The Regulation of Motor Vehicle and Traffic Safety

1: The Motor Vehicle and Traffic Safety Mandate.- Fatalities in Traffic Accidents-Trends and Incidence.- Early Congressional Hearings on Traffic Safety.- The Traffic Safety Acts of 1966.- The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966.- The Highway Safety Act of 1966.- Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.- Standards for Highway Safety Programs.- Other Safety Activities.- Research.- The Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act of 1972.- Recalls.- Perspectives.- Notes.- 2: A Framework for Thinking About Traffic Safety Policy.- The Nature of the Mandate.- The Technological Approach.- The Risk Homeostatic Approach.- A General Framework: The Individual Benefit-Cost Approach.- The Individual Benefit-Cost Approach.- Implications for Traffic Safety Policy.- Potential Imperfections in Motorist Decisions: Types and Evidence.- Insufficient Incentives.- Insufficient Information.- Insufficient Competency.- Evidence of Competence.- Traffic Safety Problems: A Matter of Degree.- An Assessment of the Evidence.- An Assessment of Demands for More Aggressive Safety Policy.- Traffic Safety Policy.- Notes.- Appendix: Mathmatical Exposition of the Individual Benefit-Cost Approach.- 3: The Contribution of Vehicle Safety Standards to Traffic Safety.- Changes in Traffic Fatality Rates.- Evidence on the Safety Effects.- The Initial Technological Predictions.- The Initial Evidence Based on Fatality Rates-Peltzman.- Evidence Based on Accident Severity Rate-GAO.- Rebuttal to Peltzman's Findings-Robertson and Joksch.- Evidence Based on Crash Involvement Rates-Robertson and Orr.- Recent Evidence Based on Fatality Rate Analysis-Seven Studies.- Interpreting the Evidence.- Safety Impacts of Vehicle Safety Standards-Conclusions.- Risk Compensation.- Policy Evaluation and A Framework for Thinking.- Notes.- 4: Economics of Mandatory Passive Restraints: Benefit-Cost Analysis, Rulemaking and Court Decisions.- Background for Crash Protection Rules and Court Decisions.- Benefit-Cost Studies of Mandatory Passive Restraints.- An Ideal Study.- Arnould and Grabowski.- Graham, Henrion and Morgan.- Final Regulatory Impact Analysis by NHTSA.- Nordhaus' Revision of NHTSA's Analysis.- Critique of the Benefit-Cost Analysis.- Accident Chances are Assumed Constant-No Human Response.- Substitutability Among Policy Components.- Implicit User Costs-Another Human Factor.- Perspective on Regulatory and Legal Decisions.- Recission and the Courts.- Legal Decisions, Regulatory Decisions and Economic Analysis.- Judging Analytical Acceptability-Five Criteria.- The Dole Rule-Economic Critique of the Current Standard.- Judging the Passive Restaints Rule Based on the Five Criteria for Analytical Acceptability.- Notes.- 5: Improving Traffic Safety Policy.- Immediate Causes of Imperfections.- Nonmarket Failure: An Obstacle to Policy Perfection.- Correcting Policy Imperfections with a Better Framework.- Risk Free Travel.- Inducements and Information-Nonregulatory Alternatives.- Inducements for Greater Safety.- Information and Inducements-Recalls.- Bottom-Line Evaluation.- Mystery Plunge.- Notes.- 6: Summary Remarks and Recommendations.- Summary Remarks.- Recommendations for Improving Traffic Safety Policy.- Task Force and Committee on Traffic Safety Policy and Implementation.- A General Framework for Traffic Safety.- Regulatory Impact Analysis Based on a General Framework.- Field Testing for Proposed Safety Measures.- Bottom-Line Evaluation.- List of Tables And Figures Table 1-1 Causes of Death, 1984.- Table 1-2 Incidence of Motor Vehicle Fatalities, by Age Group.- Table 1-3 Traffic Fatalities and Fatality Rates, 1947-1986.- Figure 1-1 Annual Traffic Fatalities and Fatality Rates, 1947-1986.- Table 1-4 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.- Table 1-5 Standards for Highway Safety Programs.- Table 2-1 Representative Evidence on the Individual Benefit Cost Approach.- Table 3-1 Impact of Vehicle Safety Standards on Traffic Fatality Rates and Lives Saved.- Table 4-1 Benefit-Cost Studies of Mandatory Passive Restraints.- Table 5-1 Ranking of National Problems.