The Nut Behind the Wheel
99% Invisible5 Joulu 2017

The Nut Behind the Wheel

In the past fifty years, the car crash death rate has dropped by nearly 80 percent in the United States. And one of the reasons for that drop has to do with the “accident report forms” that police officers fill out when they respond to a wreck. Officers use these forms to document the weather conditions, to draw a diagram of the accident, and to identify the collision’s “primary cause.” All that information gathered on the side of the road goes from the accident report form into a federal database: the Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

Car companies, safety advocates, and regulators comb through this data constantly, looking for patterns that help them understand how and why people die in car wrecks. In turn, this information helps designers and engineers create safer vehicles and roadways. The data informs all kinds of design decisions around car safety — everything from speed limits to mandatory seat belts.

But this culture of heavily regulated, data-driven, auto-safety engineering did not always exist. In fact, for decades, automakers tried to keep data about car wrecks to themselves. They not only resisted making cars safer, they argued the very idea of a “safe car” was impossible.

The Nut Behind the Wheel

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jaksot(779)

You Are Listening To + Radio Net

You Are Listening To + Radio Net

youarelistening.to appeared online on March 6, 2011 and I was hooked instantly. The combination of the police scanner and ambient music is an intriguing, and distinctly live, experience (unlike most o...

22 Huhti 201120min

Free Speech Monument

Free Speech Monument

In 1989, a group called the Berkeley Art Project decided to hold a national public art competition to create a monument that would commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, which b...

15 Huhti 20118min

BLDGBLOG: On Sound

BLDGBLOG: On Sound

Most sound design in architecture is centered around designing for silence. Buildings are trying to block out that constant stream noise from the street and insulate you from those jarring clangs of i...

1 Huhti 20115min

Nikko Concrete Commando

Nikko Concrete Commando

In 2001, Delfin Vigil was walking the streets of San Francisco and ran across the name “Nikko” carved into the concrete sidewalk. After seeing Nikko once, Delfin began to see the name everywhere. One ...

25 Maalis 20117min

RJDJ Reactive Music

RJDJ Reactive Music

This week, the radio audience heard episode #10, but for you web and podcast listeners, I have a story I did about a year and a half ago, about the reactive music app called RJDJ. I did this piece for...

21 Maalis 20119min

Liberation Squares plus NY Dick

Liberation Squares plus NY Dick

In a recent piece from Urban Omnibus, Vishaan Chakrabarti (Professor at the Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University), wrote about how urban open spaces contr...

11 Maalis 201111min

Check Cashing Stores

Check Cashing Stores

A few years ago, journalist Douglas McGray learned that the largest chain of check cashing stores in Southern California, Nix Check Cashing, was being bought by the nation’s largest credit union, Kine...

4 Maalis 20115min

Concrete Furniture

Concrete Furniture

The New City Hall, designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell, was the first modern, concrete, civic building in Toronto. When it opened in 1965, it stood out very prominently in the traditional Victo...

25 Helmi 20117min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-rahamania
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
pomojen-suusta
rss-seuraava-potilas
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
taloudellinen-mielenrauha
rss-lahtijat
rss-20-30-40-podcast
rss-h-asselmoilanen
rss-bisnesta-bebeja
rss-karon-grilli
sijoituspodi
rss-startup-ministerio
rss-inspiroivat-naiset
rss-inderes
rss-siksi-viestinta