ShareThisCan the public help fix America's killer roads?
Experts agree that motorists often experience unsafe driving conditions that, if reported to government officials and traffic safety engineers, could lead to highway redesigns or even cheaper solutions like cutting back foliage that obscures vision at critical intersections.
But there currently is no nationwide method for Americans to file complaints or to make traffic safety suggestions. Most state and county highway departments leave it to local governments and community groups to urge action or seek improvements along a specific roadway.
"Creating a national system would be a positive thing, I think. It could help motorists and help improve our transportation infrastructure," said Jacob Nelson, director of traffic safety policy and research for AAA. "I don't see any reason not to do it."
Scripps Howard News Service, as a part of its "Killer Roads" national reporting project, has created a Web site that allows anyone in the United States to report an unsafe driving condition.
The site can be accessed at: www.scrippsnews.com/killerroads/complaintform. If public comments about specific roadways seem valuable, local television stations and newspapers owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. will pass the information on to government officials.
"It's a good idea," said Lee Munnich, director of the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety at the University of Minnesota. "This could mean using the eyes and the ears of the public on the side of prevention. But, of course, there must be some mechanism for follow-up."
Federal highway safety authorities considered creating a motorist-complaint system in 1999 when they asked the Federal Communications Commission to designate a nationwide 511 telephone number so travelers could get up-to-date alerts about driving conditions. The network was set up, but only to make announcements rather than receive complaints.
"We talked about using 511 as a two-way communication system, but it really hasn't happened," said former U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters. "I'm not sure why we've never done this. We just sort of left it to the state and local governments."
(Contact Thomas Hargrove at hargrovet(at)shns.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
KILLER ROADS
Thanks for a great service
Thank you so much for reporting this. I especially like the mapping system that is county by county. Keep up the great work!
Thats good! :)
Thats good! :)
nice
nice job
http://games.7be.com/
We need that so much!!!
We need that so much!!!
Rail
If more rail is built (commuter and high-speed), it would take a lot of cars off the road and lower the number of accidents. In cities like Houston, where no one takes mass transit, the number of accidents is high. If cars were taken off the road by having rail all over the city, you would see the number of accidents go down a lot. And I hate to say it, but illegals who can't read english well and don't have licenses and are poorly-educated in driving cause a lot of accidents. It's another issue associated with this that has to be addressed.