The terms chosen to describe upcoming road work often misrepresent the actual projects, ascribing a positive or negative bias that affects how political leaders interpret and underwrite them. The DOT Decoder is the perfect gift for decoding three common terms used by departments of transportation and their engineers.
Read More"Be the change you want to see in the world." It’s a slogan many aspire to live by, including Professor Gingrich of Dordt University in Iowa. He’s doing just that this year, bringing his students to the forefront of the evolving traffic engineering field by training them in crash analysis and safe street design.
Read MoreThe traffic engineering profession has three responses to fatal crashes: blame the driver, call for more engineering or conclude it was an accident that couldn't be prevented. These are understandable human reactions. Here's why they're also inadequate and what should be done instead.
Read MoreCity engineers rely on faulty logic and misrepresentations to maintain the status quo. This was made blatantly clear in a recent letter from the City Engineers Association of Minnesota (CEAM) — and it’s why a growing number of engineers are breaking from the party line to support reform. Here are CEAM’s top four arguments against parking reform and why they’re wrong.
Read MoreTraffic calming interventions are best when they not only make the environment safer for everyone outside of a car, but when they do so in a way that reduces the mental load for drivers.
Read MoreIf cities cared about traffic deaths, we would witness them taking an urgent response to crashes, and we would see city halls tracking traffic deaths in real time, because a new fatal crash would mobilize people.
Read MoreTraffic studies read like dry, technocratic products that follow some scientific process. In reality, they often use selective data and unrealistic projections to promote road projects with the veneer of technical expertise.
Read MoreFor the first time since 2009, the Federal Highway Administration has filed an updated version of its Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). But how effective will it actually be in making streets safer?
Read MoreWe ran an article and a podcast about speed cameras, and got some thought-provoking responses in return from readers and listeners. Here’s one in particular that grabbed our attention.
Read MoreOn this week’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, host Chuck Marohn responds to some of the commonly cited arguments in favors of speed cameras.
Read MoreSpeed cameras are not even part of a solution to street safety. They are a dead end.
Read MoreAt least 100 cars crash into buildings every day, and research suggests the death and injury toll of vehicle-in-building crashes is in the thousands. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
Read MoreRoundabouts are great, but completely replacing an intersection with a roundabout is an enormous project—and not the first one cities should jump to when taking the next smallest step to address traffic safety concerns.
Read MoreThe police department in Oakboro, North Carolina, has been asked to address drivers misusing a left-turn lane—but this is not a policing issue, and no level of enforcement can correct it. Instead, let’s look at the street’s design.
Read MoreIllegal driving, reckless driving, and unsafe driving are three different things. Most drivers don’t intuit the difference, but our system and our traffic engineers should if they want to help prevent deadly outcomes.
Read MoreA destroyed roadside sign in Mattapoisett, MA, highlights the dangers of the street it formerly stood on.
Read MoreJersey City made headlines in 2022 when it accomplished what Vision Zero advocates have been championing for years: zero traffic deaths on city streets. Here are some lessons other communities can take from their efforts.
Read MoreTxDOT’s inertia in response to this series of crashes in Killeen, TX, exhibits just how narrowly transportation agencies view their commitment to road safety.
Read MoreMassDOT has proposed an expensive plan to reduce congestion in Fairhaven, MA…by causing congestion?
Read MoreAs traditional highway expansions are put on pause around the country, professionals and policymakers have an opportunity to move forward with a better approach. This book shows them how.
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