Multidisciplinary safety groups work to improve safety
CARS reduced crashes of over-height vehicles by 50 percent at this low-clearance railroad bridge in Scott County. They installed warning signs, an early detection system, and re-routed vehicles that wouldn't fit under the bridge.
CARS added dynamic message signs to warn approaching motorists of delays due to crashes on the I-74 bridge.
One-tenth mile markers help motorists identify their location in case of a crash.
CARS implemented a policy about applying reflective orange (not yellow) tape to an abandoned vehicle to signal it's being taken care of. This reduces a significant number of duplicate calls, especially in winter.
TSIP helps multidisciplinary
safety teams
In 2004, the Traffic Safety Improvement Program (TSIP) provided $50,000 to the Iowa Highway Safety Management System (SMS) to support Iowa multidisciplinary safety teams. Groups could apply to SMS for up to $10,000.
CARS received money for traffic counters, orange tape, HEAT
signs, Scott County Routing Manual and safety training sessions.
To thoroughly examine the "what ifs" of traffic and pedestrian safety issues, you need to get diverse points of view. That's the purpose of multidisciplinary safety teams (MDST) like the one in Scott County and the Quad Cities.
This team brings together professionals in traffic and transportation engineering, law enforcement, emergency services, fire pre-vention, Iowa DOT, Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB), and the FHWA.
Background
The Scott County-Quad Cities Community Awareness of Roadway Safety (CARS) team was formed in 1991 with assistance and guidance from GTSB and the Bi-State Regional Commission.
The group's focus is to identify traffic safety concerns and work together to solve or reduce traffic safety-related problems in the Quad Cities and Scott County. CARS strives to bring everyone to the table.
Team members meet once a month to discuss local safety concerns.
CARS' success stories
One of CARS' major accomplishments is creating a system for identifying when an agency is taking care of an abandoned vehicle:
- After an agency receives a call about an abandoned vehicle parked on the side of the road, an officer attaches reflective orange (not yellow) tape to the vehicle to signal to other motorists that it's being taken care of.
- The system has reduced unnecessary calls to agencies by 90 percent.
CARS also improved safety of motorists on the I-74 bridge (the highest river cross-ing in Iowa with an average daily traffic of 78,000):
- By installing mile markers every one-tenth of a mile in both Iowa and Illinois on I-74, they helped motorists identify their exact locations after a crash.
- CARS worked to give local law enforcement agencies the ability to activate dynamic message signs around the Quad Cities to warn motorists of crash-related delays on the bridge.
A low-clearance railroad bridge was a frequent crash site for trucks, but CARS found solutions to reduce these unneces-sary crashes by installing an early detection system for over-height vehicles. Their work reduced crashes by 50 percent.
CARS also developed the Scott County traffic routing manual. The manual is kept in all the squad cars so law enforcement can find out how traffic is supposed to be routed for any incident.
Other activities
Other CARS activities include
- developing the Highway Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a county-wide program to reduce traffic speeds along a particular corridor,
- conducting a speed study for smaller communities such as US 67 near LeClair, and
- conducting training sessions for incident management and emergency response for executives and first responders.
"It's challenging to bring everyone to the table, but any given safety issue is better solved when everyone's providing their special expertise," says Lalit Patel, CARS backup chairperson and transportation/ traffic engineer with the Bi-State Regional Commission. "The hard part is seeing the issue from someone else's perspective and working toward a solution everyone's satisfied with. But it's worth it."
For more information
For more information about MDSTs, contact Wendie Nerem, Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau, 515-281-5430. For information about CARS, contact Lalit Patel, 309-793-6203 ext. 129, lpatel@bistateonline.org.
Resources for MDSTs are in the peer exchange report on the Iowa Safety Management System website: www.iowasms.org/pdfs/smspeerreport.pdf.
Other MDSTs in Iowa
Clinton
Chandra Ravada
East Central Intergovernmental Association
Dubuque, IA
Ph. 563.556.4166 ext. 30
CRavada@ecia.org
Council Bluffs - Swift
William Christian
Omaha, Nebraska
Ph. 402.444.6866
Fax. 402.342.0949
wchristian@mapacog.org
Des Moines Area TMAC
(Traffic Management Advisory Committee)
Greg Mulder, P.E.
Iowa DOT
Des Moines, IA
Ph. 515.237.3317
Fax. 515.817.6657
Dubuque County
Chandra Ravada
East Central Intergovernmental Association
Dubuque, IA
Ph. 563.556.4166 ext. 30
CRavada@ecia.org
Sioux City
Roxanne Seward
Iowa DOT
Sioux City, IA 51102-0987
Ph. 712.2763.1451