DOT works with City of Cambridge on bike, pedestrian safety near large trucks
Department of Transportation sent this bulletin at 05/27/2015 11:15 AM EDT
From the Volpe Center:
Last week, the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced a partnership with the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to install safety-enhancing side guards on city-owned trucks.
Side guards on large trucks protect bicyclists and pedestrians from being swept underneath the vehicle in a side-impact crash. Since being required in the UK, they have helped reduce bicyclist fatalities in side-impact crashes with trucks by 61 percent and pedestrian fatalities by 20 percent.
Cambridge is working with the Volpe Center on a vehicle redesign strategy that will establish recommendations for implementing truck side guards, blind spot mirrors, and other vehicle-based technologies on the city-owned truck fleet.