August 18, 2016
Innovation of the Month: Road Diets
Transportation professionals are taking advantage of opportunities to learn how road diets can improve safety while enhancing mobility for all road users.
The Western Region Road Diet Peer Exchange, for example, drew participants from Arizona, California, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington. Participants discussed road diet benefits, guidance and challenges. Each of these states is working toward making road diets a standard practice to improve safety and relieve congestion.
The Federal Highway Administration offers free technical assistance and training on road diets. Contact Becky Crowe of the FHWA Office of Safety and Keith Harrison of the FHWA Resource Center for help with the following:
- Organizing a road diet workshop
- Reviewing draft road diet policy or guidance documents
- Providing design guidance on unusual road diet configurations
- Developing road diet presentations aimed at leaders or the general public
- Providing guidance on road diet implementation, including location selection, capacity constraints, public outreach, evaluation metrics, costs and funding
Traffic Incident Management Training Reaches Milestone
The 200,000th emergency responder has completed FHWA’s traffic incident management responder training course on techniques to clear highway incidents safely and quickly. The life-saving training is part of a national effort to improve the safety of first responders and others on crash scenes. The trained responders represent all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. “This training is vital to the men and women who arrive at the scene of a highway crash who often risk their own lives bringing safety and care to others,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in announcing the milestone.
Deputy Federal Highway Administrator David Kim leads an August 10 ceremony marking the training of 200,000 first responders in traffic incident management.
Florida Demonstrates Data Collection Tool
The Florida Department of Transportation, Florida International University and FHWA collaborated on a demonstration of the Safe Accessible Pedestrian Facilities Inventory Model. The geographic information system-based, handheld tool allows fast, convenient collection of data on pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks to assess safety and accessibility. The Florida DOT received State Transportation Innovation Council Incentive program funds to develop and test the system. The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization will work with local agencies to test the tool in Broward County.
FHWA intern Jaelyn Williams participates in a demonstration of the Safe Accessible Pedestrian Facilities Inventory Model.
FHWA and National Weather Service Plan Pathfinder Strategy
FHWA and National Weather Service staff plan to meet today to discuss a strategy for implementing Pathfinder in the EDC fourth round. The objective of Pathfinder, a surface transportation weather collaboration project, is to strengthen the working relationship between state transportation departments and the National Weather Service to ensure that the public receives consistent messages on adverse weather that affects roadway safety and mobility. Pathfinder is part of the EDC-4 effort on road—weather management—weather-savvy roads.
