Charlotte DOT Advances Safety and Sustainable in Fleet Vehicles

By 2030, Charlotte hopes to eliminate traffic deaths and severe injuries for all who share Charlotte's streets, and we hope to fuel our fleet & facilities from zero-carbon sources. Charlotte's Vision Zero Plan and Sustainable Energy Action Plan guide Charlotte's efforts to be a safe place for all transportation users and a global leader in environmental sustainability. Charlotte's safest and most sustainable vehicles promote these efforts with new branding shown in the images above and below.

Check out Charlotte's Vision Zero Plan and Sustainable Energy Action Plan at https://lnkd.in/dtAYGGh & https://lnkd.in/dGi4vhK

As the City of Charlotte strives to enhance fleet safety and sustainability, the Charlotte Department of Transpiration (CDOT) is working to implement impactful changes that include introducing Vision Zero and Fleet Management best practices. These practices include driver training, data collection and management, speed management, a focus on improving driver visibility, and right-sizing and right-typing fleet assets with a deliberate action to reduce vehicle crashes, fossil fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

CDOT put its first electric vehicles (EV) into service with a complement of safety features as one way to enhance fleet safety and sustainability; four Kia Niro and four Chevrolet Bolt EVs. These EVs emit zero tailpipe emissions, and they are equipped with a plethora of safety features. The Bolt EVs are appointed with collision avoidance, lane-keeping, and blind-spot monitoring, while the Niro EVs take safety further with forward, side, and rear collision avoidance warnings, lane keeping, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise with stop and go ability, and driver attention warnings. All eight EVs feature one-pedal driving which CDOT finds helpful for operations.

While backup cameras, like this one in a Chevy Bolt, and advanced safety features are increasingly commonplace in passenger vehicles, they remain rare in work trucks. Although the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandate backup cameras in May of 2018, the mandate is limited to vehicles weighing less than 10,000 lbs. CDOT is working to change this for their fleet by incorporating rear-facing cameras onto most new vehicles, regardless of size or type, to enhance safety and decrease backing crashes. For instance, the camera and display shown below are on a class eight, tandem axle, dump truck.

The addition of rear-facing cameras helps operators avoid backing accidents and aids vehicle operators when connecting trucks to trailers. In addition to rear-facing cameras, CDOT is experimenting with front-facing cameras to improve safety on some vehicles with limited forward-facing driver visibility or on vehicles that must frequently maneuver near obstacles. CDOT's addition of front and rear-facing camera technology will help address both front-facing visibility issues and improve backing safety, supporting Charlotte's 2030 Vision Zero Goals.

For example, Trucks like the tandem axle dump truck shown above have limited forward visibility, especially close to the front of the truck. Trucks like this help CDOT maintain and enhance the City's transportation infrastructure by transporting materials and equipment. Still, this type of vehicle is disproportionately responsible for U.S. accidents. According to a report by the City of London, in the United Kingdom, the design of trucks like this creates obstructed and limited views for drivers that can slow reaction times up to 70% in traditional vehicles compared to high-vision alternatives.

Advanced safety features such as electronic stability control, lane-keeping, adaptive cruise, and emergency braking collision avoidance are rare on work trucks, but CDOT has all of these features on the class eight asphalt patch truck shown below. In addition to these advanced safety features CDOT purchased this Freightliner M2 106 in-lieu-of the Freightliner 108SD for its tapered hood designed and lower, easier entry and exit. The tapered hood design provides increased forward visibility, and the lower entry and exit provides an easier and safer experience for CDOT staff. All these features make this CDOT’s safest class eight truck to date but safety features don’t stop there.

This asphalt patch truck is equipped with front and rear-facing cameras and hands-free two-way communications from the rear of the truck to the cab's interior, allowing staff working directly behind the truck to communicate with the truck's operator.

The trucks center-mounted controls & camera display is shown below in Image 1.

A dash-mounted button adjusts the following distance for the adaptive cruise control, shown in image 2.

A front-facing sensor measures the following distance to provide adaptive cruise and emergency braking used for collision avoidance, shown in image 3

And a front-facing camera, shown in image 4, is used for line marking detection, making lane departure warnings possible.

While electronics make many safety features possible, all safety features aren't electronic. CDOT installed side underride guards to their fuel truck to prevent pedestrians, cyclists, or motorist's vehicles from going underneath the truck in the event of a side-impact crash, enhancing safety.

When it comes to safety, size matters; smaller vehicles are often safer to operate due to improved visibility and stopping distance. Decreasing a vehicles' physical size significantly improves operator visibility and adds operational ease and efficiencies, aiding progress towards Vision Zero safety goals.

As US automakers increase performance and capabilities, smaller, gasoline-powered vehicles can now replace larger, diesel-powered trucks in some applications. As such, CDOT is transitioning away from larger diesel-powered class six and seven trucks to a smaller gasoline-powered class five truck, the Ford F-550, reducing engine emissions, fuel consumption, and overall fleet costs. CDOT is also replacing Ford F-250, 350, and 450 models with the F-550, increasing payload and towing capacity to eliminate the need for larger diesel F560 and 750, making the Ford F-550 the standard truck for many operations, supporting sustainability goals.

One example of standardizing the Ford F-550 is the 7.3-liter, gasoline-powered Ford F-550 bucket truck shown below. It is replacing a larger, diesel-powered truck. This bucket truck is equipped with front and rear-facing cameras and a suite of factory safety options.

Another example is the F-550 dump truck shown below in comparison to an older class seven dump truck. The F-550 truck is smaller, but it has the capabilities needed to meet our present and future needs. By decreasing these vehicles' physical size, CDOT significantly improves operator visibility and adds operational ease and efficiencies, contributing to Vision Zero safety goals and vehicle efficiency.

Standardizing, right-sizing and right-typing require a holistic fleet management approach that includes trucks, trailers, and equipment. By taking these approaches CDOT is advancing its safety and sustainability goals. The picture below shows an example where the trucks, trailer, and excavator have all been reduced in size compared to equipment previously used.

In addition to standardizing bucket trucks and single axle dump trucks, CDOT is also transitioning many crew trucks to the F-550.

All new CDOT F-550s are gasoline-powered with 19,500 lbs. Gross Vehicle Weight Ratings and each truck is equipped with cruise control to aid staff in speed management. The trucks are also equipped with collision avoidance, emergency braking, lane departure warning, a rear-view camera, power trailer tow mirrors with defrost, vehicle tracking including a badge reader to log operator information, and an Apple CarPlay enabled radio to provide turn-by-turn navigation and hands-free phone connectivity, making these CDOT work trucks the safest and most sustainable to date.

Still, progress doesn't sit; it moves ahead. As such, CDOT has eight Hybrid Ford F-150 trucks on order, and five of which will replace larger F-350 and 450 trucks, further enhancing safety and sustainability.

Moving forward, CDOT will continue to promote safety and sustainability to support the City of Charlotte's Vision Zero and Sustainable Energy Action Plan goals, improving safety and reducing emissions, fuel consumption, maintenance cost, and downtime through fleet rightsizing and right-typing, as the City of Charlotte strives to eliminate traffic deaths and severe injuries for all who share Charlotte's streets, and as we strive to fuel our fleet & facilities from zero-carbon sources.