Driving Tips for White-Out Snow Conditions in Michigan

As I drove to Kalamazoo today on I-94, I passed the burned-out area where the 133-vehicle-pileup occurred on January 9, 2015 during white-out snow conditions.  The chain-reaction crash caused a semi-truck loaded with fireworks to explode.  As a result, the highway was closed in both directions for 43 hours, 22 persons were injured, and one person died.

Seeing the site of this catastrophe caused me to think: “What do experts recommend when drivers encounter white-out driving conditions?” 

A compilation of expert sources revealed the following advice for driving in white-out conditions:

1. Slow down without hard braking.  Keep your hands in the 9 and 3 positions on the steering wheel and make only smooth steering corrections (avoid jerking the wheel);
2. Turn on your low beam headlights and fog lights (don’t use high beams that reflect off snow particles making it harder to see); 
3. Avoid passing or changing lanes  (be patient);
4. Dramatically increase your following distances;
5. Try to get off the roadway when visibility is near zero but do not stop in the roadway or you may be the first link in a multi-vehicle pileup.  Try to get to a parking lot or even the ditch is safer than stopping on the roadway (do not get out of your car until emergency vehicles arrive or visibility drastically improves).
6. When vehicles are spinning-out or crashing around you LOOK toward where you want to go, towards your escape route, not at the crashing vehicles around you.  You are most likely to steer toward what you are directly looking at;
7.  Be aware that in white-out conditions it is common for drivers to subconsciously increase their speed because their brains lose the usual visual references for speed such as passing guard rails, trees, and poles on the sides of the roadway.  

On the same day as the explosive I-94 massive car accidentthere was another huge pile up on U.S. 23 just south of Ann Arbor near the city of Milan, Michigan.  At about 1:00 p.m. white-out snow conditions cause 7 semis and about 40 cars to pile up and many cars and trucks ran off the road into the median to avoid being struck from behind.  One person died and one was taken to the hospital in critical condition.  U.S. 23 was closed in both directions between the Willis Road exit and Carpenter Road exit for several hours. 

Why Do Newer Model Cars Need Headlight Safety Systems to Keep Pedestrians Safe?

During the last decade the auto industry has made major changes in headlight technology as it has shifted away from reflector type headlights with separate high and low beam bulbs.  Today's cars are mostly equipped with projector type headlights that use one intense light source that utilizes a shade to cut off the upper portion of the beam when on "low beams."  A "dark curtain" effect is the result of this technology.  This means that there is a cut-off of all light above the center of the projector light source when on low beams so, to the driver, it appears that there is a dark curtain just above mid-center of the windshield.  Many drivers feel that they cannot see pedestrians or signs as well on dark nights in newer vehicles.  Obviously, one cannot use high beams all the time when driving in well traveled areas and as a result more pedestrians are endangered by the projector light technology because the light is directed at the ground at 100 feet in front of the moving car.

Instead of admitting that the projector headlight technology has serious safety concerns that would require massive recalls, the auto industry is developing so called "improved technology" so as not to admit liability. Below is a link to a news report that contains videos that dramatically demonstrate how poorly the projector headlight technology works on it own without major safety supplementation that are currently illegal (i.e. dynamic light spot light systems are illegal in the United States and it is only offered on luxury brand vehicles in Europe).

This begs the question, why not just go back to reflector type headlights that allow more light to illuminate objects  in the road above the the center of the light source and protect more pedestrians from serious injury or death?  

WTKR News Channel 3 Report on Headlight Safety

   

Highway Lane Closures - Do You Merge at the Last Opportunity or Do You Merge as Soon as You Can After Seeing the Sign?

Many people would argue that drivers that merge at the last opportunity before the lane closure are committing a “Jerk Merge;” however, writer Tom Vanderbilt would disagree.  Vanderbilt’s book entitled:  Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us), argues that if drivers did not leave the soon-to-be-closed-lane until the very point that it actually closed then there would be an orderly and alternating merge that would be as much as 15% faster.  Furthermore, he argues that the queue of vehicles stretching back from the closed-lane-construction-site would be smaller. 

What do you think Michigan Drivers?  Is the last-opportunity-merge a better option for Michigan Road Construction sites and does it offer any safety advantages?

Do Your New Projector-Type Headlights Fail to Provide Adequate Light On Dark & Undulating Roads?

Do you have a newer model car with headlights that fail to safely illuminate the road?   Do you experience what appears to be a black curtain painted across the upper half of your windshield?  Do you find that you can’t see road signs above a certain height or that when you turn into an unlit driveway you cannot see where you are turning?   Have you noticed that oncoming cars frequently flash their lights at you and you’re momentarily blinded by an intense light glare?

Many newer model cars today are being made with projector headlights. These projector headlights are different than older models’ standard headlights that had separate high beam and low beam light sources.  Projector headlights are lit by a single filament at one focus of an ellipsoidal reflector with a condenser lens in front of the lamp. Between the reflector and the lens there is a shade that provides a cutoff of all light above the center of the light bulb so that, theoretically, the low beams will not blind on-coming drivers with the intense high beam. The shape and sharpness of the cutoff is determined by the shade’s position in the optical system and the shape of the shade’s edge. When the driver turns on the projector’s high beam, the shade is lifted up and removed allowing all the intense light to escape without any cutoff.  The high beam from a projector headlight is a very bright and produces a strong glare that can be blinding to oncoming drivers. 

Many drivers are now noticing that one significant problem with projector headlights on the low beam setting is that the cut-off line of the light moves when the car hits bumps in the road, accelerates, decelerates, and when climbing or going down a slope in the road.  Frequently, drivers now see what appears to be oncoming cars with projector headlights “quickly flashing  their brights;” however, in reality the on-coming car has only hit a bump in the road surface causing the cut-off of light to momentarily shift upward exposing a bright burst of the high intensity light.  This apparent flashing of the high beams can be really annoying; however, a greater safety concern is that the projector headlights’ cut-off of  light moves when the car is going up or down a slope or carrying a heavy load in the back of the vehicle.  While going down a slope the projector’s cut-off of light shifts downward and the headlight’s beam distance is significantly diminished out in front of the car (headlights appear to be driven down into the road surface).  Obviously, this creates a safety issue because the driver cannot see pedestrians and animals out in front of the car to allow adequate and safe stopping distances.  Additionally, road safety signs cannot be read on undulating roads because they are not illuminated since the beam of light is being driven down on the down-slopes.  Likewise, when a driver is driving up a grade the projector’s cut-off  of light shifts up further than it would on a flat road and more of the high beam intense light is unintentionally directed into the eyes of oncoming traffic.  Both of these two unintended consequences of projector headlights can lead to extremely dangerous driving conditions for drivers on Michigan roads and freeways. 

If you are currently driving an automobile with projector headlights, have you experience problems with the headlights?   Please let us know about your experiences and concerns.  

Do Crosswalk Countdown Timers Make Intersections More Dangerous?

A recent study by University of Calgary economists Arvind Magesan and Sacha Kapoor investigated the effects of the city of Toronto installing crosswalk-count-down timer lights at 1,800 intersections.  The timers did lower the number of accidents involving pedestrians; however, the study indicates that the timers actually increased collisions between cars.  The increase in car accidents was due to the fact that the timers are visible to both pedestrians and automobiles approaching the intersections and there were more rear-end accidents caused by the approaching motorist speeding up to get through the intersections.  Intersections that had been previously considered "safe intersections" became more dangerous for motorists.  The study found that at busy congested intersections the traffic is moving too slowly for motorist to accelerate through the intersection based on the count-down-timer; however, at less busy intersections when there is only one or two cars ahead of the motorist viewing the count-down clock, that trailing motorist would speed up during the last few seconds making rear-end collisions more prevalent.

    

In their conclusion, the study’s authors suggest that the cross-walk timers should be redesigned to give only an audio countdown so that approaching automobiles cannot see or hear how much time is left to get through the intersection but pedestrians can continue to benefit from the increased safety of knowing how much time there is to get across the street safely.

 

The cities of Ann Arbor, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek,and Brighton, Michigan have installed these types of countdown timers to increase pedestrian safety.  Perhaps these Michigan cities should rethink and redesign their count-down cross-walk timers to keep all users of city intersections safe.   

Should Pedestrian Injuries and Fatalities Be A Warning That Requires Fixing the Design of Intersections?

For the past 20 years, Sweden has been building intersections and transportation systems that try to achieve an annual goal of reaching zero pedestrian deaths throughout the country.  They named this 1997 Legislative initiative “Vision Zero.”  The Swedes have narrowed city streets, lowered speed limits, and built intersections that prioritize pedestrian safety.  Additionally, Swedes have changed their mind-set and they view collisions between pedestrians and vehicles as not a punishable event for the driver but as a warning that a fix is required and an investigation must be launched to find safer designs (a differently timed light, a better lit intersection… ect.).

New York and San Francisco have recently adopted the “Vision Zero” concept and they are prioritizing pedestrian safety.  Studies have shown that speed isthe biggest difference between life and death when a pedestrian is hit by acar.  A ten percent increase in the speed a car hits a pedestrian increases the likelihood of death by 45%.  So if a driver is going 20 m.p.h. upon impact, the pedestrian has an 85% chance of survival.  If that same car is going 40 m.p.h., the survival chance drops to 5%.  New York , San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and many other U.S. cities have  been attempting to slow down city traffic by giving 4 lanes roads a “road diet” and making it a three lane road with  a middle turn lane.  Additionally, cities have been using speed bumps before intersections, pedestrian bridges, raised cross-walks to make pedestrians more visible, and extending curbs so drivers approaching the intersection perceive a narrower street and slow down.  Bump outs mid-block are also used to slow down traffic.  These bump outs are called “chicanes.”  Cities have also use flashing lights at cross-walks and large pavement paintings to warn drivers to share the road.

 

Opponents to “Vision Zero” road and intersection designs insist that city roads need to be efficient traffic arteries in and around the city and all these pedestrian safety devices will just create bottlenecks making commutes longer.  Further opponents to road narrowing say that pedestrians and bicyclist should be shunted off to side roads rather than main business routes.

  

It will be interesting to see what kind of balance Michigan cities achieve between motor vehicles and pedestrian safety and whether any Michigan cities will try to achieve zero pedestrian deaths by adopting Sweden’s “Vision Zero.”  

Wrong-Way Drunk Driver Kills Motorist in Kalamazoo on U.S. 131

Toxicology tests confirmed that drunk driver Jeremy Smeltzer who drove the wrong way in the southbound lane of U.S. 131 near Kalamazoo on April 15, 2014 and killed a driver driving the correct direction on the express-way had an blood alcohol content that was more than 2 1/2 times the legal limit for driving of 0.08 (it measured 0.214 percent).  The Michigan State Police laboratory test was released Friday, May 16th, 2014 to the Kalamazoo Gazette after they filed a request under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.  The Michigan State Police also released the trooper's car video that captured an image of the drunk driver speeding past the trooper's squad car seconds before causing the deadly crash.  This video is very disturbing because it vividly captures the senseless moment before two people were violently killed due to the utter stupidity of  a drunk driver.  The video also reminds us of the extremely dangerous situation that our Michigan State Troopers must face in the moments after such a fiery crash.  

Go to this link to see the Michigan State Police dash-cam video of this crash.  Hopefully, the release of this disturbing dash-cam video will further discourage drunk driving by forcefully bring the reality of the potential tragic results to the fore-front of people's minds.