Archives: December 2015
Personnel Updates for Dec. 4 to Dec. 17
December 30, 2015
Information provided by the Office of Employee Services.
Message Monday - Dec. 28, 2015 - Buckle up and smell the roses
December 28, 2015
The rose is a symbol of love and passion. This time of year people are passionate about lots of things. Whether your passion is sharing time with family and friends over the holidays or showing your loyalty by wearing black and gold and gathering with other Hawkeyes to watch the 102nd Rose Bowl Jan. 1, getting safely to your destination is the first priority.
The single most important safety feature in any vehicle is the seat belt. Taking three seconds to click the belt can mean the difference between life and death.
Stay connected and reach the ones you love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNnrkaQvOIw
The fatality count of 312 is an increase of seven from last Monday. To see statistics published daily by the Office of Driver Services, go tohttp://bit.ly/1QFbcyj.
GPS/AVL system upgrades improve reliability of data used to make snowfighting decisions
December 23, 2015
The Iowa Department of Transportation’s winter operations depend heavily on data to make decisions of when and how to treat roads. The agency’s snowplow trucks are equipped with sophisticated electronic sensors that measure everything from each vehicle’s engine performance to tracking what materials are being applied to the road.
For the past several years, the Iowa DOT has utilized data gathered from geographic positioning systems (GPS) and automatic vehicle location (AVL) information transmitted from each snowplow truck back to the garage via a cellular connection. This year, the Iowa DOT is upgrading the GPS/AVL system and changing the way data is transmitted from more than half of our 900 snowplow trucks. Updates to technology will turn 520 trucks in central, eastern, and southwest Iowa into Wi-Fi hotspots.
Message Monday - Dec. 21, 2015 - Only Reindeer Can Fly, Watch Your Speed
December 21, 2015
In order to reach roughly 2 billion children (discounting those on the naughty list) each Dec. 24, Santa’s sleigh has to travel really fast. Luckily speed limits don’t apply to nine reindeer pulling a sleigh driven by a rotund man in a red suit. The rest have speed limits in place to keep us all safer on the road.
If you have ever wondered how speed limits are set, here is your answer.
eTicketing show promise of speeding process and improving accuracy at asphalt job sites
December 17, 2015
It seems that most everything is going electronic these days, and for good reason. Going paperless can improve business operations and decrease the amount of resources needed to get the job done. In the highway construction industry, electronic lettings have been standard operating procedure for the Iowa Department of Transportation for years. More recently, the e-Construction process removed time-consuming paper shuffling right up to the point where the asphalt truck arrives at a job site to unload.
“That’s where we’ve hit a snag in the electronic process,” said Greg Mulder, director of the Iowa DOT’s Office of Construction and Materials. “Each truck driver still carries a paper load-out ticket that is collected by the Iowa DOT inspector on the jobsite and used to document the details of the delivery.”
Working with Manatts Inc.’s Ames office, Mulder and his staff recently piloted a “proof of concept” project and developed what they think could be the next step in a paperless, efficient process for documenting asphalt deliveries to highway construction projects.
Message Monday - Dec. 14, 2015 - The force is strong with you. Put the phone down. (and others)
December 14, 2015
‘Tis the season to have a million things going on at once. Being busy with holiday activities and other things (like maybe a weekend movie date night?), can turn you into a rebel who throws self-control out the window. We can hear the words of a certain Jedi Master who might say, “To the dark side you will go, if you focus not on the road.”
If you are able to use the force to focus on the road, there may be other creatures with attitude issues in vehicles around you. In the spirit of the season – let them win.
So the next time you hear this song, you’re going to put your phone down and drive calmly – right? https://youtu.be/-bzWSJG93P8
We had so many great suggestions for messages related to the upcoming big movie premier that we couldn’t settle on just one. We’re not going to do this regularly, but as you’re driving today, watch for a variety of messages related to distracted and aggressive driving.
As a side note, if you’re traveling, keep an eye out for other states that also use overhead boards to share valuable safety messages. This week, we’ve coordinated our messages with Utah, Arizona and Colorado.
The fatality count of 298 is an increase of six from last Monday. To see statistics published daily by the Office of Driver Services, go to http://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/stats/daily.pdf.
Personnel updates for Nov. 20 to Dec. 3, 2015
December 11, 2015
Information provided by the Office of Employee Services
Message Monday - Dec. 7, 2015 - Not buckled? I'm telling Santa
December 7, 2015
He’s making a list and checking it twice. He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. According to the latest Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau seat belt survey, 92.96 percent of drivers and front seat passengers in Iowa would find themselves on the nice list if wearing seat belts was Santa’s criteria.
While the percentage of folks buckling up is high, the number of people who die from injuries sustained in a crash because they didn’t wear a seat belt is alarming. Law enforcement data shows at least 93 of the 292 people who have died on Iowa’s highways were unbuckled. Iowa’s death toll could very likely decrease by one-third or more if people would simply buckle up.
Show your family that you care this holiday season. Take three seconds to buckle yourself safely into your vehicle. https://youtu.be/YgxXFbMMMD4
The fatality count of 292 is an increase of five from last Monday. To see statistics published daily by the Office of Driver Services, go to http://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/stats/daily.pdf.
When does four equal one?
December 3, 2015
Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, and Rock Island – these four cities (plus about a dozen other contiguous cities) make up one metro area that jumps the Mississippi River to cover parts of two states. Although each city is its own entity, the identity of the area is that of a cohesive metro. The population of the Quad Cities is balanced on both sides of the river as are the major employers. Getting back and forth over the river is a daily occurrence for both Iowa and Illinois residents. Keeping that traffic moving over the Mississippi River is a cooperative effort between the Iowa and Illinois departments of Transportation.
Standing corn program helps Urbana shop reduce clean-up time
December 1, 2015
If you drove around rural Iowa in August, you saw just how much corn we grow. Now that it’s December, can some of that corn increase motorist safety by reducing blowing and drifting snow?
In a cooperative effort with local farmers, the Iowa Department of Transportation’s maintenance forces seek out locations where leaving eight to 16 rows of corn standing in a field work to reduce the amount of blowing and drifting snow on the adjacent road.