Our vehicles continue to get smarter and safer. From seat belts to anti-lock brakes to safety glass and crumple zones, vehicles have never provided better protection. But technology can only do so much. The decisions you make when you’re behind the wheel can make all the difference between life and death in a crash.
Information supplied by the Bureau of Budget and Business Systems
With 68 games in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA estimates your chances of completing a perfect bracket are about 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 – that’s if you just guess or flip a coin for each game with no other knowledge of basketball.
Your odds of winning are better if you have more knowledge of the teams, their histories and the sport itself. That philosophy isn’t different for driving. If you know your own habits, the way your vehicle operates, and the rules of the road, your chances of survival increase dramatically.
With the start of daylight savings time, many of us “lose” an hour of sleep. Can that impact the way you drive? Getting accurate data on the number of people injured or killed in drowsy-driving crashes is not possible, yet we know the problem exists from people self-reporting drowsiness as an issue in some crashes.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sleepiness can result in crashes any time of the day or night, but three factors are most commonly associated with drowsy-driving crashes.
Information supplied by the Bureau of Budget and Business Systems
No one agency has all the answers. The Iowa Department of Transportation has a long history of collaborating with other states and national organizations to explore options to make Iowa’s transportation system the best in the country.
At the Iowa Department of Transportation, we want to hear what you think about roadway and bridge projects that might impact you, whether they are in the planning phase, under construction, or recently been constructed. To more easily gain this input, we’ve been using an online public meeting system for the past few years. Little did we know that tool would become invaluable in the age of COVID. Being able to work through the public input process in a safe, online information portal keeps the work we do for you moving along without a hitch, even in a global pandemic.
Fluctuations in temperatures this time of year can cause the air pressure in your tires to fluctuate, too. Why should you care? Proper tire inflation can not only improve your vehicle’s fuel efficiency, it can help prolong the life of your tires and reduce the risk of tire failure.
Information provided by the Budget and Business Systems Bureau
How well a transportation system functions can depend on whether or not the system designers and users are on the same page. Take the left lane of a divided highway. Over the decades, road designers’ premise has been that the right lane is to be used for general traffic and the left lane is to be used for passing.
When a driver stays in the left lane and travels slower than the pace of traffic, the way the system flows can be disrupted, sometimes leading to frustration from the other drivers on the road.
