Traffic Safety Advocates for Sale

I really miss this stuff. I do. Above you see a photo of my former work parter Cheryl Dupay and myself hanging out with the Safety Patrol statue that proudly stands in front of the main entrance to the Auto Club Group (AAA) headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. There are thousands of safety patrollers in Michigan and we, along with our other team members April Morrison-Harke and Gary Bubar, loved training and motivating them.

Did I tell you that I really miss it? All four of us do. Yes, this blog post is pretty self indulgent, but it's also an opportunity for someone.

See, I've been faithfully posting traffic safety reminders and updates for several months now as a means of maintaining my skills, contacts and sanity. Well, here is one more great traffic safety tip for everyone: There is an excellent team of four traffic safety advocates scattered around Michigan that have found themselves, well, without a job, but with no loss in passion for what they had been doing for so long. Perhaps you know of an employer that could use one of them.

Within this group of four you've got two of the State's Child Passenger Safety Instructors, a Governor's Traffic Safety Advisory Council member, someone who certifies people who CERTIFY traffic safety trainers, public speakers, teen driving instructors, senior driving specialists, Certified Driver Improvement Program instructors, school traffic safety evaluators, safety board members, pupil transportation trainers, truck safety specialists............ Heck, we've worked with police, principals, pupils, parents, prosecutors, bus drivers, students that ride buses, engineers, nurses, fire departments, EMS, NHTSA, MDOT, USDOT, FHW, CPS, ADTSEA, MDTSEA, MPTA, OHSP and a wide variety of other letter combinations.

OK, seriously now, I know I'm getting a bit over the edge here, but I'll have to admit that I'm getting a bit worried and concerned for our group. The practical matter is that we all need jobs, and it's not looking good for being able to stay within the industry that, between the four of us, we have spent over 100 years in. My traffic safety tip and reminder for anyone reading my words this week is this: There are some real traffic safety education/advocacy resources available right now, and they would like nothing more than to be able to thrive and serve within a new team. Don't be shy about passing along ideas and referrals. We won't be shy about accepting them.

Be safe.

Should 5-Year-Olds be Driving?

So, should the kids that I'm chatting about passenger safety with in this photo (4.5 - 5 year olds) be driving? Well, probably not without lots and lots of our help. Sound silly? Of course they shouldn't be driving. They haven't even developed enough to reach the top shelf in closet and get down a hat.

OK, add 10 years to the faces in that photo. Now they're of age to take drivers training and be on Michigan roadways (14 yrs, 8 months). Are they old enough to be driving? Well, probably not without lots and lots of our help, you say. But, why do you say that? At what age did they magically develop enough to do that safely? Can you just tell?

Now, they've finished segment 2 of driver training, they're 16 or so, have met all of the criteria for driving on their own in Michigan and are ready to drive their kid brothers/sisters to the mall without lots and lots of our help. Right? Must be- we've all decided that it's OK and they look very much like adults. After all, they can reach the top shelf in the closet now. Hmmmmm, what about that top shelf?

Little kids (like the ones in the photo), need lots and lots of our help to be safe. That's what I used to tell safety patrollers. Little kids only have two speeds- stop and RUN. Not because they're naughty, but because they're, well, little kids. So, we need to help them until they develop the higher function decision making parts of their brain that deal with actions and consequences. Those parts of their brains (real anatomical body parts) have not developed any more than their height has developed enough to reach the top shelf. They can't reach that top shelf no matter how much I try to ask them to or tell them how important it is. What hasn't developed yet, hasn't developed yet.

So, now we've got that 16 year-old taking their little sister to dance lessons after their vast 30 hours of classroom training and 56 hours (perhaps) of driving experience. The good news is that in another five or seven years (more or less) those higher function decision making parts of the brain that deal with actions and consequences will have developed. Yup, it's that darn problem again- what hasn't developed yet, hasn't developed yet. Yea, I know- the bodily structures for reaching the top shelf in the closet are fully developed now, but the bodily structures dealing with decision making and consequences just aren't. No, not even if we tell them how hard to try or how important it is. What ain't there, ain't there.

Hopeless? Nope. I've often asked a room full of adults how many were safety patrollers. I see a lot of hands go up. Well adults, what do you owe these new drivers? Yup, the same thing you pledged to provide for the little kids when you were in 5th grade: lots and lots of help during this crucial developmental stage. You've got to protect and defend them until they can reach that top shelf.

Be Safe.

Doak TC's Traffic Safety Summit Notes, Day 3

It was the third and final day of Michigan's State Traffic Safety Summit at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing. The final day included only morning sessions. Here are my notes and impressions about the sessions that I attended today. They're centered around two main topics and their associated attributes.

First, bikes and pedestrians.

- The US Secretary of Transportation issued a new policy statement in March regarding bicycle and pedestrian accommodation regulations and recommendations. He encourages states, local governments, professional associations and others to adopt similar policies. The upshot of the policy statement says that because of numerous individual and community benefits that walking and bicycling provide, the DOT policy is to incorporate safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities into transportation projects. You can find the complete policy statement at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2010/bicycle-ped.html.

- There are now more behavioral studies evaluating the effectiveness of various pedestrian crossings. Pedestrians themselves all have something in common, though. People do not want to wait, and the longer we make them wait the more likely they will take chances. They'll also cross where convenient. That explains why "hot button" crosswalks work well. There is also a need to channelize the pedestrians, and make the crosswalk waiting area safe and comfortable. It appears that a crossing's greater perceived risk also led to better compliance from pedestrians, but waiting still led to risk taking.

- High traffic intersections with multiple lanes (12,000 - 15,000 average daily traffic (ADT)) will need crosswalks and signals with much higher visibility. Signals with rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFB) are very effective. Traffic needs to stop well back (obviously) because a pedestrian crossing multiple lanes of traffic can't see beyond the first vehicle they are crossing in front of. SO, walking at 4 feet per second, they are 1 second away from being hit by the second vehicle that they can't see yet. The terminology for this is multiple threat crashes.

- An interesting side note: remember that the researcher said people do not want to wait? Well, he tested this theory in an office that wanted to encourage people to use the stairs for exercise. Left to their own devices, they normally chose the ease of the elevator. However, when the researchers added a slight delay to the elevator's response time the stairways became much more crowded. People do not want to wait. Remember that when designing crosswalks for compliance. Increased wait times will reduce compliance.

So, how bout bikes?

- Jeff Bagdade, of Opus International, demonstrated that there are new emerging strategies for mixing bicycles more safely into the transportation systems of a municipality. Obviously, seeing the USDOT's policy statement, this is will have a significant impact on the way roadway projects are designed and evaluated from this point on. So, it was good to see that there are new strategies being tried and tested.

- There are new ways of designing shared bike lanes with sharrow markings and bike boxes providing more protected turns at intersections. Some New York streets that received road diets gained an offset/floating parking island that provided a barrier to the bike lane at the curb. Picture this: sidewalk- then curb - then bike lane - then painted barrier, then traditional vehicle parking - and then the street traffic. The parked cars provide a barrier for the bikes. The bikes are also now on the passenger side of the car along with a barrier greatly limiting "dooring" (being whacked by the parked vehicle driver opening their door).

- The upshot for bikes? There are a variety of new strategies that have the benefit of being new and innovative, but the drawback of not much data yet.

Finally, why do we do this stuff?

- As I said a couple of days ago, Michigan traffic fatalities were down again last year. They've come down by hundreds in the past few years. Injuries are down as well. We were reminded how terribly quick a car crash changes the lives of families forever and about that terrible knock on the door that Troopers, Deputies and Officers never want to deliver. The Office Of Highway Safety Planning's Director, Michael Prince told us how the jobs that the State's traffic safety advocates do lead directly to fewer incidences of the terrible knock at the door.

Someone NOT being killed in a crash is hard to picture, though, and hard to quantify for others that want to measure results against numbers. My suggestion for y'all is to take some time and do some people watching at the mall next week. Sit and count a hundred-or-so people. It's quite a bunch, and they all have families, faces and names. Imagine that they're all still at the mall a year later because of a child seat you helped with, a crosswalk you improved, a drunk driver you arrested, a bike helmet you gave out, a teen driver you talked to, a guard rail or rumble strip you installed, a law you passed, a grant you secured, a repeat offender you took off the road. Now count a another thousand people-or-so and know that they're at the mall with their families instead of languishing with a life-long debilitating injury. That's why you do this stuff.

Michael also reminded us, though, that there are 800 or more people that don't know it yet, but they'll have a crash this year and not survive to see the spring of 2011. We're aiming at zero, and we're a lot closer to that than we've been in our entire lifetimes.

Be safe.

Doak TC's Traffic Safety Summit Notes, Day 2

It's day 2 of the Michigan Traffic Safety Summit at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing. There are approximately 400 traffic safety advocates here discussing state and national strategies aimed at reducing all traffic crashes, traffic crash injuries and traffic crash deaths. Here is a summary of my notes and observations from today.

- New Mexico was the first state to mandate vehicle interlocks for all individuals convicted of drunk driving. So, on the practical side, that means for your first conviction you will pay to have this device on your vehicle that you must blow in to each time you want to start the car. And, that'll be for one full year (1st conviction). In 2007, New Mexico's vehicle interlocks identified 63,000 incidences when an impaired driver was prohibited from starting their vehicle because they blew positive (a "dirty blow"). Since adoption of this policy, along with coordinated education, communication and enforcement, New Mexico has dropped out of the "top ten" states for drunk driving.

- Michigan saw a 17% reduction in motorcycle crashes in 2009. That's after a couple of years of increases.

- In June 2009 it became law in Michigan that all children under 4 must be in the back seat. The nursing mother exemption was also removed at this time.

- Although it is very hard to change human behaviors regarding traffic safety there have been successes nationally and in Michigan. Both seatbelts and drunk driving have seen major behavioral changes. These have only come with a combination of persuasion, coercion and changes to the driving environment. You'll find the NHTSA report on "Countermeasures that Work" at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/. Click on Traffic Safety.

- Do shock ads or demonstrations (such as the crash cars at school events) have a documented effect on behavioral change? Current research shows that these messages on their own have only a short term impact on behavior change.

- Research has shown only two effective methods for removing car/deer conflicts. 1, shoot the deer, and 2, put up 8 foot fences along the roadway. Research shows that it needs to be 8 feet and start right at the ground. Near Clare, though, the Michigan Department of Transportation has found that changing the seed mixture used to do plantings along the side of the road makes a big difference. Biologists told them that seeds they had been using were a highly desirable deer feed. They switched to seeds that the deer don't like.

- In the next few years every vehicle sold in Sweden will be required to have vehicle ignition interlocks.

- There are experiments with roadways that will change color at freezing temperatures so that drivers will have more information about conditions. Michigan had over 20,000 crashes in 2009 where "icy roads" was the documented condition at the time.

- Cable barriers in roadway medians are 95% effective at capturing and redirecting vehicles, preventing them from continuing in to the opposing lanes.

DoakTC's Traffic Safety Summit Notes, Day 1

It's Day One of the Michigan Traffic Safety Summit at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing. Here is a brief summary of my notes and observations from the first sessions.

- Michigan traffic fatalities dropped 11% in 2009 going from 980 in 2008 to 871 (http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1593_3504-234135--,00.html). The trend is great, unless, of course, you are in one the 871 families that lost a member to a traffic crash last year. The Summit is aimed at the goal of zero families impacted some day. Seems like an absurd goal, but a figure of 871 seemed almost as absurd not that long ago.

- Distracted driving is increasing its status as a traffic safety enemy. The fact that research is starting to provide real numbers is aiding this concern and the ability to take it more seriously. It's not just anecdotal anymore. Within the next 10 - 20 years we will look back on this current transitional era the same way that we look at the era when drinking and driving still had a socially accepted (or tolerated) status.

- Some major employers not only have their own policies prohibiting employee cell phone use in vehicles, but also will only do business with vendors/contractors that have similar workplace policies.

- There will be an increased danger to bike riders as more people text while driving. The texting driver tends to drift off of the road and not notice what is there. Current estimates put yearly texting at 135 billion.

- Current estimates are that texting contributes to 200,000 yearly crashes nationally, and that cell phone use in general contributes to 1.4 million.

- Teens have the highest risk of crashing while texting. This is a hard sell, though. My interviews with teen drivers during the past year have demonstrated an almost complete confidence in their ability to text and drive. In their opinions they are experts in texting, it comes completely natural to them and so it is not a distraction.

- Hands Free cell phone laws will most likely not reduce cell phone related crashes because of the cognitive distraction. These laws may even prove to be counter productive.

- Today's Traffic Safety web sites include:

http://www.distraction.gov/

http://www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov/

http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/Pages/safety_on_the_road.aspx

Who's Skidding Now? Weekly Safety Reminder #6

It's the Doak TC Weekly Safety Reminder (WSR) #6. Who's skidding now?

The snows and black ice of winter have pretty much left our local roadways. Yes, I'm sure we will be punished with a surprise blast or two, but for the most part we're done with icy roads for this season. So, why am I issuing a skid warning today? Well, that's because the icy covered roadways of winter have given way to the sand, dirt and gravel covered roadways of spring. That means a safety warning (reminder) for two different groups.

Group 1 - Everyone not driving a motorcycle. The first warm(ish) days of non-winter are not just sprouting shoots above the septic tank. I'm sure you've seen the two-wheelers appearing on the roadways already. I'm one of them, too. So, please watch out for us. First, because we're hard to see at any time of year, and second, because we're making our turns through all of that leftover sand, dirt and gravel. That leads to wide and unsteady motorcycle turns at intersections (typically where lots of gravel collects during the winter) and the increased potential that the motorcycle you're approaching will skid out when you get closer to them.

Group 2 - Motorcycle operators. Yes, it's great to be on the road again and feeling the icy blasts of not quite spring breezes through your teeth. But, there are a couple of safety reminders to keep in mind. First, those ice breezes and the fact that we haven't been on the two-wheelers in a few months are affecting our concentration and reaction time a bit. Second, there is all of that darn dirt, sand and gravel waiting to surprise us. It's mostly at curves, but can appear at many spots, especially as homeowners start blowing it off their yards. Slow down, plan turns way in advance, plan to skip a turn if it looks dangerous and keep watch for the black ice of dirty spring roads.

Dangerous Human Photos #5

Today let's review two things: the protective power of signage, and the concept of big and small.

First, we'll evaluate the protective power of signage. Well, there isn't much. The protective power of signage is often overruled by the attractive power of what's convenient for me right now. As you can see in the photo, there are lovely signs from various eras saying something about a school being nearby and certain hours you shouldn't park, well, somewhere around there. So, these children huddled in the snow, hunched with backpacks, focused on their destination are protected by these highly protective devices. Well, that's probably true if none of these vehicles decides to move at all. Likely?

Second, when I'm in a kindergarten classroom I ask the kids what's the difference between you and me? Their answer is simple. They tell me we're small and you're big. Well, have another look at the photo. Those kids are indeed really small and will always lose to those really big vehicles no matter what the sign says. This photo was taken pretty early in the loading process, but moments later there will be several hundred more kids out there mixing with the really big vehicles and their hurried drivers.

Are you about to go pick up your kids from their elementary school? Be careful, please. Take your time, follow the posted directions, get out of the car and, if possible, wait until it is all clear to help these small packages be delivered safely.