FHWA 37-01
Thursday, November 8, 2001
Contact: TaMara McCrae
Telephone: 202-366-0660
Federal
Highway Administrator Mary E. Peters today announced the winners of the 2001
National Highway Safety Awards. The
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Roadway Safety Foundation (RSF)
sponsored the awards.
“President
Bush is committed to making America’s transportation system as safe as
possible,” Peters said. “These
project winners provide excellent examples of the continuous progress our nation
is making in improving safety on our roads, from planning and research, to
physical improvements, to enhanced operation and maintenance.”
The
2001 National Highway Safety Award recipients come from 11 states: Alabama,
Delaware, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Nebraska,
Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri. They include state departments of transportation, a
governor’s highway safety program and a state police agency.
FHWA and RSF received 60 entries. A
panel of judges with expertise in safety selected the winners.
Started
in 1987, these biennial awards recognize innovation, effectiveness, and
efficient use of resources to improve highway safety. The awards were given in three categories:
·
Safety Improvements. Physical
improvements to the highway or roadside.
·
Operational Improvements. Activities, other than physical improvements, that contribute
to the safe operation and maintenance of the highway facility.
·
Program Planning, Development and Evaluation.
Processes and activities addressing the safety needs of spot locations,
corridors, and/or communities.
The
following is a list of the award recipients:
Optimal
Continuous Shoulder Rumble Strips (Safety Improvements), Virginia
After
experimenting with Continuous Shoulder Rumble Strips (CSRS) from 1997-2000, the
Virginia DOT concluded that milled CSRS are one of the most effective measures
for improving highway safety. CSRS
helped Virginia reduce run-off the road crashes by 51.5 percent.
Contact:
Ilona O. Kastenhofer, telephone 804-786-2965
PENNDOT
Tailgating Treatment (Safety Improvements), Pennsylvania
Aggressive
driving and tailgating has dropped 60 percent in an area equipped with
Pennsylvania DOT’s “Dot” Tailgating Treatment.
PENNDOT partnered with the police in a corridor on US 11 in South Centre
Township, Columbia County, Pennsylvania with high rates of aggressive driving
collisions. The “Dot”
Tailgating Treatment is an effective highway safety countermeasure for assisting
motorists to establish a safe following distance.
PENNDOT provided “dot” pavement markings and signs warning drivers to
avoid tailgating and leave two “dots” or two seconds between themselves and
the driver ahead of them.
Contact:
Michael Hess, telephone 570-368-4344
Centerline
Rumble Strips (Safety Improvements), Delaware
The
Delaware DOT installed centerline rumble strips along US Route 301 after
experiencing a high fatality rate from head-on collisions.
Ongoing monitoring of the project has resulted in a documented 90 percent
decrease in the head-on collision rate and a reduction to zero fatalities along
this section of roadway since the project’s completion more than six years
ago. Delaware achieved these
results despite a 30 percent increase in traffic during the study period.
Contact:
Randall Grunden, telephone 302-760-2145
Midwest
States Smart Work Zone Deployment Initiative (Operational Improvements), Iowa,
Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska
The
Midwest States Smart Work Zone Deployment Initiative deployed and evaluated 26
work zone technologies to determine their impact on the safety and efficiency of
traffic operations. This
public-private partnership includes the state DOTs of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and
Nebraska; the university transportation faculty in each state; FHWA; and the
Mid-America Transportation Center.
Contact:
Kathy Glenn, telephone 402-472-6363
Fast
Track Hazard Elimination Safety Program (Operational Improvements), Alabama
Alabama
DOT’s Fast Track Hazard Elimination Safety Program (HES) is designed to reduce
crashes, injuries and fatalities by 20 percent during the next 10 years.
The Department’s nine divisions received $19 million for prioritized
safety projects that could be implemented immediately.
ALDOT also partnered with local governments to identify low-cost safety
improvements. Fast Track increased
safety project development by 58 percent in 2000.
Contact:
Waymon Benifield, telephone 334-242-6128
Road
Test of the Road Safety Audit Process (Operational Improvements), Pennsylvania
PENNDOT’s
Road Test of the Road Safety Audit Process produced a detailed evaluation of the
process including benefits, costs, challenges, and lessons learned. Safety improvements beyond current standards were added to
construction projects for elderly drivers, bicyclists, emergency vehicles,
buses, trucks and pedestrians without delaying projects and at a fraction of the
cost of adding them later.
Contact:
ITE Road Safety Audit at www.roadwaysafetyaudits.org
or
Timothy
Pieples, PENNDOT, telephone 724-357-2819
Collision
Report Analysis for Safer Highways (Program Planning, Development and
Evaluation), Kentucky
The
Collision Report Analysis for Safer Highways (CRASH) system developed by the
Kentucky State Police improves the analysis of traffic collision data for
Kentucky. The new system was
designed for timely and accurate gathering of traffic collision data.
Traffic collision information can be submitted electronically or by using
color-coded paper reports. The
electronic traffic collision report is free to any law enforcement agency in
Kentucky.
Contact:
Sgt. John Carrico, telephone 502-227-8700
Intersection
Safety Improvement Priority Program (Program Planning, Development and
Evaluation), Washington
The
Intersection Safety Improvement Priority Program enables Washington DOT to
analyze the need for left and/or right turn lanes at intersections and to
prioritize improvements based on expected benefits.
The installation of a left or right turn lane will generally show a
significant decrease in intersection related accidents.
This innovative program provides practitioners an Internet database with
intersection traffic volumes, crashes and delay information to develop a
priority list of projects.
Contact:
Larry Larson, telephone 509-324-6205
Work
Zone Safety for Roadway Maintenance Operations (Program Planning, Development
and Evaluation), New Jersey
This
interactive multimedia training system for work zone safety allows trainees to
use web-based training modules to learn work zone safety regulations and “best
practices” at their own pace. Their
knowledge is tested through an on-line evaluation and testing system.
Trainees experiment with work zone setups for different roadway
conditions, traffic volumes and speeds. The
computer evaluates, proposes setups, gives the trainee feedback and recommends
further study as needed.
Contact:
Claudia Knezek, telephone 732-445-3632
