Traffic Safety
Roadway construction already is a dangerous working environment with over 700 fatalities annually in work zones alone. With connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) beginning to launch on our roadways, workers and motorists will have even more dangers facing them each day. Because the majority of...
Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill into law Tuesday that prohibits texting while driving in Texas, ending a decade-long effort by safety advocates to reduce potentially deadly driver distractions on the road.
Texas will become one of the last states to adopt some kind of texting-while-driving ban...
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) has been in the process of inventing a new way to combat wrong-way driving, after several years of studying ways to engineer a system that would reduce the number of wrong-way incursions, collisions, and deaths on metro Phoenix freeways.
ADOT says a...
Vision Zero is a movement based on the Safe Systems approach to road safety, which is centered on the idea that “no loss of life is acceptable on our streets and roadways.”
Originating in Sweden in 1997, that country’s incorporation of the Vision Zero framework into roadway planning and...
Visit our homepage and take this week's poll, which discusses results from a survey regarding work-zone traffic incidents.
As auto accidents and fatalities increase on America’s roads, 12 states have taken legislative action this year to further combat distracted driving.
According to an analysis by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), nine states have enacted laws and three states have...
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has launched a pilot project to better prevent wrong-way crashes.
Several roads in Sacramento and San Diego have been designated for the two-year test program. Caltrans uploaded a video to YouTube explaining their high-tech wrong-way driver...
Image: Idaho Transportation Department
According to the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD), though crews are working to remove around 25 derailed rail cars from U.S. 95 about 10 miles north of Athol, both southbound lanes will remain closed for approximately two weeks.
Two-way traffic has been moved to the northbound lanes. ITD...
Visit our homepage and take this week's poll question, which discusses implementing intelligent work-zone safety features on construction projects.
Image source: KTVH-TV
New data from the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) shows traffic fatalities and serious injuries are declining on Montana roads. So far this year, there have been 36 traffic-related deaths compared to 52 at the same time last year.
In 2014, MDT launched Vision Zero, its mission to bring...
The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) has started another round of safety improvements on Rte. 130, the road dubbed the state’s most dangerous.
Rte. 130 has been repeatedly singled out by pedestrian-safety groups because of a high number of fatalities over the last few years.
...
Image source: West Central Tribune (Willmar, Minn.)
Two local landowners have teamed up with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) in District 8 to improve safety on the notorious stretch of Highway 67 west of Granite Falls by building a permanent snow fence.
The landowners and MnDOT have installed a 1,500-ft fence, or approximately ¼...
New data released by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has highlighted a troubling trend on state roads.
There were 25,713 crashes in work zones last year that resulted in 181 deaths, representing a 27% spike in fatal work-zone crashes from 2015—a stark increase that TxDOT officials...
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) is rolling out a fleet of “talking” buses to serve the state’s communities.
The new technology allows the buses to alert pedestrians and motorists with an automated announcement through a “Safe Turn Alert” system that voices messages such as “...
A double strip configuration was tested at the MnROAD facility in Albertville, Minn.
The Sinusoidal (Sine) Rumble Strip Design Optimization Study presents results of sound-level monitoring of four types of centerline rumble strips installed along Trunk Highway (TH) 18 in Mille Lacs and Aitken counties in Minnesota.
This study follows an extensive study completed in 2015 that...
In the city of Columbia, Mo., public works members have been working to address traffic issues on many of its streets—most recently Stewart Road, which is one of 64 streets on the city’s neighborhood traffic management program list.
The program started in November 2013, and the list started with...
Pedestrian distractions, notably from smart phones and other portable devices, continue to contribute to traffic and roadway incidents. There is, however, one small town in the Netherlands that is trying a unique approach to calling attention to the need for keeping one’s eyes on the road.
...
Image source: ADOT
Sensors installed at three Interstate 40 locations west of Flagstaff are helping the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) forecast the likelihood of ice forming and respond accordingly.
The combination of freezing temperatures and moisture means ice can form overnight in Arizona’s high...
The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) has received $2.5 million in funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s Work Zone Safety Grant Program. This grant includes opportunities for more than 300 work-zone safety training courses to be held in classrooms across the U.S. over...
Photo source: Georgia DOT
The Georgia Department of Transportation’s (GDOT) new Coordinated Highway Assistance & Maintenance Program (CHAMP) begins its phased launch today in Northeast Georgia, with plans to roll out the service to five other districts in the state by this May.
CHAMP will serve most interstates across...
