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FHWA Home / OIPD / Accelerating Innovation / Every Day Counts / EDC News: July 29, 2021

EDC News

July 29, 2021

Innovation of the Month:
Focus on Reducing Rural Roadway Departures

Throughout the month of July, we’ve highlighted agencies and organizations that have adopted the FHWA Focus on Reducing Rural Roadway Departures (FoRRRwD) approach and are finding success. This week, we want to celebrate the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Centers who train and support local practitioners implementing the four pillars of FoRRRwD.

The LTAPs form a network of 51 centers that provide training, technical assistance, and technology transfer services to local and rural road agencies. The LTAP Centers provide a variety of services to improve safety on all public roads.

The Indiana LTAP Center helps local agencies assess data and identify risk factors that can be used to develop Local Road Safety Plans (LRSPs), which are one type of Safety Action Plan. The LTAP found that many local agencies have useful data they may not realize is pertinent, like asset management data and maintenance logs. The Indiana LTAP assists in making crash tree diagrams, and creating heat maps for the systemic approach.

The Alabama Transportation Assistance Program (ATAP) also provides local agencies technical assistance, including crash data analysis using the Critical Analysis Reporting Environment (CARE), a software package designed to help identify problem areas on roadways. ATAP has used this data to assist 10 counties currently developing LRSPs. ATAP also developed a series of safety videos that includes one on reducing rural roadway departures.

Turn and chevron signs on Fox Run Road in Dover Township.
Newly installed turn and chevron signs on Fox Run Road in Dover Township (Credit: PennDOT LTAP)

The Pennsylvania LTAP is helping local agencies address their most common crash type, hit-fixed-object crashes due to roadway departures. Most of those crashes happen on curves. The LTAP is also helping local agencies address curve signing requirements in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) through training, outreach, and technical assistance.

In June, the Ohio LTAP conducted a four-part webinar series on systemically implementing FoRRRwD countermeasures. They also provide eLearning modules on applying for Township Safety Signage Grants that are available to Ohio locals.

Other LTAPs across the country are also helping local agencies in their State so FoRRRwD is addressed on all public roads. They are using the systemic approach and safety action plans to deploy proven countermeasures that will reduce rural roadway departures and save lives in their communities. You can also find training and other relevant resources at the FHWA Center for Local Aid Support and the National Center for Rural Road Safety.

Contact Cate Satterfield of the FHWA Office of Safety or Dick Albin of the FHWA Resource Center for information and technical assistance.

EDC Safety Summit Series- Registration Now Open

Safety innovations have been a cornerstone of the EDC program since 2011, resulting in their rapid deployment and institutionalization, and the upcoming EDC Safety Summit Series will build on that momentum.

September calendar with each Wednesday highlighted. At right, text reading, 'Register Now! Every Day Counts Safety Summit Series. Every Wednesday in September 10 am to 2 pm, Eastern time.'

The summit series, scheduled for each Wednesday during September, will highlight seven safety innovations and share how they can save lives. The series will benefit those who are just beginning to implement these innovations, those who are further along and could gain from peer-to-peer engagement, and those with innovation stories to share. It will include opportunities to discuss hot topics with peers and establish relationships that can boost success now and in the future.

Each day of the summit will kick off with FHWA leadership perspectives with opportunities for questions and answers, followed by interactive State and local presentations and a topic-based breakout session, as well as a local innovation safety showcase.

Register here for the summit, which will take place from 10 am to 2 pm ET each day and is open to all State, local, and tribal stakeholders. Participants can join for one or all five Wednesdays. Contact Karen King, FHWA Virginia Division, for additional information.

Sept. 1: Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian (STEP)
Sept. 8: Data-Driven Safety Analysis (DDSA)
Sept. 15: SafetyEdgeSM, Reducing Rural Roadway Departures (FoRRRwD),
High Friction Surface Treatment
Sept. 22: Intersection/Interchange Geometrics
Sept. 29: Road Diets

Iowa DOT e-Ticketing pilot using Visual Data, an alternative to GPS/GNSS tracking

The integration and use of Global Positioning System/Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS/GNSS) tracking of delivery vehicles for e-Ticketing technologies has been challenging due to connectivity issues, hardware installation and maintenance, date transfer and ownership, privacy laws, and the integration of third-party haulers.

Two years ago, Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) met with their e-Ticketing vendors and Construction Management System (CMS) stakeholders to brainstorm alternatives. Enter visual data! Using cameras at the plant and on equipment at the site, software captures, records, and tracks each delivery using license plates, beacons, tags, or similar predetermined markers or identifiers.

In 2020 the Iowa DOT began piloting this new delivery tracking technology using visual data instead of GPS/GNSS in combination with their e-Ticketing solution and are embarking on stage 2 of the pilot this summer. Goals for the pilots include:

  • Repeatable, reliable, real-time data flow from the e-Ticketing solution directly into the stateDOT’s CMS
  • Provide proof of delivery at the job site
  • A single user interface
  • Reassignment of ticket-taker crew member to critical work
  • Safety of all workers in the work zone

By combining 2 different technologies and efforts, the visual data vendor and e-Ticketing vendor were able to integrate their features to provide IOWA DOT with a viable solution that uses a single mobile application. The inspection and contractor staff view and comment on all e-Ticket details including the visual data and make decisions, in real-time, via their mobile devices. In addition, the solution provides contractors with fleet management, cycle timing, and data analytics. For more information about this technology, please contact Kathryn Weisner with the FHWA Resource Center.

Discover Home-Grown Innovations from Around the Country

Home Grown Innovations Logo

Are you interested in homegrown innovations being used by your peers in other parts of the country? Check out the National STIC Network Showcase, a component of the EDC-6 Virtual Summit. This site features a convenient one-time registration that will allow you to continue accessing information throughout 2021.

The showcase prominently features several innovations focused on wrong-way driving and detection. Learn about the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority's wrong-way driver pilot project, which resulted in 81 wrong-way drivers correcting their direction since 2019; Florida DOT's wrong-way driving initiative, which included multiple studies, implementation plans, pilot projects, and countermeasure plans, and Arizona DOT's I-17 wrong-way vehicle detection pilot project, which resulted in a threefold increase in wrong-way vehicle detections compared with traditional means, increased response time, and saw 88 percent of wrong-way drivers self-correct on an exit ramp.

Celebrate the ingenuity of your peers and read about these innovations—developed and deployed in-house at transportation agencies nationwide. Additionally, we invite you to watch the one-hour presentations on-demand that feature many of these and other innovations.

About EDC

Every Day Counts, a State-based program of the Federal Highway Administration’s Center for Accelerating Innovation, works with State, local, and private sector partners to encourage the adoption of proven technologies and innovations to shorten and enhance project delivery.

Recommended Citation:
U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration
EDC News; July 29, 2021
Washington, DC
https://doi.org/10.21949/1521800

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Jeffrey A. Zaharewicz
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(202) 366-1325
Jeffrey.Zaharewicz@dot.gov


Page last modified on July 29, 2021
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000