IoT-led Behavioral Nudge to Improve Road Safety

28 EXPERT COLUMN

IoT-led Behavioral Nudge to Improve Road Safety

Every year, road crashes and mishaps lead to loss of lives and grave injuries to millions of people. Evidence-based technological interventions that incentivize good driving can radically improve road safety. Akhilesh Srivastava leads the World Economic Forum’s initiative Road Safety 2.0 in India. He is also the IT Advisor to the Government of Uttarakhand

Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are the eighth leading cause of death globally, and the biggest cause in the 5–29 years age group. Close to 1·4 million people die each year and up to 50 million are injured by RTIs. More than half of these deaths are attributable to vulnerable road users (ie, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists).

Every four minutes, one person dies on Indian roads. It is estimated that road accidents dent the Indian economy by nearly US$ 55 billion, which is equivalent to 1.85% of our GDP.

Identifying Risks

Road safety has always been a complex and multifaceted issue. Despite many factors leading to fatal and non-fatal road injuries, the evidence says that in the context of a safe systems approach, four main risk factors consistently increase the risk for road injuries and deaths: speeding, drunk driving, no helmet use, and no seatbelt or child restraint. These factors, which have a measurable impact on mortality and morbidity, are acknowledged by the WHO as major risk factors.

According to a study published in The Lancet, nearly 30,000 lives in India could have been saved just by the implementation of simple road safety measures to prevent the above-mentioned factors.

World Economic Forum-led Road Safety 2.0 pilot reveals that over 80% of accidents are due to human errors and most of them can be prevented with the use of technology to compensate for human limitations.

Besides human errors – overspeeding, drunk driving, driving on the wrong side of the road, unlicensed driving, fatigue, stress, overloading, traffic rules violations – the deficits in road engineering also creates accident-prone spots: sudden appearances of potholes, etc. However, driving behavior remains one major reason.

Having identified the major risk factors of road accidents, the question arises, how to improve the driver's behavior?

Incentivizing Good Drivers There is an urgent need for effective implementation of the safe system approach with evidence-

THE LANCET STUDY FOUND THAT IN INDIA 20,554 LIVES

could have been saved by checking the speed.

5,683 LIVES

could have been saved by wearing helmets.

3204 LIVES

could have been saved with use of seatbelts.

based technological interventions to reduce road traffic injuries. Technology has great potential for scalability with transparency and low-cost solutions.

The Lancet study reveals that the behaviour can be changed either by self-motivation or by the fear of penalty through strict enforcement.

For a densely populated country like India, self-motivating drivers through incentives & rewards is a better option.

The success of World Economic Forum (WEF) led Road Safety 2.0 pilots, demonstrated that this theory is more effective with a drastic reduction in accidents.

Safe Driving Scores

The driver’s behaviour can be tracked using IoT and converted into scores that may be called Safe Driving Scores.

If these Scores are popularised like CIBIL Scores and monetised to reward good drivers, the change in driving behaviour, from recklessness to safe driving can be achieved, which will be a real game changer for road safety in India.

There is a need to create an ecosystem to reward these scores. Few vehicle OEMs, fuel companies, wayside amenities and vehicle spare parts companies have shown keenness to be part of the ecosystem.

Insurance companies who are the main stakeholders were not coming forward due to regulatory restrictions.

Now IRDAI has given nod for the change. This will reduce the dependency on third-party funding for road safety and create a self-sustainable ecosystem. Good Driving Scores mean better drivers who will get more rebates in insurance premiums.

Durable Enforcement System

However, the self-motivating measures for improving driver' behaviour alone can’t be the complete solution. Strict and transparent enforcement of traffic rules is equally essential.

Due to dense population, manual enforcement system for detecting traffic violations and penalising violators is practically impossible in India. The enforcement system needs to be automated, comprising of speed cameras, incident detection cameras, ANPR systems, IoTs and high-end software for real-time detection of violations and issuance of automated penalty challans with a robust recovery system.

World Economic Forum conducted a pilot for automated enforcement system in the PPP model with amazing results. It demonstrated an economically viable and successful model for the installation and operations of the automated enforcement system.

In this, the technology companies/OEMs bear the upfront installation cost of the automated system, and thereafter manage & operate through their skilled manpower. They can recover their capital and operation & maintenance cost as a part of challans/penalty recovered by the government.

This is not only financially viable but also brings additional revenue to cities/municipalities in addition to improving road safety and saving the lives of citizens.

While achieving the SDG 3.6, which calls for a 50% reduction in road traffic injuries and deaths by 2030, looks like a difficult task globally, especially in the wake of the pandemic, the Indian government is on target and quite hopeful to fulfil it earlier.

Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari, is quite optimistic about reducing fatalities on Indian roads by 50% by 2025.