By U.S.
Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx
I’m proud to once again participate in the Put the Brakes on Fatalities campaign,
as I have for the past several years. The folks at KDOT are doing important
work highlighting the ways all of us can have a positive impact on safety, and
I’m grateful for the platform to share our perspective at the U.S. Department
of Transportation.
Safety is always our number one priority.
Transportation systems simply don’t work if people can’t get where they need to
go. When developing new policies and regulations, and in awarding grants
through programs like TIGER and FASTLANE, we are constantly evaluating how each
and every project we’re involved in contributes to a safer environment.
We know that we can’t do it alone – we need
great partners like KDOT. In fact, many of our recent initiatives have focused
on strengthening our partnerships with state and local government that are on
the front lines of building and maintaining our transportation infrastructure.
The good news is that with each year, we gain
more and more knowledge about what makes for safe communities – from better
road design and pavement materials to advanced technologies like
vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications.
The challenge is to come together to put
these principles into practice. At U.S. DOT, we’ve developed several ongoing
initiatives to do just that.
Last year, to help bring together local
officials from all over the country to collaborate on these issues, we launched
the Mayors’ Challenge
for Safer People and Safer Streets. Over 200 cities have answered the call
to identify and address barriers to safety, committing to a “Complete Streets”
approach that makes every trip by every citizen a safe one – whether in a car,
on foot, or by bicycle, and especially for those with special mobility needs.
This week, on September 16, we’re hosting the
first-ever Safer People, Safer Streets
Summit at U.S. DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C. This summit will bring
together Mayors’ Challenge participants and other experts and stakeholders from
across the country to share best practices and discuss the future of safe
streets.
We’ve also gone out into communities across
America to both share our knowledge and learn from the people most impacted by
transportation projects.
Our Every Place Counts
Design Challenge identified four places where highways and other
infrastructure have historically served as a barrier to many communities –
preventing people from being able to walk from neighborhood to neighborhood or
otherwise travel safely.
U.S. DOT design experts met with state and
local officials and community stakeholders for intensive two-day sessions to
reimagine existing infrastructure, figuring out together how it can be rebuilt
or repurposed to improve safety and accessibility for all.
Our Every Day Counts
initiative also helps states and localities bring innovative practices to their
highway infrastructure, enabling life-saving ideas like road diets,
high-performance road materials, and data-driven safety analysis.
Going forward, there will be many
opportunities to integrate new technologies into transportation to vastly
improve safety. U.S. DOT will continue to develop guidance on automated
vehicles and other innovations that reduce the risk of collisions.
Someday, perhaps sooner than we think, all of
our cars may well drive themselves – communicating with each other and
surrounding infrastructure to make crashes a thing of the past.
But until that day comes, each of us has a
responsibility to prioritize safety at all times. The personal stories you’ll
read in this year’s Put the Brakes on
Fatalities series will drive that point home better than I ever could.
Together, I’m confident that we can make
safer streets a reality for our kids, and for generations to come.
Thank you Secretary Foxx for your leadership and your thoughts. Here in the Kansas Division Office we have been working to get the word out about USDOT initiatives to make our cities safer and more livable. We have also worked with our state and local partners to advance Every Day Counts initiatives such as improving our data and data analysis capabilities to be more data driven in our safety efforts; providing Traffic Incident Management training statewide; and advancing Transportation System Management and Operations which should move us closer to implementing the V2I and V2V technologies you mentioned. A lot of work remains to be done but I am sure we are on the right path to putting the brakes on fatalities.
ReplyDeleteThank you Secretary Foxx, didn't know there were so many different initiatives taking place to help improve traffic safety.
ReplyDeleteThank you Secretary Foxx for writing the first Blog for the year of the 15th Anniversary of Put the Brakes on Fatalities Day. You mentioned that safety is always the number one priority of your agency. This is certainly reflected in the many programs your agency administers. We applaud your statement which ended with "to make crashes a thing of the past".
ReplyDeleteLarry Emig
Technology and education are the key to safety. Smart cars, smart roads, and smart drivers are the goal for all transportation professionals. Let's keep on investing in transportation and make the American highways safer and faster.
ReplyDeleteEric Li, VTTI