AAA Colorado ~ EnCompass Magazine

Part of being a safe driver is assessing numerous risks every day and taking appropriate action. Should you drive in a snowstorm? Should you pass that slow-moving car? Would it be better to use your car or your motorcycle for this trip? What's a suitable speed, right here and now?

Now there is an online tool, TrafficSTATS, an interactive website to help motorists see the relative risk of hitting the road. The site details how traffic fatality risks vary by time of day, vehicle type, purpose of trip, driver age and many other factors.

Some of the statistics might surprise you.

• An 18-year-old male driver and an 80-year-old female driver have the same level of risk.

• The safest passenger is a 4-year-old strapped in a car seat during morning rush hour.

• Male drivers have a 77% higher risk of dying in a car accident than female drivers.

• In mountain states, summer fatality risks are twice as high as those during the winter months, when measured in deaths per passenger mile.

The website provides users with an interactive tool to query information about multiple dimensions of traffic-safety risks. Calculations are made using information from two national databases: the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS). Combining information from these two sources provides access to travel-risk calculations that go far beyond what can be found elsewhere (either online or in print). Users can explore the statistical risk of travel for millions of different combinations of factors, and query selected information from the FARS and NHTS databases.

TrafficSTATS provides three risk measures: deaths per 100 million passenger miles, deaths per 100 million trips, and deaths per 100 million minutes of travel. However, just because a particular mode of travel has more fatalities associated with it does not mean that it is riskier. Risk depends on the level of exposure—how much a mode is used.

For example, in 2004 there were 18,819 fatalities nationwide for occupants of passenger cars, compared to 3,779 motorcycle fatalities. Do cars present a greater risk than motorcycles? No. Because cars are driven much more than motorcycles, the fatality rate for cars is 1.05 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, compared to 32.61 deaths for motorcycles.

TrafficSTATS was unveiled at the January meeting of the Transportation Research Board.

It is a joint venture between Carnegie Mellon University and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS), which is a not-for-profit, publicly supported charitable educational and research organization. To reach the site, go to www.aaafoundation.org/trafficSTATS.