Research Project Number 9Explore options for using technology in data collection

The problem: Much of our data collection for safety data continues to follow old patterns of paper reportingsometimes still on paper, and sometimes an automated facsimile of paper reporting. This is manually intensive, making it costly, and often resulting in incomplete data reporting. It is also prone to a variety of errors. Several areas seem particularly ripe for exploiting technology to improve our data collection and reporting:

• Highway vehicle miles traveled (VMT) data are currently reported on an annual basis, with significant variation in data-collection methods and significant error in the measurement.
• Estimates of seat belt usage are also reported on an annual basis, with significant sampling and non-sampling error reported.
• Hours and miles of travel are currently unavailable for general aviation and recreational boating.
• Commodity flow data are collected on a five-year cycle, with significant limitations in the scope of the data.
• Highway accidents are reported through paper reports filed by police officers on scene.

What we need: We need to explore options for using new technology to collect data. We can begin by bringing together an expert panel to brainstorm ideas, then consider testing some of the ideas, perhaps with prototype demonstrations.

Benefits: Better use of technology could greatly facilitate the timely collection of data, and may improve data quality as well. It may also be more cost-effective. As a result, we could have better data at a lower cost.