Publi­ca­ti­ons

In the context of gender equity, the consideration of differences between females and males in science and research has been claimed by various groups and the public. A so-called “gender gap” was also assumed to exist in the development of crash safety of passenger cars because several analyses of crash data from the U.S. had found a higher risk for moderate and severe injuries for female occupants than for male occupants in certain crash scenarios.

The majority of cycling accidents in Germany are collisions between two parties. However, single-vehicle accidents of cyclists without the involvement of a second party are becoming increasingly relevant.

In 2023, 446 cyclists were killed in road traffic accidents in Germany, approxi-mately 42 percent of them (189 cyclists) outside of built-up areas.

The number of bicycles as a proportion of total road traffic has risen considerably in recent years, in particular in connection with the Covid pandemic and above all in urban areas [RAD20]. At the same time, bicycles are increasingly being used not only as a means of transport for the cyclists themselves, but also as a way of transporting children. In addition to conventional child seats, the use of bicycle trailers and cargo bicycles is also growing.

There were a total of 17,755 accidents involving personal injury on Germany’s motorways in 2022, that is approximately 11 percent fewer than in 2019. This change is due, in particular, to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The purpose of the present study is to use accident data relating to wrong-way driving incidents on motorways in order to identify patterns, assess possible countermeasures and compare their effectiveness.

Functions of vehicle operation, such as windscreen wiper settings, are increasingly being implemented digitally and operated via touch displays. They integrate many functions. However their operation distracts from the driving task. In a study, the UDV therefore investigated how in-vehicle HMI should be designed to be as least distractive as possible.

More than 10 years ago, the German Insurers Accident Research assessed the accident risk posed by farm tractors in roadtraffic and identified typical patterns. Initial assessments of the figures currently reported in the German traffic accident statistics and the insurers’ accident database (UDB) have shown that the occurrence of accidents involving farm tractors has changed during the intervening period.

The so-called “feedback intervention for senior drivers in real traffic situa-tions” was developed as part of a UDV pilot project undertaken in 2019 in order to maintain the driving competencies of senior car drivers in the long term or even to improve these.