Archives: February 2024
Roadside Chat - Gambling with safety means betting your life
February 23, 2024
Odds are you sometimes take risks when you’re behind the wheel. Some of the risky behaviors, like reading a quick text, going just a little over the speed limit, or not buckling up in the back seat, are so common you may not consider them to be dangerous.
While you may not have been in a crash yet, decades of research related to traffic crashes, injuries, and deaths, indicate that these behaviors are risky. Combining these behaviors, like speeding and texting at the same time, greatly increases the risk.
Personnel updates for Feb. 2 to Feb. 15, 2024
February 22, 2024
Information supplied by the Business Systems Bureau
Modern equipment requires modern testing methods
February 19, 2024
Getting behind the wheel of your vehicle today, you’re likely to have many additional safety features that didn’t exist even just a few years ago. This technology is also making its way into commercial vehicles that share our roads.
Updated technology is changing the training and driving skills required of commercial drivers. These updates are in turn changing the way we test the skills of the men and women behind the wheel of large commercial trucks.
Roadside Chat - Cruise at a safe speed or risk a shipwreck
February 16, 2024
What type of “cruiser” are you? Are you more of a pontoon captain behind the wheel who goes with the flow of the others on the road, or do you treat your vehicle like a speed boat, weaving in and out of traffic and disrupting traffic flow?
For some, it’s a matter of perspective and what you consider a “safe speed?” If the conditions are dry, visibility is clear, and there isn’t a lot of traffic, the speed limit posted on signs in the area is what has been determined as a safe speed.
Personnel updates for Jan. 19 to Feb. 1, 2024
February 9, 2024
Information supplied by the Business Systems Bureau
Roadside Chat - What's more relevant than driving sober?
February 9, 2024
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “relevant” means having a significant and demonstratable bearing on the matter at hand.
By that definition, where the “matter at hand” is making it to your destination safely, driving sober is one of the most relevant things each of us can do. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 13,384 people died in drunk driving crashes in 2021 (the last year where complete data is available). That’s one person every 39 minutes and a 14 percent increase in deaths from 2020.
Roadside Chat - Click-Drive-Repeat
February 2, 2024
Whoops he did it again. Punxsutawney Phil, perhaps the most famous rodent in North America today, didn't see his shadow. That means we’re in for an early spring.
Every year the fine folks in Pennsylvania repeat this ritual. But whether we’re in for more winter weather or an early spring, one thing is worth repeating every time you get into a vehicle – buckling your seat belt.
Using data to visualize construction projects in a new way
February 2, 2024
Everywhere you look these days data is being collected. Whether it’s to enhance your shopping experience or develop new products the strategic collection and connection of data has the power to improve our lives.
At the Iowa DOT, we are continuously collecting data on the construction and maintenance projects we work on every day. This mountain of data is simply a bunch of images, documents, and numbers if it can’t be connected in a meaningful way.