February 2020
Issue 69
Workshop Calendar

Click here to view training opportunities available. We will continue to update the schedule with dates and locations, so check in with us regularly. If you are interested in hosting a class, please email Shelly Desjardin at [email protected] . 
Our mission is to foster a safe, efficient, environmentally sound transportation system by improving skills and knowledge of local transportation providers through training, technical assistance, and technology transfer.
In This Issue:
  • Warren's Words of Wisdom: So Many Reasons to Stay Alive
  • Safety Matters: How One Connecticut Town Is Addressing Safety
  • Signal Spotlight: NEW Traffic Signal Brief: Removing Unwarranted Traffic Signals—Signalized Intersection Strategy
  • Town Crier: And the Award Goes to...the City of Bridgeport
  • Innovation Station: UConn Engineering Professor Eyes Autonomous-Vehicle Testing Facility in Storrs
  • Watch for Me CT — Welcome to 2020!
  • 2020 National Work Zone Awareness Week
  • The T2 Center Is Now on Instagram!
So Many Reasons to Stay Alive
by Warren Rogers, C.S.P.
Human beings are funny people; no matter how risky a task, we can somehow convince ourselves we can overcome the odds and avoid the kiss of death and immortality on a viral video of our demise. A risky new task keeps our attention, requires our focus; routine tasks are a different story. More people die every year from falls less than six feet than from falls over six feet—go figure. The preferred tool of death by falls is the simple ladder, extension or folding doesn’t matter. Letting gravity help you off a ladder is never a good thing. I’ll be the first to admit I have used ladders too short and then stood on the label that states “THIS IS NOT A STEP” to get to that corner I needed to paint. Here’s the fatal part of this plan: Because I did it once and lived, when faced with the same situation in the future, how likely is it I’ll do the same thing all over? Human nature, right? I did it once, I can do it again. Maybe that’s why so many people die falling off ladders—they didn’t fall last time, they didn’t expect to fall this time…ooops.
To continue this article, click here .
How One Connecticut Town Is Addressing Safety
South Windsor's Local Road Safety Committee
After working with the Training and Technical Assistance Center (T2 Center) on Road Safety Audits (RSAs) and soliciting assistance from the Safety Circuit Rider program for other issues in town, South Windsor Director of Public Works Michael Gantick, PE, PWLF, saw a need for something more, in his words “a living road safety plan.” South Windsor already had a Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP), developed years prior, and had accomplished the major goals on that plan. In January 2015, the Town of South Windsor’s Local Road Safety Committee (LRSC) was created with enthusiastic support from all involved parties. The committee is currently comprised of the Town Engineer, Director of Planning, Police Department Traffic Sergeant (LTA), Superintendent of Streets, Tree Warden, Street Supervisor, Director of Public Works, Fire Chief, and the Board of Education Building Facilities Director. They hold monthly meetings on a variety of topics to keep their LRSP plan current and in motion and to be timely and flexible in addressing immediate, short- and long-term road safety issues. When asked to describe the committee, Director of Public Works Michael Gantick replied, “What is innovative about the LRSC is that it has cultivated another level of synergy and collaboration amongst the various road safety stakeholders while increasing the breadth of safety improvement opportunities in South Windsor, especially the high-easy type of improvements.”

To continue this article, click here .
If you have any questions about local road safety concerns, you can contact:
Melissa Evans, Safety Circuit Rider at (860) 486-5847 or [email protected].
Signal Spotlight: NEW Traffic Signal Brief: Removing Unwarranted Traffic Signals — A Signalized Intersection Strategy
Why remove a traffic signal?

Signals that were unwarranted when installed or are no longer warranted due to changes in traffic conditions can create safety and operational issues. Problems created by an unwarranted signal include excessive delay, increased rerouting of traffic to less appropriate roads or intersections, higher crash rates and disobedience of the traffic signal. As noted in NCHRP Report 500/ Volume 12: A Guide for Reducing Collisions at Signalized Intersections , a 2005 study showed that depending on the alternative treatment used, the strategy of removing unwarranted signals may result in decreases of:
To continue reading this Tech Brief, click here .

I f you have traffic signal systems questions, please contact:
Theresa Schwartz, P.E., P.T.O.E. - Traffic Signal Circuit Rider
(860) 486-4535 or [email protected] .
And the Award Goes to...the City of Bridgeport
We are excited to announce that the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in coordination with Fitzgerald & Halliday, Inc. (FHI), has won the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association (CCAPA) 2019 Planning Award.
PlanBridgeport built on Bridgeport’s success over the last ten years in creating a more vibrant, livable city by identifying paths to future opportunities in the years ahead. FHI worked directly with the City of Bridgeport Office of Planning and Economic Development to develop a comprehensive plan, including a robust public outreach campaign that broke from previous plans by engaging a wider cross-section of Bridgeport’s residents and constituents.
The process incorporated technology to develop and distribute a policy-focused, public-friendly document. The plan provided residents and visitors many opportunities, across various media, to express their thoughts on the challenges facing the city as well as their vision for a stronger, bolder Bridgeport. Instead of relying solely on traditional large-scale community meetings, PlanBridgeport brought the opportunities to the people by establishing a presence through smartphones and computers, at community events, and in the frequented public spaces of Bridgeport. FHI engaged the public in conversations on topics such as public health, community resiliency, economic development, and equitable growth; and developed clear, achievable priorities and action items based upon that community dialogue. We believe the key to success was to ensure that the City is planning with the community, not for the community.

The final Plan and Implementation Program is presented via the Plan Bridgeport website .
UConn Engineering Professor Eyes Autonomous-Vehicle Testing Facility in Storrs
The University of Connecticut could become home to the first autonomous-vehicle testing facility on the East Coast.

School administrators are mulling a proposal to transform UConn’s Depot Campus in Mansfield, and the site of the abandoned Bergin Prison across the street — which the state donated to the university — into a 100- to 200-acre autonomous-vehicle testing facility that would include roads, building facades, styrofoam dummies and other items to test driverless cars’ safety on roadways.
"We could drive cars, we could test experimental vehicles, we could basically close down the roadways, and not fear hitting pedestrians or hitting other cars or driving into buildings,” said Eric Jackson, associate research professor in UConn’s engineering school and director of the Connecticut Transportation Safety Research Center, who is spearheading the proposal.

To learn more, click here .
Watch for Me CT — Welcome to 2020!
A lot happened in 2019, including the launch of Watch for Me CT's redesigned website and an impactful new campaign featuring real people out and about. Watch for Me CT is hopeful that 2020 will be a safer year for all road users, as they continue to work on behalf of the bicyclists and pedestrians on our streets.

You can check out Watch for Me CT's redesigned website, here .
2020 National Work Zone Awareness Week
National Work Zone Awareness Week 2020 is scheduled for April 20-24. This year’s theme is  Safe Work Zones for All: Protect workers. Protect road users.  It features a poster reminiscent of the World War II poster with Rosie the Riveter. In her place are a male and female roadway worker proclaiming, “We Can Do It!”, which is the original language used in the WWII poster.

For more information regarding National Work Zone Awareness Week, click here .

The National Work Zone Awareness Week poster is available to download in PDF format, here .
The T2 Center Is Now on Instagram!
Along with the our Facebook page, the T2 Center now has an Instagram page!
Click on the icons below to like the T2 Center on Facebook and follow the T2 Center on Instagram!
If you have any ideas or suggestions for future Connecticut Crossroads topics, please feel free to email the designer Regina Hackett at [email protected]