Driving Too Closely Behind Another Car, Or Tailgating, Has Been One Of
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Driving too closely behind another initially caught the interest of inter- car, or tailgating, has been one of national markets, where govern- those traffic infractions on U.S. ments closely monitor vehicle roadways that has defied law separation to foster higher enforcement officers for traffic safety. In the United years. After all, if you’ve States, as “road rage” inci- written a ticket for a dents have grown, law driver who was driving enforcement agencies too closely, chances are have become very inter- high the driver took it to ested in the ability to court. Lacking hard proof measure the travel time of the tailgating episode, and distance between you may have had diffi- two cars in their culty proving your case. attempt to show evi- Now, however, court- dence for enforcement. room showdowns between According to The violators and traffic officers National Road Safety PHOT are frequently going in the Foundation, aggressive driving O DALE officers’ favor with the advent of behaviors, from which road rage ST a new tool that tags tailgaters evolved, are linked to half of all car OCKT ON with arresting evidence. Lidar (light crashes. High-risk behaviors include detection and ranging) technology, the usual suspects: speeding, running which has already proved to be effec- Although Lidar is commonly used for speed red lights and stop signs, tailgating, fre- tive in nabbing speeders, can now enforcement, recent developments have made it quent lane changes and angry or threat- detect with pinpoint accuracy vehicles a valuable tool in determining whether a vehicle ening behavior toward other motorists. that are driving too closely. is following another vehicle too closely. The National Highway Traffic Safety This technology breakthrough is good (distance-between-cars), for incorpora- Administration (NHTSA) reports, not news for both traffic officers and those tion into its LTI Ultralyte Model 100 surprisingly, that congestion is a con- unwary drivers who can’t curb the urge laser system. The laser system itself is tributing cause of aggressive driving. to tailgate. It means officers can now used for speed enforcement. The added The NHTSA says studies show the num- both calculate and document driving too DBC software is designed to measure ber of motor vehicles registered rose 19 closely, and to share this information the distance and/or time between two percent over the past ten years. But with offenders right at the scene. traveling vehicles in addition to both of even more alarming is that, at the same One company in particular, Laser their speeds. time, many areas have cut back the Technology, Inc. (LTI), in Centennial, number of officers patrolling. Colo., now offers a patented More Road Congestion, Fewer Officers These gloomy statistics only under- software feature known as DBC The ability to measure tailgating score the need for more efficient Printed with Permission of Elsevier Public Safety, Copyright 2008 technology to monitor the rise in automatically recorded by the computer. Barcello, “With lidar, you’re not dealing motorists driving too closely. An officer can use instant-time recall with anticipation, but getting actual, Prior to DBC’s advent, traffic officers to precisely measure gap time between physical measurements from the target had a hard time enforcing the so-called two vehicles to determine if a car is fol- vehicle. The operator error can come two-second rule—a safety guideline lowing too closely. Police officers use into effect very easily with VASCAR if it that tells a defensive driver the mini- VASCAR primarily in jurisdictions isn’t used correctly, whereas lidar is mum distance to avoid collision in ideal where radar and/or lidar is not allowed, going to tell you if it has an error.” driving conditions. The rule has proved or to prevent detection by people using LTI’s DBC-equipped laser system challenging for law enforcement agen- radar detectors. gives detailed information that benefits cies throughout the world because Virginia-based Traffic Safety both officer and offender. LTI’s instru- visual evaluation of vehicle separation Systems, Inc. (TSSI) offers its new ment gives the speed of both vehicles at distances are inherently subjective, VASCAR-plus IIIc. VASCAR-plus com- the time they were zapped with a laser usually relying on the judgment of the putes speed simply by dividing the dis- beam, the distance from the lidar’s traffic officer. tance traveled by the elapsed time. operator to each of the vehicles at the “The real issue is, how much reac- According to TSSI, because the unit time they were shot with laser, and the tion time does a driver (who is follow- “measures average speed and requires distance between the two vehicles ing another vehicle too closely) have?” no depth perception judgments, it is measured not only in distance but also poses John Naccarato, supervisor of fairer to the driver than other forms of in time. Oregon’s Clackamas County Sheriff’s speed measurement.” Office traffic unit. He points out that it One advantage of VASCAR over should be a second and a half for driver lidar is the fact that you must posi- perception, reaction and then hitting tion laser radar systems close to the brake to avoid a collision. “If you’re the road, whereas VASCAR closer than that, you don’t even have can also operate far from a time to react before you smack into road. An officer simply somebody,” Naccarato said. “The laser needs to observe and (with DBC detection) will tell us how monitor vehicles pass- close a driver actually is as opposed to ing between the just observing with the naked eye. It determined land- takes the subjectivity right out of it.” marks. However, VASCAR does rely VASCAR Still Used strongly on operator Until a few years ago, new technology skill and may be focused largely on detecting speeding more subject to and traffic light law violations. human error. Tailgating documentation tools have been almost non-existent. That said, Lidar Provides More “VASCAR” (visual average speed com- Valid Evidence puter and recorder) remains a vehicle Officer Eric Barcello of the speed measuring system that some law Arizona Highway Patrol enforcement agencies continue to use (AHP) notes that several of his for monitoring motorists driving too officer colleagues still use VASCAR closely. Developed in the late 1960s, this even though the AHP has now imple- PHOT system calculates speed using a “stop- mented LTI’s DBC lasers. O watch” clocking method with a simple The AHP has used the DBC lasers Considering the threat of a serious BOB GAL computer, and it relies on the officer’s since 2005 “because the majority of our collision or a chain-reaction accident VIN anticipation of approaching traffic. collisions are minor and involve follow- that driving too closely poses, the VASCAR computes speed from two ing too close,” Barcello says. offender either may not perceive the variables or landmarks (e.g., a utility According to Officer Mike Beaudoin, risk, or they may be tailgating deliber- pole, sign or crosswalk), the distance the who works with Barcello on traffic ately. All the more reason the DBC target vehicle travels and the time it enforcement, the DBC laser works laser technology is a welcome solution takes the target vehicle to travel that quickly. He adds, “Because it’s laser, to a growing problem. distance. The officer measures the dis- it’s target specific.” tance by pushing a button on the VAS- While VASCAR may take less time Benefits of Lidar in Heavy Traffic CAR system when the target vehicle for setup on a roadway and is simpler Using a laser system with DBC built passes the first predetermined point and than lidar in functionality, this technol- inside takes training, practice and turning it off when the vehicle passes ogy relies heavily on the operator’s expe- patience, but it becomes eas- the second point. Elapsed time is rience, judgment and anticipation. Says ier with time and experience. The officer sets the laser to measure the say, traveling 70 mph and, therefore, is Grant Funding distance between himself and the center less than a second, or a half second, The cost of equipment such as LTI’s of a traffic lane. Then, once two cars behind another vehicle. “We can argue Ultralyte 100 LR laser system with the pass by, the laser tracks the speed of that this is too close based on the aver- DBC software is not much more than a both cars and calculates the distance age perception/reaction time for a typical standard laser system. Agencies between them. motorist for a second and a half.” may be able to obtain federal grant Lidar is especially effective when According to Sullivan, the LTI money for the equipment’s purchase by used to track tailgaters in heavy traffic DBC technology has been responsible applying through their local Department conditions. The laser beam enables the for making the TACT demonstration of Transportation. Guidelines for these officer to target one violator’s vehicle program effective. The ability for grants include specifying a certain per- even while that vehicle is traveling in speed enforcement officers to record centage of grant money to be used for a group of cars. vehicle approach angles, offset equipment, enforcement and other cate- Carl Fors, president of Texas-based angles, vehicle type, distance, speed gories. Contact your respective trans- Speed Measurement Laboratories, Inc., and time is critical to validating driv- portation safety divisions to learn more notes a significant difference between ing-too-closely violations. about grants that cover your statewide lidar and radar, which emits high-fre- When violators are stopped and traffic safety goals and strategies.