Statistics from 2000 and 2008 indicate that motorcycle fatalities increased by 83 percent. During the same time period, the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by motorcycles increased by only 38 percent. Is this a deadly trend, or are the VMT numbers valid?

“The numbers we’re counting don’t reflect the rise in crashes, injuries and fatalities,” notes Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Research Engineer Dan Middleton. “Are we counting motorcycles well enough? The answer is no.”

NCHRP Project 08-81, Improving the Quality of Motorcycle Travel Data Collection, tasked Middleton with reviewing current traffic detection methods, investigating new technologies and reporting on which count motorcycles the best.

“Motorcycle fatalities are increasing on our roadways, but data haven’t shown much change in VMT for several years,” explains Christopher Hedges, NCHRP senior program officer. “That gives us a perception — one that is quite likely erroneous — that higher fatalities are resulting from some characteristics of the rider, the road or the motorcycle itself.”

Current detection technologies are divided into two categories: intrusive and non-intrusive. Intrusive detectors, like piezoelectric cables, require some modification of the pavement. Non-intrusive detectors, like passive infrared systems, are mounted above or beside the roadway.

Which ones work best? According to Middleton, piezoelectric cables work fine (particularly when brand new), but they require lane closures for installation and maintenance. Also, many agencies install sensors covering only half the lane width, allowing motorcycles to be missed. Preliminary results from recent tests on passive infrared systems in Florida indicate that infrared sensors distinguish motorcycles from cars and count the former correctly.

The methodology used to count motorcycles is also at issue. For example, consider the two distinct rider groups: commuters and recreational riders. Each group has a distinct riding pattern. Count locations for recreational riders are probably different from those for commuters.

“If you want to get a representative sample, you can’t just count urban areas. Commuters ride on weekdays, but recreational riders ride on weekends and holidays, and often on back roads,” Middleton says.

Middleton is using motorcycle crash reports to determine whether crash locations are good identifiers of count sites. Preliminary evidence from two states indicates that this method will work.

“Crashes happen where motorcycles travel. We used data to create a map that shows both motorcycle crash locations and motorcycle counts along all roadways. We haven’t found anything else that predicts where to count in these rural areas,” Middleton says.

The project couldn’t have come at a better time since states are now required to report motorcycle travel to the federal Highway Performance Monitoring System.

“Until we have a good understanding of true motorcycle volumes, we won’t have a good measure of exposure rates — the number of crashes and fatalities as a factor of actual motorcycle miles traveled,” Hedges says. “Without that kind of knowledge, it’s impossible to develop safety programs that address real needs and the right risk factors. This project has the potential to make a real difference in our understanding of motorcycle safety.”

An 18-wheeler crashes into a concrete barrier at TTI’s Proving Grounds. For the first time, the test was streamed live via the Internet for clients across the country.

Providing live streaming crash tests was the brainchild of Dean Alberson, assistant agency director and manager of the TTI Crashworthy Structures Program, who began looking into the possibility more than a year ago.

“Having clients able to view their crash test live at our facility from back in their home office as it happens seemed like a logical next step for us,” Alberson says. “First of all, it would save them the expense of traveling. And there have been times when a crash test had to be postponed because of weather or other conditions. In those cases, the client wasted a trip here.”

The National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) crash test involved an 18-wheeler traveling at 50 miles-per-hour and crashing at a 15-degree angle into a concrete barrier that was placed on top of a retaining wall.

“There were 176 computers that viewed the crash test,” Brad Hoover, TTI chief information officer, says. “We’re not sure how many people viewed, but it is clear that this initial live crash test was a popular event among NCHRP panel members.”

Based on the success of this first live-streaming crash test, TTI might offer it to other clients in the future. As for the crash test itself, it had two objectives according to TTI Roadside Safety Program Manager Roger Bligh, who was the principal investigator on the project.

People view a retaining wall at TTI’s Proving Grounds after the 18-wheeler crash test.

“We wanted to determine how much force was transmitted in the underlying retaining wall so we can develop proper design guidelines for both the wall and the barrier system,” he says. “All indications are that the test went well, and the design of the wall and the barrier did their job.”

Co-principal investigator Jean-Louis Briaud, manager of TTI’s Geotechnical and Geoenviornmental Program, says numerous four-dimensional numerical simulations were performed on the retaining wall before the crash test was performed.

“Because of space limitations, more and more of these retaining walls — called mechanically stabilized earth walls — are being used for road construction in urban areas. It’s important that we know that they will hold up during a crash,” Briaud says.

“Every year, there are new parents, and we will continue to teach them,” says Kellner, the manager of the Passenger Safety project at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. “There are so many different kinds of car seats, and it’s very confusing to parents. With our National Seat Check Saturday events, we find kids either in no seat at all or in seats that are wrong for the child. Almost, without exception, every seat is improperly installed. It’s all very dangerous in the event of a crash.”

Car crashes are the leading cause of death for children. In 2009, more than 1,300 children aged 14 and younger died in motor vehicle crashes with nearly 180,000 injuries, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Also reported by NHTSA — child safety seats reduce child deaths by up to 71 percent for infants and toddlers.

It’s why Kellner and other certified child safety-seat technicians are taking part in the Saturday seat checks across the country as part of National Child Passenger Safety Week, Sept. 16–22. During her Bryan, Texas, seat check event at the Brazos Center Sept. 22, technicians will be available from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. providing one-on-one education to parents about the correct selection and installation of child safety seats. “If parents are unable to attend a seat check, they don’t have to wait until next year, and we don’t want them to,” Kellner says. “I urge them to contact a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician.” To find a technician closest to you, check out Buckleup.tamu.edu. The site lists hundreds of experts across the state.

Kellner points out that, in addition to properly restraining their children, parents should:

• Keep their child in a rear facing seat until the age of two, or until they reach 35 pounds.
• Keep their child in a 5-point harness system until they are ready for a booster seat.
• Use a booster seat after the child weighs 40 pounds and until the child is 4 foot 9 inches tall, which usually happens about age 11.
• Keep their child in the rear seat until age 13.

Coinciding with Child Passenger Safety Week, the Texas Department of Transportation began a public awareness campaign called “Save Me With A Seat” to call attention to proper child-seat installation and ensure Texas children are in the right seat for their weight and height.

Parents can find more information and view a video on proper child safety seats and their installation at www.bucklethemright.org.

Safety in work zones is no different. The biggest threat to work-zone safety occurs when motorists and workers come into conflict — when a car strays into a work-zone area, for example, putting all involved at risk.

Of course, the safest solution is to always use positive protection to separate motorists and workers while work is ongoing. But that’s not always possible in today’s economic environment. Cash-strapped states have to optimize how resources are spent on their transportation networks.

Though the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has had procedures in place for assessing the need for positive protection for years, those guidelines relied on specific assumptions about where intrusions might occur. The agency decided it needed more comprehensive guidelines, so a team led by Jerry Ullman, manager of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Work Zone and Dynamic Message Sign Program, conducted a project to develop the needed guidelines.

“I feel that our real contribution in this project lies in generalizing the potential location of the worker or equipment throughout a given work-zone area,” says Ullman. “This makes our model more realistic and, therefore, more accurate when applied to real-world situations.”

Researchers looked at the number of vehicles traveling in a corridor to estimate the probability that a motorist-worker conflict would occur. Using those data, Ullman and his team compared the cost of installing and maintaining traffic barriers with the societal costs associated with injuries and deaths resulting from crashes. From there, they came up with specific break-even recommendations for when Texas should introduce positive protection to work zones.

Put simply, the study showed that the closer the work area is to the travel lanes, the more justified positive protection is. That’s because there’s a higher probability, with a closer proximity of motorist to worker, for conflict to occur. As the distance between the travel lanes and the work-zone area increases, the cost benefit of installing protective barriers decreases at lower volumes.

Researchers also found that steel and mobile barriers can be cost-effective alternatives for short-duration mobile operations with workers on foot in high-volume, high-speed corridors. Truck-mounted attenuators were also found to be very cost effective, offsetting their costs in less than a year of use in most cases.

“Through this project, the researchers were able to determine when and under what conditions barrier protection is justified,” says Research Engineer Wade Odell of TxDOT’s Office of Research and Technology Implementation. “This is significant in that the contractor can provide motorists with proper protection in a work zone and still provide the protection cost effectively.”

Texas highways are safer now thanks to scores of projects completed in the last few years to add shoulders and width on more than 1,000 miles of rural, two-lane highways, according to an analysis by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI).

The review of 189 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) road projects around the state shows that wider pavements make highways safer and result in fewer crashes.

Recently, TxDOT asked TTI to analyze and review three years of pre- and post-improvement data on more than 1,000 miles of narrow two-lane highways that had been widened. The numbers show that on 1,159 miles of recently added highway shoulders, there were 133 fewer fatalities and 895 fewer injuries compared to prior to widening.

TTI has estimated that these projects could save up to 44 lives each year or 880 lives over 20 years, and prevent 298 injuries or 5,960 injuries, respectively.

“Safety is our top priority,” says TxDOT Executive Director Phil Wilson. “The agency’s roadway-widening initiative has been a tremendous success, for increasing safety on Texas highways, saving lives and potentially saving billions of dollars associated with fatal crashes and sustained injuries.”

In 2003, voters gave the Texas Transportation Commission the authority to issue $3 billion in bonds to pay for state highway improvements. The law stipulated that 20 percent of that amount must be used to fund projects that would reduce crashes or correct or improve hazardous locations on the state system. The Texas Legislature later increased the bonding authority to $6 billion. In 2004, TTI helped TxDOT identify locations across the state where the road-widening projects could yield the most significant crash reductions.

TTI is also analyzing recently completed projects — mostly from the 2009 safety bond initiative — but these projects reflect only one or two years of post-construction crash data. Still, as a result of completed widening projects from that bond initiative, fatalities were reduced by an average of five annually. The $29 million construction cost for those 37 projects — through the 20-year life of the project — could save an estimated $456.4 million from fewer fatalities and serious injuries.

Researchers expect to update their analysis once three years of crash data are available for the balance of safety improvement projects across the state.

“I am proud of the role I played in creating the Safety Bond Program, and I sincerely thank TxDOT and the people of Texas for making it happen,” says Sen. Steve Ogden.

TxDOT plans on expanding these efforts in the future in areas where widening improvements are needed.

Described as Motorcycling 101, The Course for Motorcycle Riders teaches both new and experienced riders how to safely operate a motorcycle. Riders seeking a motorcycle license in Texas are required to take The Course.

“I love motorcyclists, and I love motorcycling, but motorcyclists don’t necessarily love me,” Strickland told the crowd of more than 200 law-enforcement personnel, transportation researchers, policy makers, public health officials, traffic engineers and other safety professionals from around the state. “I will tell anybody: wear a helmet, wear the right clothing, and get yourself into a riding class. Because statistically speaking, you’re on two wheels, so you’re at a physical disadvantage. Why stack the odds against yourself even more?”

Strickland informed the group that motorcyclists also have a much higher rate of riding impaired when compared to passenger-vehicle drivers. And although Texas crash fatality rates have steadily decreased over the last several years, that’s not the case where motorcycles are concerned. “The fatality rate with motorcycles is really keeping Texas back in term of overall fatalities,” Strickland said.

“While we saw a decline in motorcycle deaths for the first time in over a decade in 2009, we must continue our efforts to promote sharing the road safely and watching out for motorcycles,” says Research Scientist Patricia Turner of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Center for Transportation Safety. “The most recent statistics show that motorcycle fatalities increased by 10 percent, from 435 in 2010 to 479 in 2011.”

An entire session of this year’s Traffic Safety Conference was dedicated to motorcycle safety. Speakers for the session included Turner and Jude Schexnyder, chair of the Texas Motorcycle Safety Coalition.

“Motorcyclists are 25 more times more likely than passengers in cars to be killed in an accident, and they are five times more likely to be injured,” TxDOT Deputy Executive Director John Barton said during his speech at the opening session of the conference.

Barton informed the crowd that he was involved in a crash with a motorcyclist in 1997. “I flat out did not see them,” he said, adding that motorcycle safety programs like Share the Road are necessary. “It’s important for all of us to remind each other that we have to pay attention and we have to take a second look.”

LookLearnLive.org

Created by TTI in 2009, the Look, Learn, Live motorcycle safety campaign was launched by the Texas Department of Transportation to address the rising number of motorcycle fatalities in the state. Visit http://looklearnlive.org or Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TexasMotorcycleSafety.

LookLearnLive.org promotes motorcycle safety through awareness and training for riders and motorists alike. Since its launch in 2009, the site has become a clearinghouse for all aspects of motorcycling including safety, legislation and riding events. Riders are also encouraged to visit the LookLearnLive.org Facebook page for timely announcements about riding safety.

“LookLearnLive.org is the go-to source for motorcycle safety in Texas,” says site administrator Michelle Hoelscher, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) communications specialist. “We’re reaching out to both motorcycle riders and motorists to say, ‘Be more aware of each other. It’s dangerous out there.’”

Besides informing visitors about safety statistics and best practices for maximizing safety (like looking left twice before entering an intersection), the site also promotes personal responsibility for riders through the “I Ride for Tomorrow” initiative. A form on the site asks bikers to accept personal responsibility for riding safely, legally and soberly.

Traffic congestion is as familiar as bluebonnets on the roadside for anyone who’s traveled I-35 in the last 20 years.

The interstate route — which in Texas stretches south from the Red River all the way to the Rio Grande at Laredo — has carried commerce and commuters across the Lone Star State for nearly 150 years. Before the modern highway was christened I-35 in 1959, much of it was known as the Chisholm Trail.

Once crowded with cattle in long drives north to Kansas, today’s I-35 has a similar reputation for being tightly packed — only now it’s bumpers, not bovines, causing the slowdown. In an innovative approach to improving the roadway’s capacity, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) created MY 35, a citizen-driven effort to expand a 96-mile stretch from Hillsboro to Salado of I-35 in the Waco District. At an estimated total cost of $2.5 billion, the overall effort is made up of 17 smaller construction projects and targeted for completion in 2017.

TxDOT Teams with TTI

Commuters and businesses alike will soon benefit from the expansion of I-35 in TxDOT’s Waco District. Due for completion in 2017, the project is widening corridor capacity and improving safety to better meet the traveling needs of Texans.

A project of this size is a huge undertaking, and not just when it comes to coordinating the construction itself. TxDOT is reconstructing nearly 100 miles of roadway in a relatively short amount of time, and that affects hundreds of thousands of citizens living nearby, tens of thousands of businesses, and millions of travelers over the life of the project.

TxDOT engaged the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to provide independent technical support for the effort. One way TTI is helping is by providing mobility coordinators to keep citizen groups and businesses informed and lessen any negative impact of construction.

For example, TxDOT is converting many two-way access roads along the interstate to one way to improve safety. To business owners situated beside I-35, the change can seem threatening because, in the short term at least, it potentially changes customer access to their stores.

“Our job is to talk through the entire process with the business owner,” says TTI Research Engineer Jim Dale, lead mobility coordinator on the project. “We let them know we understand their concerns and help them see the longer-term benefits of the changes.”

Helping TxDOT get the word out is one of two major jobs for TTI on the project. The Institute developed a communications plan for the department and has done everything from designing flyers, truck stop signs and email alerts to organizing public meetings and writing, editing and distributing My 35 Central Texas News, a monthly newsletter aimed at keeping interested parties informed.

“Whatever means we use, our main goal is to get information into the hands of citizens and business owners so they can make the best decisions possible for their travel needs,” says Dale. “And very soon we’ll be getting the word out in a whole new way.”

Getting the Word Out in Real Time

http://my35.org

What Dale is referring to is a first-of-its-kind traveler-information system developed by TTI for the I-35 project. The system integrates several methods for capturing data, forecasts congestion along the construction route, and provides that information to everyone who wants it. The system, currently being refined, is a primary example of how TxDOT and TTI are working together to improve transportation in Texas.

“The purpose of the system is two-fold,” explains TTI Research Scientist Bob Brydia, principal investigator on the traveler-information project. “First, it’ll give reliable traffic forecasts for I-35 travelers while the expansion project is under construction. Second, after construction is finished, it’ll form the basis for a comprehensive traffic management system for TxDOT’s Waco District.”

The traveler-information system is similar in concept to modern traffic management systems used in urban areas. The unique aspect is combining construction data and corridor travel data for a long interstate highway passing through rural and urban areas. Put simply, the system marries three data-gathering methods together to create reliable forecasts for travelers:

1. Bluetooth® technology — Travelers’ devices (e.g., cell phones, laptops and the GPS systems in newer cars) are anonymously pinged at point A and point B, giving a reliable estimate of travel time between the points.
2. Wavetronix sensors — Placed strategically along the corridor at 17 points of high traffic interaction, such as where a state highway crosses I-35, these sensors capture traffic volume.
3. End-of-queue warning systems — Radar detectors mounted in orange barrels around work zones measure speeds of approaching vehicles as they near the work zone, and patterns of slowing traffic (indicating a backup in traffic flow) are noted.

TTI has developed computer algorithms to integrate this information together to create reliable traffic forecasts, which are then passed on to travelers. Once the system is fully up and running, travelers will be able to access reliable forecasts via the Internet of what traffic on I-35 in Waco will be in an hour, before they ever leave Hillsboro, some 40 miles away.

It sounds simple enough in theory, but gathering and analyzing the data and creating reliable forecasts are incredibly complex tasks. And different information systems have to talk effectively with one another to make sure the information stays accurate and useful by the time it reaches travelers.

“From our perspective, a real success story of this project is how effectively we’ve been able to interface with TxDOT’s LoneStar traffic management system,” says Brydia. “Using their data protocols, we feed our information to them, and that helps drive the messages you see on the portable changeable message signs [PCMSs].” PCMSs display traffic forecasts along the roadway.

While congestion can be inconvenient for travelers, it can also be costly — in very real terms — for big business. Knowing where work zones are, what lanes will be closed, and when to expect slower travel is vital for companies like Walmart and H-E-B. They rely on I-35 to get their goods via truck from major distribution hubs to their brick-and-mortar stores. When you’re talking perishables, traffic backups can mean the difference between fresh and spoiled milk — and that can translate into lost revenue for the company and higher prices for consumers.

Similarly, with better information on hand, emergency management services personnel can get to the scene of an accident sooner. The life-saving potential there really needs no further explanation.

“Right now, the main way for alerting travelers is via PCMSs and daily email alerts,” explains Brydia. “Very soon we hope to take advantage of social media, including Twitter, and supply real-time information to TxDOT’s My35.org website in the form of a dynamic traffic map.”

Jodi Wheatley, Waco District’s information specialist for the project, acknowledges that without TTI’s help, the I-35 expansion effort would have been much tougher.

“Reconstructing almost 100 miles of interstate is a massive job for the department, and at the end of the day we at TxDOT want to be as responsive and helpful as we can to our fellow Texans,” Wheatley says. “Because of the scope of the project, that would be much more difficult without TTI’s logistical support and technical know-how. Maybe even impossible.”

Skid Rigs and TTI’s Central/Western Field Test and Evaluation Center

TTI Technician Robert Kocman reviews computer data from the Area Reference Friction Measurement System.

TxDOT owns seven friction measurement systems, commonly called skid rigs. At a price tag of $200,000 each, skid rigs consist of a heavy-duty pickup truck and trailer equipped with high-tech systems designed to measure the friction characteristics of pavement.

“Texas and every state in the country are constantly fighting friction loss: an invisible and extremely dangerous enemy,” TTI Senior Research Specialist Dick Zimmer explains. “Over time, pavements can deteriorate and become slick from wear, and when they’re wet, it’s a recipe for disaster. Pavement is funny. You can’t just look at it and tell it’s dangerous. You have to test it.”

TTI’s skid rig in action at the Riverside Campus.

To test the pavements, TxDOT uses its skid rigs to drive over half of its entire road system each year, says Magdy Mikhail, TxDOT’s director of the Pavement and Materials Systems Branch. “If the testing shows that a pavement is losing friction, then we determine what maintenance is required — like a new seal coat for example.”

But how does TxDOT know that its skid rigs are working properly?

“In 1971, TTI opened the Field Test and Evaluation Center, located here at the Riverside Campus. In a nutshell, we test skid rigs, not only from Texas but from numerous other states as well,” explains Zimmer, who’s been evaluating these skid rigs at TTI for more than 40 years. He’s also served as the lead author on several related ASTM standards.

In 2011, the facility — now known as the Central/Western Field Test and Evaluation Center — was accredited by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation for ISO 17025. “We’ve conducted nearly 500 of these evaluations and calibrations over the years,” Zimmer says.

That evaluation is a 3- to 5-day process that includes tests for compliance to ASTM standards and comparison of the state’s skid rig to TTI’s reference skid rig. They are both driven 108 times on three different types of pavements at three different speeds. The measurements of the two friction systems are initially compared. The numerous components are checked, recalibrated and tested again on the track. If maintenance or repair is needed, that work is performed as well.

“The public just drives down the road, never thinking of the people, the equipment and the technology that go into testing just one characteristic of our highway system,” Zimmer says. “It boils down to this: roads get slippery, and slippery roads can be dangerous. That’s why knowledge and prompt maintenance can save lives.”

“As an agency, we are very fortunate to have a facility like the one at TTI,” Mikhail says. “I feel like we are partners in the effort to provide the best and safest roadways possible for Texans. TTI’s evaluation center is a valuable resource for us.”

Highway Signs and the TTI/TxDOT Relationship

Over the last several years, TxDOT has discovered it was having problems related to its roadway signs — ranging from the large 18-foot-wide green guide signs to the much smaller mile-marker signs that cover the state’s transportation landscape.

For example, in West Texas, high-wind events were blowing down large guide signs at a higher than normal rate. In other districts, the use of small signs on slipbase supports was found to affect their crashworthiness.

“There were numerous issues we wanted to explore,” says TxDOT Transportation Engineer Doug Skowronek. “We organized a panel and developed a list of the various improvements we felt were needed. Many of those items were identified by the maintenance crews across the state responsible for maintaining and installing the signs.”

The list continued to grow, and TTI was awarded a two-year project, headed up by TTI Research Engineer Roger Bligh.

“Many of the design practices that TxDOT uses for sign mounting were established years ago, and because sign materials and installation methods change, problems sometimes arise,” Bligh says. “To complicate the issue further, the types of vehicles on the road change over time, as do the operating conditions of our highways.”

Skowronek says that the benefits from that two-year project were so great that TxDOT decided to extend the research for another year so additional issues could be examined. The project, Development Guidance for Sign Design Standards, was recently completed, resulting in an exhaustive 350-page report that identifies problems, findings, conclusions and recommendations.

“I was stunned at the detail and thoroughness of the report,” Skowronek says. “When you look through the report, you realize the work that went into it. It was very well thought out and documented, leaving nothing unanswered.”

TxDOT is now in the process of implementing recommendations from the report and expects a safer roadway, more efficient use of time and resources, and a substantial cost savings.

Among the findings and recommendations of the research project are:

• Fuse plate failures were causing large guide signs to come down during high-wind events, so TTI developed new wind-load charts that properly account for the fuse plate strength.
• The use of expensive and cumbersome vertical supports for large guide signs, called stiffeners, are not needed to achieve proper impact performance of the sign support system.
• Researchers determined a minimum area for signs mounted on slipbase supports so that, upon impact, the slipbase works properly and minimizes damage to the impacting vehicle.

Wind damage causes fuse plate failures in signs like the ones shown here. TTI developed a wind-load chart to help reduce wind-induced failures of large guide signs.

“Obviously, we rely on TTI when it comes to these devices along our roadways,” Skowronek says of the relationship between the two agencies. “TTI helped us create the standards we use to install and maintain these signs and roadside devices. We come up with a ‘what if’ scenario, and TTI comes up with the answers.”

An analysis of 189 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) road projects around the state shows that wider pavements make highways safer and result in fewer crashes.

Recently, TxDOT asked the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) to analyze and review three years of pre-and post-improvement data on more than a thousand miles of narrow two-lane highways that had been widened. The numbers show that on 1,159 miles of recently added highway shoulders, there were 133 fewer fatalities and 895 fewer injuries compared to prior to widening.

TTI has estimated that these projects could save up to 44 lives each year or 880 lives over 20 years– and prevent 298 injuries or 5960 injuries over the same time period.

“Safety is our top priority,” said Phil Wilson, TxDOT executive director. “The agency’s roadway widening initiative has been a tremendous success, both for increasing safety on Texas highways and potentially saving billions of dollars associated with fatal crashes and sustained injuries.”

In 2003, voters gave the Texas Transportation Commission the authority to issue $3 billion in bonds to pay for state highway improvements. The law stipulated that 20 percent of that amount must be used to fund projects that would reduce crashes or correct or improve hazardous locations on the state system. The Texas Legislature later increased the bonding authority to $6 billion.

TTI is also analyzing recently completed projects — mostly from the 2009 safety bond initiative — Among the 37 completed widening projects from that bond initiative, fatalities were reduced by an average of five annually. The $29 million construction cost for those 37 projects — through the 20-year life of the project — could save an estimated $456.4 million from fewer fatalities and serious injuries.

“I am proud of the role I played in creating the Safety Bond Program, and I sincerely thank TxDOT and the people of Texas for making it happen,” said Senator Steve Ogden, R-Bryan.

TxDOT plans on expanding these efforts in the future in areas where widening improvements are needed.

For more information, contact Robert Wunderlich at  r-wunderlich@ttimail.tamu.edu or (972) 994-0433 Ext. 13105.