Driving the GreenRoad to Safety

Risky business (travel)

Is collecting business travel miles dangerous?  Well, it may be if you travel as much as I do.  Last year I took about 60 flights.  And, this year I may set a new record by end of Q3.  Business travel--and any business traveler will back me up on this--is much less glamorous then it looks.  Unless you really like airline food, lost luggage, and never being completely awake or asleep.  For most of travel’s discomforts I've found good solutions that I am happy to share:

1.       I always carry a small bottle of Tabasco sauce in my briefcase.  Now, my food always tastes great at 30,000 feet.

2.       I never stop flying.  I found this to be the best cure for jet leg.  As soon as you stop, it hits you.  So once you’ve started, keep going!

3.       I always pack a spare pair of shirt, pants, underwear and toothbrush in my carry on.  Luggage lost? No worries, I still look like a champ in the next day’s meeting.

So, yes, business travel is uncomfortable, but if you are creative, it’s manageable.   So when does business travel become dangerous?  When you take the redeye 22:30 BA flight from London to Israel.  This is a flight I’ve taken many times.  And it is dangerous.  But, hold on.  Don’t start cancelling your next BA ticket yet, there is nothing wrong with the flight or the airline.  Both are comfortable and safe. 

The real risk begins in the taxi line in front of the airport after I’ve arrived back home in Israel.  It is 6 in the morning, and just the time that the taxi drivers who have been driving all night have to decide if they’ve had enough, or if they can squeeze in one extra ride before going to bed.  Standing in the taxi line, I often feel like I’m watching a live rerun of “Night of the Living Dead.”  One after the other, drivers with grey faces and eyes the size of peas push off for one last run.

When I step into these taxis, uncomfortable business travel turns to into dangerous business travel. 

I’ve been in taxis with drivers falling asleep at the wheel, dozing into different lanes or slowing down to a complete stop in the middle of the highway.  All pretty hairy situations.. but what can I do? I want to get home.  So I make the effort of staying awake myself – and encouraging the drivers to keep talking – as I never saw a sleeping person talking politics.

Yesterday I returned on another redeye flight, and was “eagerly” awaiting a sleepy chauffer to take me home.  However, the ride I was about to take topped them all.

As expected, the ride I boarded was the last one for the very tired driver.  We started climbing towards Jerusalem, and I could see the driver’s head leaning closer and closer to the wheel.  Just as I was about to start my well rehearsed “keep the driver awake” conversation – he suddenly sprang into life as if bitten by a giant bed bug. 

While driving, he grabbed his cell phone (illegal) and started dialing (illegal again).  Eavesdropping on his conversation, I found out that Mr. Sleepyhead has a day job that he forgot about, that starts immediately after his taxi nightshift. 

I will give you three guesses what his day job is.

Our Mr. Sleepyhead drives kids to school.

As he started up towards Jerusalem with me, he realized that he would never make it in time to drive the kids.  This kicked off a series of frantic phone calls to all his friends to see if they could replace him. The upside – he was really awake during our drive.  But think of the downside.  This guy could be driving your kids to school.  A full nightshift, and then right on to delivering the most precious of all cargos - our kids.  Boy, was I happy my wife walks our daughters to school every morning.

Is this situation avoidable? You bet it is.  This guy works for a taxi company.  He also works for a school bus company.  He meets colleagues, bosses, parents and kids every day.  All of whom, for some unknown reason, let him get away with this dangerous behavior.  Stepping out of the taxi, I made myself a promise.  Never keep silent again.  The loop of irresponsibility will be broken.  I urge you all to do the same.  It’s not enough that you choose to drive safely.  The world is short on people who are willing to stand up and report unsafe driving.  Start acting today – and the roads we are all using will become safer tomorrow. 

Open your mouth, it’s worth it,

Hod Fleishman

Too Much Driving Data: A Good Thing?

Have you ever entered a room where the combined IQ of the people inside it was large enough to solve all of the world’s problems? That’s the feeling I got every time I entered a session at this year’s Transportation Research Board in Washington, DC.  This scholarly and well-run 87 year old event, has hundreds of sessions, with researchers focused on some aspect of road safety.  Enter the TRB world and you can attend sessions with catchy names like “Advanced Pavement Analysis,” or “Load and Resistance Factor Design of Concrete Bridge Superstructures.” Wow.  So what is a safety boy like me doing in a place like this? From first glance it does seem that the construction engineers have the inside track, but a closer look reveals a lot of interesting discussion around driver behavior, teen driving behavior and crash prevention technologies—now we’re talking!

Attending these driver behavior sessions (with more earthly titles such as “Teen Driving – Status and Research”) you can’t help but wonder why car crashes still happen.  I mean, there is no lack of data as to why crashes occur.  If anything, there is an overabundance of such data.  Researchers have diced and segmented the modern driver’s soul into thin slices testing every aspect of driver behavior, psychology, motives for driving, skill variations per mile driven, etc.  Chances are that if you can name it, someone plugged a sensor into it, observed it, composed a questionnaire on it, or ran a study about it.  So with all of this data out there, why are car crashes still on the rise??

Maybe its time we shift from the why (why crashes happen) to the what (what actions we can take to improve our own personal driving safety).  Researchers have overloaded us with statistics, many pointing to the same set of facts about why crashes happen, and we know that 95% of crashes are at least partially caused by human error.  So, let’s start considering driving less a right of entitlement, and more a behavior decision with inherent risk that should be handled with a lot of care.  What if we all decided to start being more proactive, and more responsible with our own driving behavior?  What if we agreed that safe driving is a decision that we make every time we enter our cars?  There are numerous things every one of us can do to reduce crashes.  Here are my top 5, and I’d love to hear what others have to say:

1.       Enjoy your trip, allow enough time, and be relaxed.  As soon as you enter your car, decide you are taking your time.  There is no rush to get anywhere. 

2.       Don’t surprise, don’t be surprised.  Give others (and yourself) plenty of room and time to react

3.       Wear a big skirt.  Well, not literally, but imagine you are wearing a big skirt around your car.  You don’t want anyone stepping on it, so keep a safe distance from anyone or anything.

4.       Stop lying to yourself.  When you are tired – you can’t drive safely.  Many have proven this by trying and failing, so there is no need to try it for yourself

5.       Stop fantasizing in traffic.  You are not a NASCAR driver, and the road leading to your office is not Talladega.  Start scoring how well you drive, by how safely you drive; leave the performance driving to the pro’s, or go to a specifically designated racing track.

Let’s all start spending a little time and effort investing in our individual driving safety--now.  Who knows, maybe by the next TRB all the researchers will wear puzzled faces, having to explain how crashes around the world suddenly began to decline.  It could happen…

I’d love to hear from you about your top 5 safe driving tips.  Please email me at hodf@greenroadtech.com

Drive safe, it’s worth the effort,

Hod Fleishman

Founder, GreenRoad Technologies