Utah was among the first Departments of Transportation in the country to use LiDAR technology to get situational awareness at intersections in real time. LiDAR technology is able to recreate, in 3D, an entire scene with vehicle, cyclist and pedestrian movement. In the past, detection devices only allowed a view of the stop line. I am extremely optimistic about this technology. We are now able to see more that will give us a lot more to reference when implementing safety protocol. Another major innovation we have implemented is working with other technology providers and states to create a wrong-way driver alert system for 23 of our interchanges. This system alerts drivers when they start going the wrong way on a ramp as well as the traffic operation center. In past incidents, some troopers have even heroically crashed head-on with wrong-way vehicles to stop them. One such trooper received the Silver Barrel Award for this very thing, which we give to our employees for going above and beyond. How does Utah promote safety in work zones and for roadway workers? We try to humanize our workers. When people get in their cars, they tend to put up a wall between them and humanity. They forget that workers behind barriers and in work zones are people — real people who are doing important work that improves lives. Promoting this humanistic approach to driving will hopefully help remind people to drive safely, especially near work zones. In work zones, we have people slowing traffic and we use technology to alert the workers if a car comes into the zone. We also maintain a strong relationship with our Highway Patrol. They work very hard to protect our highway construction crews. What has Utah done to reduce traffic fatalities? In 2006, we were the first state to make a goal of zero fatalities. We focus a lot on building proper safety behaviors in young drivers. We go to every high school and spend time talking with every new driver about the behaviors that cause crashes. Every two weeks, we also devote time talking with our new employees about safety. There are many factors that go into reducing fatalities, from technology, forging partnerships and education, and we try to implement it all. How has the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) helped Utah’s roadway safety efforts? The federal program accounts for about 18% of our budget, and it is crucial because having a five-year bill allows us to be strategic in planning where to allocate projects that can make a difference. If we were only working with year-to-year appropriations, it would be much more challenging to plan effectively. The IIJA represents a significant increase compared to the previous reauthorization, which has been fantastic for us. We need to focus on reauthorizing it again, and we are already working on what we would like that to entail. A substantial amount of funding is being distributed through grants. We have secured some excellent grants that are enabling us to implement meaningful improvements. One of the highlights is the $87 million grant we received this year, which will fund local street crossings along I-15 in St. George, a rapidly growing metropolitan area that needed better local route connections. Additionally, in August, we broke ground on a $152 million project aimed at paving and significantly enhancing the safety of 54 miles of road in the Navajo Nation, which included a $48 million federal grant. While grants can provide a quick influx of resources, they are not reliable for long-term planning, making it difficult to strategically invest. I appreciate receiving grants when they do come through, but I would prefer to see more money allocated to the formula program in the next reauthorization and less emphasis on grants. What other essential roadway safety issues would you like to mention, and what makes them important? I believe we need to implement more automated traffic enforcement, such as speed and red-light cameras. During the last legislative session, I attempted to generate interest in using these cameras, specifically in school zones and work zones, but was not successful. I spent 12 years advocating for a primary seat belt law in a very conservative state, and in 2015, we finally achieved that goal. It took nearly 15 years of consistently going to the legislature, and that primary seat belt law has saved lives. I believe we can achieve similar success with automated enforcement, provided we approach it correctly — not as a way to generate revenue, but as a means to raise awareness and improve safety on our roads. One important lesson I’ve learned is that success doesn’t always come to the smartest individuals. Instead, it often comes to those who are persistent and refuse to give up. 47
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