Describe a change that could be made to a road or intersection that would improve road safety at the

expense of another transportation goal (e.g. traffic operations, public health, mobility and access,
environmental quality or economic growth).

For the filed visit the intersection S main st and w 3 rd street has been investigated. For the north and
south bound vehicles theres in no protected left turn lane. However, at this point though the traffic
influx is less in that direction, dedicating a protected left turn lane in that direction will increase the
safety. It will require to accommodate for three lanes too. Though for this the delay in the signal for rest
of the traffic will increase, which is in fact a tradeoff to another transportation goal mobility.

Describe a change that could be made to a road or intersection that would improve one transportation
goal (e.g., traffic operations, public health, mobility and access, environmental quality or economic
growth) at the expense of the safety of the road users.

For the filed visit at the intersection of perimeter drive and Pullman road, the opposite can be done,
which is removing the protected left turns bay. This will be a tradeoff to road safety, but since the road
leads to Palouse Mall, it will increase the mobility to this one of the most common destination in town,
therefore will add values on economic growth as well.
Describe a change that could be made to a road or intersection that would improve safety for a road
user but not at the expense of other users, or other goals.

In the intersection of Pullman road and Line St. there is no red light camera on line st . These camera
actually record if any vehicle violate the red light, resulting in a citation. This camera will help to improve
safety not at the expense of other users or other transportation goals like, traffic operations, public
health, mobility and access, environmental quality or economic growth)
Research a federal transportation law addressed in this chapter and write a summary about the law,
emphasizing the safety aspects.

One of the most important law that has been addressed in this chapter is the law regarding the blood
alcohol limit (BAC) of 0.08 percent. This law has been included as a provision of the USDOT appropriation
act as part of the Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21) legislation.

To address from the beginning, in 1982, Congress developed a series of grant programs which
encouraged states to enact strong and effective impaired driving laws. In 1982 the congress created
section 408 program, which was later modified by section 410 program, both of which has a basic
requirement of 0.10 BAC per se, for the states to be qualified for the basic grant funds. On May 22, 1998,
Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century ("TEA 21"), authorizing highway,
highway safety, transit and other programs for the next six years. This act provides $500 million of
incentive grants over 6 years to states that have enacted and are enforcing a .08 BAC per se law. In 1999,
there were 15,786 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the U.S. - 38% of the total traffic fatalities for the
year. This represents an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 33 minutes. Upon the direction of
President Clinton on March 3, 1998, the responsibility has been given to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. In October 2000, the
Department of Transportation's 2001 Appropriations Act (HR4475) was passed by both chambers of the
U.S. Congress and signed by President Clinton. This Act emphasized that, states must pass a .08 per se
law by 2004 or begin losing federal highway construction funds. States that do not implement .08 BAC by
2004 will lose 2 percent of their highway money, with the penalty increasing by 2 percent each year, until
it reaches 8 percent beginning in Fiscal Year 2007. States that adopt the .08 limit by 2007 will get back all
of the funds lost in previous years. However all 50 states have now .08% blood alcohol concentration
(BAC) as the legal limit for driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while impaired (DWI), if the
person is 21 years old or older.

From the safety point of view, though implementing the BAC limit as a law helped to reduce crashes but
then again, new roads are constructed and the number of cars in the street is getting increased.
Therefore though fatalities and the fatality rate has been decreased over time, at present its kind of
staying on around the same level as presented in the chart.

However, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended reduce the blood-alcohol level that
qualifies as drunken driving to 0.05% to reduce fatal crashes and Utah has already passed the bill to
enact the law which would take effect from December 30, 2018.
Find a recent news article that involves road safety (more than just a local news article on a recent
crash) and write a summary describing the effort under taken by the public agency, how it was
received by the public and whether it was shown to be effective in increasing road safety.

The State of Washington, has implemented the new distracted driving law on July 2017. The
announcement of implementing this law came out pretty surprising, even to its supporters as it was
scheduled to be implemented on January 2019, which later accelerated by the whim of Gov. Jay Inslee.

Under this new law, handheld uses, including composing or reading any kind of message, picture or data
will be banned. Drivers are also prohibited to use devices while at stop sign or red light signal. Though
drivers can still use a smartphone mounted in a dashboard cradle. The Driving Under the Influence of
Electronics (DUIE) Act, has been considered as a primary offense. The penalties will be $136, which
would get nearly double to $235 on the second distracted driving citation. Though the chief of
Washington State Patrol affirmed that, the drivers will just get the warnings for first few months, to get
accustomed with the new law. The states law enforcing agencies has a lack of staffing, they are
currently working on this to recruit more patrols in the states highways.

Figure 1: Washington State Trooper Marcus Sanchez checks out a womans cellphone after pulling her over for driving with the
phone up to her ear last November. (The Seattle Times)
The announcement however welcomed by the public. They think that, implementing this faster, will
make the campaign even better. Lavera wade of Spokane Valley even said to volunteer for the fast and
furious outreach program, as she suffered the loss of her grandson, who died while texting on Highway
195 near Colfax in 2014. Lawmakers however are not planning to fund on the public education until next
year. But the public actually didnt raise voice against this, as one of them said that, it is kind of a
common sense of not using the phone on hand behind the wheel of a car while driving and this does not
require a great deal of education.

171 of 568 road deaths have been reported in the state in 2015, due to some form of drivers distraction.
The authorities are expecting to have significant improvement increasing the road safety. However,
necessary data are still not available since the law has been implemented just a couple of months back.

(Source: Summarized from the report of Mike Lindblom on The Seattle Times on May 18, 2017;

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/heres-what-the-new-distracted-driving-
law-means-to-you-when-it-goes-into-effect-in-july/)

Use https://www.govtrack.us to find a transportation bill currently proposed or under review by

Congress. Describe how the legislation would be expected to road safety.

Senior Senator from South Dakota Republican John Thune has sponsored a bill to improve surface and
maritime transportation security, which has been introduced on May 29, 2017 and now under review of
the congress.

This bill has three primary area of focus for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA):
(1) To assess, and implement a risk-based security strategy to address, the vulnerabilities of and risks to
surface transportation in coordination with the Commandant of the Coast Guard, the vulnerabilities of
and risks to maritime transportation systems.

(2)To develop a management oversight strategy that identifies the parties responsible for implementing
the security strategy and includes a plan for implementing the risk-based security strategy.

(3) To submit a report that describes a risk-based budget and resource allocation plan for surface
transportation sectors that reflects the security strategy, and includes the findings of the security
assessment, description of the actions recommended or taken by the Administrator, the Commandant of
the Coast Guard, or the head of another Federal department or agency to mitigate the vulnerabilities,
recommended changes to the National Infrastructure Protection Plan.

This bill, in addition, will also direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expand the TSA's
explosives detection canine team program. It will require TSA to establish a program to promote surface
transportation security through the training of surface transportation operators and frontline employees,
expands the transportation security card program to allow individuals subject to credentialing or a
background check to apply for a transportation security card, and requires DHS to evaluate cargo-
container scanning technologies. In addition, it will require the Government Accountability Office to
study specified matters related to surface transportation, expands the permissible uses of railroad
security improvement grants, and requires the TSA to issue a decision on the use of a passenger vetting
system by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak). This way the legislation is expected to
add significant values on the road safety.

Research the legal driving Blood Alcohol Content by state in the U.S. and create a table showing the
comparison. Select one state where the legal BAC is lower than the federal requirement, locate a
paper or news article describing how that BAC level was decided and write a summary.

By defining BAC is the amount of alcohol measured by the weight of the alcohol in a certain volume of
blood in a person's body. The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), in the U.S. is currently set to be 0.08 %,
which indicates 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. However, a driver's BAC can be measured by
testing the blood, breath, urine or saliva.

Current Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) in Individual States of the U.S.

State Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)

Alabama 0.08%
Alaska 0.08%
Arizona 0.08%
Arkansas 0.08%
California 0.08%
Colorado 0.08%
Connecticut 0.08%
 Delaware 0.08%
Florida 0.08%
Georgia 0.08%
Hawaii 0.08%
Idaho 0.08%
Illinois 0.08%
Indiana 0.08%
Iwoa 0.08%
Kansas 0.08%
Kentucky 0.08%
Louisiana 0.08%
Maine 0.08%
Maryland 0.08%
Massachusetts 0.08%
Michigan 0.08%
Minnesota 0.08%
Mississippi 0.08%
Missouri 0.08%
Montana 0.08%
Nebraska 0.08%
Nevada 0.08%
New Hampshire 0.08%
New Jersey 0.08%
New Mexico 0.08%
New York 0.08%
North Carolina 0.08%
North Dakota 0.08%
Ohio 0.08%
Oklahoma 0.08%
Oregon 0.08%
Pennsylvania 0.08%
Rhode Island 0.08%
South Carolina 0.08%
South Dakota 0.08%
Tennessee 0.08%
Texas 0.08%
Utah 0.08%
Vermont 0.08%
Virginia 0.08%
Washington 0.08%
West Virginia 0.08%
Wisconsin 0.08%
Wyoming 0.08%
Right now, though all the states have the same BAC requirement, Utah Lawmakers have however passed
a bill on March 8, 2017, which would make the states DUI threshold for BAC to be 0.05 percent, down
from 0.08 percent. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, at a blood-alcohol
content of 0.05 percent, a driver may face hard time coordinating, tracking moving objects, trouble
steering and responding to emergencies. For several years, the National Transportation Safety Board has
encouraged states to lower their blood-alcohol content levels to 0.05 percent or even lower, but the local
officials played a blind eye towards it mostly due to the pressure from the hospitality industry. As the bill
got signed eventually by the Utah Governor Gary Herbert, the law would take effect from December 30,
2018.

How the BAC level was decided

Currently, the United States has a national blood alcohol concentration (BAC) standard of .08 percent.
This standard has been set on the basis of research results for over 30 years. It was in fact President Bill
Clinton, who urged on setting new standards to prevent the many tragic and unnecessary alcohol-related
deaths and injuries that occur on the Nation's roads, on March 3, 1998. However, the first commonly
used legal limit has been adopted as 0.15 percent for BAC, back in 1938.

To address from the beginning, in 1982, Congress developed a series of grant programs which
encouraged states to enact strong and effective impaired driving laws. In 1982 the congress created
section 408 program, which was later modified by section 410 program, both of which has a basic
requirement of 0.10 BAC per se, for the states to be qualified for the basic grant funds. On May 22, 1998,
Congress passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century ("TEA 21"), authorizing highway,
highway safety, transit and other programs for the next six years. This act provides $500 million of
incentive grants over 6 years to states that have enacted and are enforcing a .08 BAC per se law. In 1999,
there were 15,786 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the U.S. - 38% of the total traffic fatalities for the
year. This represents an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 33 minutes. Upon the direction of
President Clinton on March 3, 1998, the responsibility has been given to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation. In October 2000, the
Department of Transportation's 2001 Appropriations Act (HR4475) was passed by both chambers of the
U.S. Congress and signed by President Clinton. This Act emphasized that, states must pass a .08 per se
law by 2004 or begin losing federal highway construction funds. States that do not implement .08 BAC by
2004 will lose 2 percent of their highway money, with the penalty increasing by 2 percent each year, until
it reaches 8 percent beginning in Fiscal Year 2007. States that adopt the .08 limit by 2007 will get back all
of the funds lost in previous years. However all 50 states have now .08% blood alcohol concentration
(BAC) as the legal limit for driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while impaired (DWI), if the
person is 21 years old or older.

(Source: https://one.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/pub/alcohol
laws/08History/1_introduction.htm)
Review ITDs current Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP). What are the overall goals? Now, choose
one of the specific goals 9diffeent than the overall goals); for this specific goal, discuss which of the
strategies you think will be the most effective and which strategies (if any) seem too vague?

The overall goals of the ITDs current Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), the goals by 2020 have been
enlisted as primary and secondary goals. These are listed as follows:

Primary Goal: to reduce number of traffic deaths to 185 or fewer.

Secondary Goals:

1) To reduce the fatality rate to 1.1 per 100 million annual vehicle miles traveled.

2) To reduce the number of serious injuries to 1,221 or fewer.

3) To reduce the serious injury rate to 7.27 by 100 million annual vehicle miles traveled.

In addition for each of the different high risk behavior, vulnerable roadway users and severe crash types,
individual goal has been set. These specific goals have been listed as follows:
 1) For aggressive driving, reducing the 5 year average number of fatalities involving speeding to 49
or fewer by 2020.
2) For distracted driving, reducing the 5-year average number of distracted driving fatalities to 38
or fewer by 2020.
3) For impaired driving, reducing the 5-year average number of fatalities involving drivers with a
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.08 or greater to 52 or fewer by 2020.
4) For occupant protection, reducing the 5-year average number of unrestrained personal motor
vehicle (PMV) fatalities to 69 or fewer by 2020 and increasing the yearly observed seat belt use
rate to 83.8% or greater by 2020.
5) For bicycle and pedestrian, reducing the 5-year average number of fatalities involving bicyclists
to two or fewer by 2020. Reduce the 5-year average number of fatalities involving pedestrians to
10 or fewer by 2020.
6) For mature drivers, reducing the 5-year average number of fatalities involving drivers 65 years of
age or older to 33 or fewer by 2020.
7) For motorcycles, reducing the 5-year average number of fatalities involving motorcycle
riders/drivers to 20 or fewer by 2020. Reduce the 5-year average number of unhelmeted
motorcycle fatalities to 11 or fewer by 2020.
8) For Youthful drivers, reducing the 5-year average number of fatalities involving drivers age 20 or
younger to 24 or fewer by 2020.
9) For commercial motor vehicles, reducing the 5-year average number of fatalities involving
commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) to 54 or fewer by 2020.
10) For intersections, reducing the 5-year average number of intersection related fatalities to 32 or
fewer by 2020.
11) For lane departure, reducing the 5-year average number of single vehicle run-off road fatalities
to 94 or fewer by 2020.

For the impaired driving, reducing the 5-year average number of fatalities involving drivers with a Blood
Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.08 or greater to 52 or fewer by 2020, has been set as the goal. For this
specific goal, I think the most effective strategy will be the first one which is to continue the education,
to to support and provide training of prosecutors, law enforcement and the judiciary to improve the
investigation, prosecution and adjudication of impaired driving cases. This includes, but is not limited to,
continued support of the Idaho Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor (TSRP) and the Idaho State Impaired
Driving Coordinator (SIDC). I think this is the most effective one, as when every related person, working
for this specific goal will work together, they will be able to see the whole picture and will be able to
detect the loopholes if any in the system. However, they may came up with new recommendation as an
outcome of their improved investigation. For example as stated, in the previous research, the state of
Utah has already passed and signed a bill on lowering blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.05 percent.
In Idaho, they can come up with some more innovative and fruitful measures.

To me the most vague one seemed to be the one, which says about the supporting of the impaired
driving high visibility enforcement campaigns. As this strategy does not indicate how they are going to
support the campaign and what are the scope of improvements in this aspect.