A new measurement technique by the Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has pointed to an increase in vehicle blind zones over the last 25 years, while pedestrian and bicyclist deaths have increased.
A recent study led by researchers from the US Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center, used a new method that IIHS developed for measuring a driver’s direct area of vision around a vehicle.
Researchers used the new technique to examine how the designs of selected vehicles changed over model years 1997 to 2023.
They found forward visibility within a 10-meter radius fell as much as 58% for some vehicles.
During that 25-year period, pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities on US roads have soared 37% and 42%, respectively.
IIHS President David Harkey called the decrease in visibility “concerning.”
“We need to investigate whether this is a broader trend that may have contributed to the recent spike in pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities,” he said.
“This study also illustrates that the new method developed by IIHS gives researchers a straightforward, repeatable way to assess driver visibility.”
The new IIHS method relies on computational software and a portable camera rig that can be positioned in the driver seat at various heights to represent different-sized drivers, no matter where the vehicle is located.
The camera rotates to take a 360-degree image of the field of vision around the vehicle. The software then converts that image into a blind zone map that depicts an aerial view of the vehicle and the nearest points on the ground that the driver can see. It also provides a numerical value for the percentage of the area around the vehicle that is visible.
