Wet weather is deceptively dangerous for auto drivers

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Team of Mason students hope to market SLIC car feature

Special speedometer alerts drivers to appropriate speeds for inclement weather

by Holly Hobbs | Staff Writer Fairfax County Times.

A team of five psychology students at the university spent the past two years

studying driving habits during inclement weather and created a speedometer that

alerts drivers to appropriate speeds when traveling in snow, rain and other

hazardous conditions.

" Wet weather is deceptively dangerous, " said Kidd, 26, a fifth-year

doctoral student. Speed limits, he said, are based on optimal weather

conditions, but neglect to give recommendations to drivers when road conditions

deteriorate.

By studying national crash statistics and conducting tests of their own, the

team found most drivers decrease their speed in rain and snow, but not enough to

mitigate accidents.

Last winter, the Virginia State Police reported about 250 weather-related

crashes in Northern Virginia.

From Feb. 5 through 8, state police reported 193 weather-related crashes and 550

disabled vehicles as a result of storms in Fairfax County and neighboring

Virginia jurisdictions. Overall, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles

reported 3,414 crashes and 11 fatalities during last winter's storms.

According to the National Weather Service, inclement weather plays a significant

role in about 100 fatal accidents per year in the U.S.

Using existing technology, but wielding it for their own use, Kidd and his

fellow Mason students created a new kind of speedometer --Speed Limits for

Inclement Conditions, or SLIC, which recommends speed thresholds during

less-than-ideal conditions.

Students conducted their research using a computer simulator with a steering

wheel and a video game-like program that allowed them to manipulate weather

conditions while testing drivers' reactions. Students used school resources and

free aid from Realtime Technology Inc., a Michigan-based technology firm

specializing in vehicle dynamics and graphic simulation and modeling, to run

their study.

Student Dan , 27, said SLIC uses optical road sensors to distinguish dry

roads from water, ice and snow; traction sensors, a GPS receiver to determine

the ruggedness of the road; and pattern recognition, which tracks legal speed

limits. He said SLIC's success is reliant on an easy-to-read display that would

fit into an existing auto instrumentation panel, where gasoline gauges,

indicator lights and the original speedometer are housed. SLIC uses red and

yellow lights to warn of dangerous road conditions and includes two down arrows,

which alert drivers to adjust their speed.

" We're not reaching for the stars here, " Kidd said. " The sensors that we talked

about to include with this are all available now. They may not be available in

your Ford Focus, but they usually trickle down within five years ... This would

be standard safety. "

AAA spokesman Townsend said the Mason students' idea is something he has

not seen before.

" That would be interesting. ... Inclement weather contributes to 25 percent of

crashes. ... Because, in the Washington, D.C.-area, we have people from all over

the place, we always joke that people can't drive here.

" In inclement weather, the two problems we have is people driving too fast

because they are overconfident ... the other is people who are creepy-crawlers, "

he said. " This would be a useful tool... Safe driving is a conscious decision.

So a tool like this has some utility to it. "

Fifth-year doctoral student Jane Barrow, 28, said, " In the ideal system that

you'd have in a car, you'd have an algorithm that would take into consideration

behaviors. So if grandma is driving at 15 [mph], and that's a safe speed, then

[sLIC] wouldn't come on. " SLIC's behavior trackers also would recognize an

individual's driving skill level and comfort levels at different speeds.

" We're hoping that someone would actually take our idea and help us develop it,

because we don't have the resources to develop it more, " Barrow said.

The university is promoting the student team's efforts, recently drafting law

school students to create a patent for SLIC and business students to help market

the design to manufacturers.

" My goal is to collaborate with someone [like an auto manufacturer] to create a

prototype/eye candy, which could get us to the next level, " said Kidd, whose

team also includes students Cades and . The project is not part

of the students' class work, but a self-assigned project, which they say

combines their study of human behavior with a real-world problem.

Weather Preparedness Week in Virginia runs through Saturday. The Virginia

Department of Transportation has issued safety tips for driving in inclement

weather.

Tips can be viewed at www.vaemergency.com.

http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/cms/story.php?id=2645