Transportation Matters for Iowa

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July 16, 2021

Imagine you are sitting at a stop sign on a one-way road when all of a sudden another vehicle, like the pickup in the photo, turns beside you and is headed the wrong way down the road. You are likely flooded with emotions like panic, worry, and fear for the safety of that driver and anyone who might be traveling on the road behind you. It turns out that drivers get confused and go the wrong direction down Iowa highways quite often. While most wrong-way drivers realize their mistakes and turn around before anything bad happens, each year there are dozens of wrong-way drivers who cause crashes, injuries, or even death for themselves or others on the road.

Roadside Chat - Nap in a hammock, not in driver's seat

July 16, 2021

Those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are here! The longer, sunnier days provide lots of light to get things done. But if you’re trying to cram too much in each day, you could end up drowsy by the time you head back home.

You might not think that getting behind the wheel when you’re drowsy is a big deal but consider this, the Sleep Foundation notes: “Drowsy driving is dangerous even if a person doesn’t actually fall asleep. Research shows that sleep deprivation leads to mental impairment that is similar to drunkenness with 24 hours of sleep deprivation roughly equating to a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.10%.”

Roadside Chat - Fun fact: seat belts save lives

July 9, 2021

Even though data from the 2020 Iowa Seat Belt Use Survey shows that 95.2 percent of Iowa front seat passengers buckle up, there are still people who come up with every excuse in the book not to wear a seat belt. These excuses can be deadly since nearly half of those people killed on Iowa’s roadways might have survived if they had put their excuses on the shelf and buckled their belts.

Breaking barriers and building careers

July 6, 2021

Girls don’t work in transportation fields. Or at least that was an unspoken sentiment for decades in what had always been a male-dominated industry. Slowly but surely the landscape is changing to be more inclusive and several Iowa Department of Transportation employees are helping lead the change through Iowa’s award-winning WTS International (formerly known as Women’s Transportation Seminar) chapter.