More than a dozen years since joining IIHS, I still struggle to answer when people ask me what I do for a living. “Have you ever seen a commercial that calls a car an IIHS Top Safety Pick? I work there,” I say. “Oh, wow, you run crash tests?” they respond. Well, no.

For much of the public, IIHS is synonymous with vehicle safety research, thanks to the success of our ratings program. Crash testing may be the best-known part of our work — and yes, it’s pretty cool — but it’s far from our only focus. I direct the Institute’s research on road user behavior and infrastructure, evaluating things like road design, traffic laws and how drivers interact with their vehicles. Read more