How Data is Transforming Roadway Safety Practices

🚦 New Paper Alert 🚦 Our latest review paper, "Street View Imagery in Traffic Crash and Road Safety Analysis: A Review," published in the Journal of Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, explores how street-level imagery is transforming road safety research, co-authored by researchers from Texas A&M University, University of Oxford, and Grand Valley State University. We analyzed studies from major databases to understand how computer vision and machine learning are used to extract visual features—like road design and environment—from Street View Imagery (SVI). These features play a key role in predicting crash risks. Key takeaways: ✅ SVI helps capture critical road safety factors ✅ Visual features significantly influence crash outcomes ✅ We outline future directions, including large language model integration Let’s rethink road safety through the lens of imagery and AI! #RoadSafety #ComputerVision #StreetViewImagery #AI #UrbanPlanning #TransportationResearch Shoujia Li, Wenjing Gong, Xiao Li, Xinyu Li, Bahar Dadashova, Wei Li, Jiaxin Du, Jason Wu https://lnkd.in/eJY5jjaW

Technology should help keep us alive — especially on our highways. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article (I’m not linking it here since it’s behind a paywall) that highlights how artificial intelligence can help prevent tragedies on our roads. In 2021, a tanker-truck driver in Phoenix fell asleep at the wheel, plowing into stopped cars at over 60 mph, killing four people and injuring eleven. That same year, a Greyhound driver crashed outside an Illinois truck stop after driving through the night, killing three passengers. These are not isolated events. In fact, the National Academy of Sciences estimates up to 1 in 5 fatal large truck or bus crashes are fatigue-related. Sadly, we see the results of this kind of danger firsthand in our law practice, where we help families whose lives have been shattered by truck crashes. Survivors and their loved ones often face unimaginable loss and a long, uphill battle for justice and accountability. We fight for them in court, and we also advocate for safer roads — because no one should have to experience that kind of trauma. Artificial intelligence has a role to play in saving lives. Tools like Samsara’s driver-facing cameras can monitor eyelid closure, head position, and other warning signs of drowsiness, sounding real-time alerts before disaster strikes. Lytx has gone even further by combining billions of miles of roadway data with in-cab observations to provide a real-time fatigue risk score. These systems can help prevent horrific crashes before they ever happen. We should welcome safety-focused technology. Safety must come first, before any other concerns. Every family sharing our highways deserves that level of protection. Let’s support innovation that keeps drivers awake and aware, and help stop tragedies before they happen. If you have ideas on how we can continue to make our highways safer, I’d love to hear them. #RoadSafety #TruckSafety #ArtificialIntelligence #HighwaySafety #TrialLawyer #PublicSafety #Advocacy