Michigan’s Sayer a Change Champion

Burney Simpson

The White House recently recognized the University of Michigan’s James R. Sayer as one of the 2015 Transportation Champions of Change for his work on connected and automated vehicles.

Sayer is a research scientist and head of the Human Factors Group at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

He currently leads the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Model Deployment, a U.S. Department of Transportation-sponsored program. The DOT plans to use the results to determine driver acceptance of connected vehicles, and to “evaluate the feasibility, scalability, security, and device interoperability of connected-vehicle technologies.”

That project has been expanded into the Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment. Sayer said in a release that Ann Arbor “will be the world’s first example of how connected vehicle and infrastructure technology can and will be utilized in a community of the future.”

The goal is to make roads safer and reduce fatal vehicle crashes, he said.

“Last year alone there were over 30,000 fatalities. Our current transportation system is responsible for $240 billion per-year cost in terms of medical and work loss,” he said. “Connected vehicles, similar to what we have deployed (here) could reduce up to 80 percent of unimpaired crashes.”

Sayer was instrumental in the development of Mcity, the 32-acre test site for connected and automated vehicles operated by the university’s Mobility Transformation Center that opened this summer in Ann Arbor.

The Transportation Champions of Change are honored for their leadership and innovation in the field. In addition to Sayer, the 2015 Champions are:

Atorod Azizinamini, Marilyn Bull, Habib Dagher, Elaine Roberts, Nathaniel Ford, Sr., Olatunji Oboi Reed, Peter Lagerwey, Robert Portiss, Kyle Wagenschutz, and Carl Weimer.

The champions were honored at a ceremony with Anthony Foxx, secretary of the US DOT, Federal Highways Administrator Greg Nadeau, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Mark Rosekind, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Acting Administrator Scott Darling, National Economic Council Director and Assistant to the President Jeff Zients, and other officials.