New York Unveils New Required License Plate

The new “Empire Gold” license plate unveiled by New York state this week will be a requirement for almost all registered vehicles next year. The blue lettering on gold background will replace the plate with images of Niagara Falls and New York City’s skyline. Although we’re not New Yorkers here at Cars.com, we feel sympathy for the drivers who must affix these new plates to their bumpers.

The New York Department of Motor Vehicles says the move is due to the degrading reflectivity and “general integrity” of the current plate. The plates have been around for more than 10 years, but that obviously does not mean all license plates in New York are that old.

Perhaps, the budget-busted state is looking forward to collecting $25 on top of registration renewals and new registrations fees (plus $20 if you want to keep your old lettering). This will raise $120 million for the state’s general fund.

You’d think if New York was going to make all of its drivers get new license plates, it would at least go with a design that avoided outright offending the eye. Kind of like the New York Jets throwback uniforms.

New NY State License Plate Revealed—And Required on All Cars (Gothamist)

California Moves Closer to Pay-as-You-Drive Insurance

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner authorized regulations that allow insurance companies to use mileage verification for pay-as-you-drive policies. Studies have shown that per-mile pricing lures drivers to alter their habits, which then reduces air pollution, congestion and traffic accidents.

These plans can take several forms. In Texas, MileMeter offers six-month policies of 1,000-6,000 miles that drivers refill when their miles run out. The company wants to move into California where it believes motorists are paying too much for insurance.

Other plans being considered by State Farm, Allstate and Progressive might offer a yearlong policy based on a projected mileage. At the end of the year, the insurer would either refund or bill the driver based on how much he or she went over or under the estimate.

The key is verification. Privacy advocates don’t like the idea of installing electronic devices into vehicles to track miles driven, but there are other options. Odometer readings by agents, DMV records or states with smog-check stations could all provide the verification.

Could this lead to a push by insurers to access other information such as when your vehicle is driven or at what speed in order to inflate rates? That’s a less appealing proposition.

Then again, a study by the Brookings Institute confirmed the environmental and economic benefits of by-the-mile insurance pricing. If all of the country’s drivers adopted this type of policy, driving would drop 8% nationwide and oil consumption would fall by 4%. Two-thirds of U.S. households would save an average of $270 per car.

Pay-by-the-Mile Auto Insurance Advances in California (Sacramento Bee)

Ford Introduces Inflatable Seat Belts

For 20 years we’ve seen leaps in car-safety innovation from the airbag to electronic stability control. Today, Ford announced one more piece of technology that aims to reduce even more injuries. The company will roll out inflatable seat belts for the rear seats in future models, starting with the next-generation Ford Explorer that’s transitioning from a body-on-frame SUV to a crossover when it goes on sale in 2010.

Inflatable seat belts will reduce the trauma that standard seat belts can inflict on both young children and seniors. Ford says the new system will reduce head, neck and chest trauma.

The airbags deploy within 40 milliseconds of a crash; otherwise they work the same as standard seat belts and will be compatible with child-safety seats.

The seat-belt airbags will fill quickly with a cold compressed gas instead of using a heat-generating chemical reaction like traditional airbags.

Ford says the system will be introduced in future models down the line but gave no specifics on when it would hit family-friendly vehicles like the Flex and Taurus.

Bad Genetics Make Bad Drivers

Are people genetically predisposed to be bad drivers? Those are the findings of a recent study in the journal Cerebral Cortex, which is usually found on my nightstand.

People with a certain gene variant performed more than 30% worse on a driving test than people without it. This gene variant is present in roughly 30% of Americans, according to the study’s author Steven Cramer, a University of California-Irvine neurology professor.

The culprit is a lack of certain protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which helps brain cells communicate and allows for better memory retention. People with a certain gene variation, however, have limited BDNF secretion. This causes them to make more errors and forget what they have learned about a task or situation after being away from it.

In the study, 29 drivers spent 15 laps on a simulated course with complicated curves and sharp turns. Seven drivers had the gene variant and the rest did not. The drivers without the gene variant navigated the twists more quickly. When the study participants were brought back four days later to repeat the test, the non-variant drivers retained more than their seven counterparts. Both times, the drivers with the gene variant performed less effectively.

Cramer is now interested in the genetics of people who get into car accidents, but he has no way to quickly test for the gene variant.

Blame Genetics for Bad Driving, Study Finds (CNN)

Measure Your Driver Distraction

The New York Times ran an in-depth article on the consequences of distracted driving accompanied by a “game” that gauges how texting impacts your ability to drive. Using a series of virtual tollbooths and a virtual smart phone, users try to answer text messages while navigating the tollbooths. It’s a simple game, but it quickly becomes evident that even a one-word answer increases reaction time.

The average user was registering a reaction time .24 seconds slower than normal when we tested it. While it’s a good tool, something more realistic like noticing brake lights might resonate with more drivers. 

Halloween is a Dangerous Day on Roads

Everybody has heard to beware of the unwrapped candy with poison, but the far more frightening — and real — danger for kids on Halloween is being safe on the road. The chance of a child being killed while walking from 4 to 10 p.m. on Halloween is twice that of any other night of the year, according to Safe Kids USA.

After analyzing data from pedestrian deaths from 2002 to 2006, it concluded that 540 kids, ages 14 and younger, die while walking during those hours on Halloween every year.

Here are a few tips from our pals at MotherProof.com about how to keeping your child safe this year:

97% of Americans Want Ban on Texting While Driving

It appears there’s one thing our heavily divided nation can agree upon: ban texting while driving.

An overwhelming 97% want the practice to be illegal, according to a recent CBS News/New York Times survey. Only 1% said it should be legal.

This opinion cuts across regions, gender, and frequent and infrequent drivers. Of those who said texting while driving should be illegal, 52% said the punishment should be the same as the penalty for drunken driving. People who are 45 and older favor a harsher punishment. The poll was conducted among a random sample of 829 adults nationwide on Oct. 5-8, 2009. Its margin of error is 3 percentage points.

This follows a well-publicized study that found drivers who text are 23 times more likely to be involved in an accident. President Barack Obama recently banned federal employees from texting while driving, and the practice is already illegal in 18 states and the District of Columbia.

Whatever this survey says about Americans’ attitudes, I’d say from an informal survey of watching drivers on the road that a solid chunk of this 97% isn’t practicing what it preaches.

Poll: Texting + Driving Should be Illegal (CBS News)

Winter Brings on 'Peephole' Driving

As winter approaches, there is a safety hazard to be on the lookout for other than the typical sleet, ice and snow: peephole driving.

This term applies to people who scrape just enough ice from the windshield to see the road when driving. Many who live through long, cold winters might have done it.

A dangerous practice, police officers throughout the snow belt are already planning to target peephole drivers this winter using existing "obstructed" driving rules.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed a law that requires drivers to “make all reasonable efforts” to scrape off ice and snow from the windshield, trunk, hood and roof of a vehicle. Drivers who fail to do so can face fines of $25-$75. That added rule will help officers in New Jersey make a case against peephole driving, as well.

Police and EMTs worry about chunks of ice or snow that fly off of vehicles while in motion. A chunk of ice torn off a moving car can be as heavy as a brick and becomes a dangerous projectile.

Will peephole driving laws catch on? Do you worry about people who try to drive with snow and ice still coating their windshields? Let us know in the comments.

Police Watching for ‘Peephole’ Drivers as Winter Nears (USA Today)

Car Booster Seats Cut Injury Risk in Half

Children in booster seats have roughly half the risk of injury during a car accident as those who are only using a seat belt, according to a study by the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Published in the current edition of the journal Pediatrics, the study found that children ages 4-8 benefited greatly from the use of a booster seat, no matter if it had a high-back or was backless. Analyzing data from 7,151 children involved in 6,591 car accidents, researchers found that 70% were restrained with a seat belt while 30% used a booster seat. That 70% had double the injury risk of the 30% who used a booster seat.

The study reaffirms that the booster seats are important because they raise children up so the lap-and-shoulder belt is positioned more effectively across a child’s smaller body; seat belts are designed to restrain considerably heavier adults. Using a booster seat helps distribute the force of a crash across the most resilient parts of a child’s body — especially during side-impact crashes, which are the deadliest for children.

The use of booster seats was credited with a 68% reduction in injury risk for near-side impacts and a whopping 82% for far-side impacts.

The evidence suggest that no matter how much kids complain, booster seats are a safety priority for children in cars through age 8.

Study Reaffirms Benefit of Car Booster Seats (Reuters)

'Smart' Gas Pedal Can Stop Unintended Acceleration

Unintended acceleration has a simple solution: A “smart” gas pedal that recognizes the brake takes precedence over acceleration. This means if they’re both depressed simultaneously the software forces the engine to respond to only to the brake and decelerate.

A few European automakers already have such a system in their vehicles. BMW made the feature standard in all of its vehicles beginning with the 2005 model year. It uses a drive-by-wire accelerator and BMW’s own software, but the feature only works when the vehicle is in motion in case tough guys want to rev the engine while holding down the brake.

For Toyota’s 3.8 million recalled vehicles, a smart gas pedal system is a potential fix. Toyota has said it won’t redesign the floor mats, and new software is an option.

Other automakers that use a smart pedal system include Audi, which had its own rash of unintended acceleration cases in the ’80s, and Volkswagen. Nissan will have a similar system for the 2010 Infiniti M, and Chrysler says most of its vehicles include the technology, as well.

Smart Gas Pedals May Solve Floor-Mat Problem (Wheels)