Voice message

The voice should be deeper at the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) over the next two years.

Tom McSwain, who will officially put a charge into his tenure as ATSSA president at Traffic Expo in San Antonio, plans on using the same type of verbal firepower established by Kathi Holst. But McSwain also wants the association's words to hit new depths.

Holst used her two-year term as ATSSA chief to build a presence on Capitol Hill. In an exclusive interview with Transportation Management + Engineering (TM+E), McSwain coated his words with hope and determination when asked about the future of ATSSA, the Roadway Safety Program and work-zone deaths.

Transportation Management + Engineering: How did you get into the road marking business?

Tom McSwain: I got into the business in 1985. Prior to this I was in the hardwood lumber business, and I worked for a company called Thompson Hardwoods and they had hired me to open and run a pallet and crate manufacturing facility. My very first customer was a company called Pave-Mark in Atlanta. Pave-Mark was a manufacturer of thermoplastic highway striping materials. They were my customers for two or three years and one thing led to another and the general manager offered me a job as the southeast regional sales manager in 1985 and here I am today.

TM+E: It sounds like you just fell into this career.

TM: I, like most people who drive up and down the highways, had no idea there was a multibillion dollar business of highway safety or striping or anything like that. I've certainly learned a lot since then.

TM+E: You are following in the footsteps of Kathi Holst as American Traffic Safety Services Association president. In your own words what has ATSSA accomplished under her leadership?

TM: I think one of the biggest accomplishments under Kathi's leadership is ATSSA went from a relatively small and obscure name and force on Capitol Hill and, legislatively speaking, to a name and a voice that is well heard within the administration, the Senate and the House.

During the strategic planning process that Kathi was involved with it became apparent that for ATSSA members to achieve success and to reduce the number of deaths on the highways we would have to really step up and get involved in national lobbying for highway safety. That was actually the main goal that came out of the strategic planning process that Kathi led us through. In a very short period of time during her two years as president-elect and president we literally went from literally having no voice on the Hill to being well heard in our message of creating a core roadway safety program which, as we understand now, the administration, Senate and House bills are all considering.

TM+E: What inspired you to become president of ATSSA?

TM: This is going to sound really corny, but it's the truth. Several years ago when we really started taking a look at how things ticked in Washington and started looking at the actual highway death statistics and deaths and injuries in work zones . . . when you sit down and you realize that there are 42,000 people killed every year on the highways and, last year, there were over 1,100 people killed in work zones you realize that our business just happens to be making our roadways safer. I have a special calling with that. It's very important to me that over the next few years we accomplish a reduction in highway deaths. That's the message we're carrying to highways and that's the message we want to carry to the individual states.

TM+E: What is on your agenda as president of ATSSA?

TM: One thing we know for sure is we will have some transportation bill that will be created this coming year. It is our hope that it is indeed another six-year transportation bill, and as part of our strategic plan once we have a fully funded federal bill we as an organization know we have to turn our efforts to the state and local level to make sure the message of the core roadway safety program is taken all the way down to that level. We also need to make sure our chapter members and local/state members can go out and develop those markets and develop strategies to upgrade the work zones in those individual states.

TM+E: How are you going to take the message to the state and local level?

TM: As part of our strategic plan right now what we intend to do is take the same focus and same effort we are currently applying at the Congressional level and begin to focus those same resources through our chapters. We understand that while we are a large organization our chapters and subcontractor members at the local level are key to making this happen. While we have done an outstanding job of creating a federal advocacy effort now we are going to have to develop a grassroots effort. That's going to be the cornerstone of what I'm going to try to accomplish over the next two years--making sure we develop a grassroots effort. As a manufacturer in this business I know as much as anyone that as the fate of our subcontractors go so goes the manufacturer's fate. Those are the guys who really make our organization tick and we have to establish a solid effort.

TM+E: In terms of work-zone safety there are two ongoing problems: drunken driving and driving too fast. It would be a very difficult task to stop drunken driving, but something might be able to combat the work-zone speeding. What can be done to slow down the motorists?

TM: In addition to many of the newer products and services that our members either manufacture or install that would be traffic calming devices, one of the things the association has been working on is the behavioral aspect. We created a video called "In the Zone" and this particular video features NASCAR star Tom Bodine and two teenagers. It talks about how to navigate work zones and the dangers of speeding and our goal here is to drive this message down to the teenage driving population because we know that if we start affecting the behavior in teens it will carry on through their adulthood.

One of the other things ATSSA has been working on is a work-zone violator course which is very similar to some of the DUI courses. We have received a great deal of positive feedback from several states and the FHWA.

TM+E: I've heard one solution would be to throw temporary speed bumps through the work zone to make them slow down. Do you think you would have to go to that extent to slow down the motorist?

TM: The FHWA has looked at that and are continuing to look at that. There are several ATSSA-member companies that make what we would call temporary rumble strips.

I think there are several other methods, whether it would be the behavioral aspects all the way down to different types of work-zone equipment and different striping patterns. All over Europe we have seen different traffic calming patterns and those are some of the things we're examining.

TM+E: Do you think pavement markings are overlooked as a way of traffic calming?

TM: One of the provisions that ATSSA has presented to Congress is one specifically for higher retroreflectivity standards, a wider lines program and different types of traffic calming patterns.

To answer your question directly, yes I do believe from a traffic calming standpoint pavement markings are overlooked. I think it's one of the best investments that we can make in order to help increase safety in the work zones and on the highways.

The vast majority of the 42,000 deaths we have on the highway are run-off-the-road accidents, and one of the best ways to help prevent that is making the pavement markings more conspicuous, adding rumbling strips and better signage.

TM+E: Are there other new technologies out there that will help with traffic calming or traffic management in general?

TM: A lot of the ITS technologies are still under development. Recently there have been several states who have employed ITS-type technology where they are able to take early advance warning systems and they're able to let the motorist know of a work zone, what's happening in a work zone, their travel time through the work zone, alternate routes. As that technology increases I think we will see more and more of the ITS application.

TM+E: The Roadway Safety Program is a $3 billion package. What will be the best way to spend that money?

TM: The Roadway Safety Program itself is very specific and we have outlined eight or 10 different points that were very specific on the dollars and how it should be spent. Some of it is made specifically to decrease run-off-the-road crashes. Some will go into the improvements in enhanced signage markings at intersections, auditory crosswalks for pedestrians and bicycle lane upgrades. We have received a great deal of positive feedback, particularly in our older driver initiatives where we are using wider signs, brighter signs and rumble strips.

TM+E: Highway deaths have been increasing over the last few years. When do you think they will start to decline?

TM: The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has worked very hard on working from the behavioral standpoint. Our goal is to work diligently to get some of what we would call some of the hard improvements in highway safety. When we put the Roadway Safety Program together we clearly put it together to reduce accidents and deaths. We believe with implementation of this program we will see immediate results. We would like to think within 18 months the deaths will go down. It's going to take some time to get the improvements into the system, but once the Roadway Safety Program is in place we should start seeing a reduction in accidents and deaths on the highway.