Former DOT Chiefs Stress Safety Benefits of Connected Vehicles

Two former transportation secretaries under President Barack Obama, Ray LaHood and Anthony Foxx, agree connected vehicle technologies will make the roadways safer, they told an ITS America webinar Monday. The FCC is expected to approve reallocating part of the 5.9 GHz band as early as next month (see 2009090058). “We’ve got to maintain and make use of the broadband that’s been reserved” for safety “and make sure that we work harder to accelerate the use of connections,” Foxx said. “You hit the nail on the head around reserving the full safety spectrum,” said ITS America President Shailen Bhatt. Studies show vehicle-to-vehicle communications “would save lives and prevent accidents,” LaHood said. Today “it has almost become standard equipment that cars are talking to one another and talking to the people that are driving the cars,” he said. LaHood’s message as secretary was that every day, people get into a vehicle and don’t think about safety, he said: “That was our job at DOT, to think about safety in every mode of transportation.” Foxx said pilot automated vehicle projects DOT did in New York City, Tampa and rural Wyoming while he was secretary provided useful data: “We wanted to look at what kinds of improvements can occur in different environments.”