12:11 You know, anything, uh, research-wise, uh, we can do a-as a community of, um, work zone researchers, that, that's always our goal, both improve the mobility through the work zones, uh, while not compromising on safety. 12:26 It's always a challenge. Well, Praveen Edara, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Missouri, thank you for your time today. 12:34 What's your URL to our listeners if they want to learn about any of the research you did or anything else you're doing, they could go to find out more about what you guys are doing? Oh, yeah, happy to. 12:44 We have, um, you know, we do publish, you know, um, in the journals and so forth. So there's always, uh, stuff on our website and, um, including, uh, um, results that came out of this study. And the URL is what? 13:00 It's just, um, uh, my name, Praveen E-D-A-R-A dot O-R-G. All right. Praveen, thank you so much. Okay, listeners, we are out of time, but you can check out our website at connectedworld.com. 13:12 And remember, we broadcast live every Tuesday at twelve PM Central. As always, you can share your thoughts with me at ConnectedWMag. 13:20 And remember, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. Remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. Have a great week. 13:32 [outro music]
