Evidence on the Safety Effects

The rationale for federal motor vehicle safety standards is that mandated safety equipment will produce safety gains effectively. As discussed in Chapter 2 this technological approach focuses on increases in crash survivability and implicitly assumes that the firequency of crashes is unaffected. As long as the safety equipment improves crashworthiness the standards must increase safety according to this approach. The initial standards required the following major design changes  

The intrinsic safety effect of this equipment was estimated through study of comparisons of actual crashes and through study of simulated crashes in laboratories. 

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Unintended side effects, or derived externalities, are another nonmarket failure found in traffic safety poUcy. The most striking example comes from the review of the evidence on the safety effects of vehicle safety standards. In Chapter 3 we concluded that while overall highway travel is safer, nonoccupants such as pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcycUsts are in greater danger. Because the policy approach ignored risk compensation this occupant-nonoccupant tradeoff was unexpected by policy makers. 

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