- Safety Matters: ADA Compliance Kit
- NEW Traffic Signal Tech Brief: Retroreflective Backplates — A Proven Safety Countermeasure
- Warren's Words of Wisdom: Holiday Ladders and Cords
- NEW Tailgate Talk: Work Zone Safety: Staying Safe Inside the Zone
- Innovation Station: Are Your Roads Weather Savvy?
- 36th Annual CASHO-CIRMA Snow Plow Safety Roadeo
- Connecticut Expanded Mandatory Sexual Harassment Training Went into Effect October 1st
- Leading Pedestrian Interval - City of Stamford
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Safety Matters: ADA Compliance Kit
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One of the most popular Safety Circuit Rider Program resources is our
equipment loan program
. Many of you are familiar with this and have used the ball bank indicators, traffic counters and speed display signs to assist you with traffic safety in your municipalities. Did you know that we also have an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Compliance Toolkit that can be instrumental in helping you determine if your community is accessible to all? The toolkit provides equipment for people to understand the difficulties faced by visually impaired people as well as those who are wheelchair-bound. Anyone who is involved in the planning, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure in a municipality can experience first-hand the barriers that can be faced if their community is not accessible to all. The toolkit and the information a municipality can gain from using it can also be instrumental in developing an ADA Transition Plan. For more information,
click here
.
If you have any questions about local road safety concerns, you can contact:
Melissa Evans, Safety Circuit Rider
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NEW Traffic Signal Tech Brief: Retroreflective Backplates — A Proven Safety Countermeasure
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Retroreflective backplates are an FHWA Proven Safety Countermeasure known to reduce total crashes at an intersection by 15%. Retroreflective backplates reduce crashes by providing greater visibility and conspicuity of traffic signal heads, particularly at night and for drivers with vision limitations.
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Cost:
This countermeasure is low-cost, ranging from about $35 per head to add reflective tape to existing backplates up to $110 per head to install new backplates with integral retroreflective material.
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f you have traffic signal systems questions, please contact:
Theresa Schwartz, P.E., P.T.O.E. - Traffic Signal Circuit Rider
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Warren's Words of Wisdom: Holiday Ladders and Cords
by Warren Rogers, C.S.P.
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'Tis the season, to decorate the house and bushes!!!
Has the outdoor decoration bug started for you yet? I see Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decorations up, seems like six months of the year. My neighbor gets the grand prize, he never takes his Christmas lights down. The hood appreciates his year-round North Pole Santa Village approach, helps our property values.
When I see outdoor decorations, I think of extension cords and ladders. Both can be hazardous to life and limb if you’re not smart. Follow these tips to survive the season and enjoy the family!
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Ladders help you reach the eaves of the roof near the spot where the service wires come to the house. Ladders being carried vertically can reach the typical 12-foot ground to service wire height. The metal ladder you’re holding hitting a service wire could make whatever holiday you’re decorating for your last. If you can, please replace your metal ladder with a fiberglass ladder. However, you should still avoid touching any wires, but having a fiberglass ladder could be the one part that saves you if you make a mistake.
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NEW Tailgate Talk: Work Zone Safety: Staying Safe Inside the Zone
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The T2 Center has published our newest Tailgate Talk informational brief. Each Tailgate Talk focuses on one on-the-job safety topic and is designed to be shared with your crew at the beginning of their day. When employees are presented with safety material in small chunks, in a setting in which they are comfortable, they are more likely to retain that information and put it into practice.
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- First and foremost—BE VISIBLE. Wear bright, high-visibility clothing, meeting the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards.
- Look for hazards. Always survey the work area for potential hazards.Besides traffic, what is out there?
- Plan multiple escape routes. Where will you run if a vehicle drivers into the work area?
- Use the buddy system where everybody watches out for everybody else. Frequently glance at oncoming traffic.
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Are Your Roads Weather Savvy?
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Some transportation agencies are choosing innovative solutions to better manage adverse weather conditions on their roadways
— saving lives and enhancing mobility.
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Heavy rain, snow, ice, dust, fog, and other adverse weather conditions all cause significant effects on roadway safety, mobility, and economic productivity. Over the last decade, weather contributed to nearly 21 percent of all vehicle crashes. On average, nearly 6,000 people are killed and more than 445,000 are injured in weather-related crashes each year. Further, adverse weather causes 25 percent of all nonrecurring delays, costing the freight industry roughly $3.4 billion and $9.5 billion overall each year for just 85 urban areas alone.
The Federal Highway Administration's Weather-Savvy Roads initiative directly addresses issues caused by weather impacts on the transportation system by promoting two innovative road weather management solutions: Pathfinder and Integrating Mobile Observations (IMO). Pathfinder provides a step-by-step process for building relationships with partners to share forecasts and road conditions, and then provides consistent messaging to travelers. IMO involves enhanced data collection from agency fleet vehicles to improve awareness of road conditions.
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In Every Day Counts round five (EDC-5), the FHWA is encouraging state and local transportation agencies to adopt
weather-responsive management strategies
to increase the effectiveness of traffic operations and maintenance when the weather turns bad. The initiative focuses on maximizing the use of mobile and connected-vehicle data about road weather to support operations and maintenance decisions.
And as a reminder, municipalities can access Connecticut's Roadway Weather Information System (RWIS) designed to provide real-time condition data to support timely decision making and improve public safety. If a town wishes to gain access, send an email to
[email protected]
. One username/password will be issued per town.
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36th Annual CASHO-CIRMA Snow Plow Roadeo
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On October 10th, the T2 Center had the honor of volunteering at the Connecticut Association of Street & Highway Officials Inc. (CASHO) and the Con
necticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency's (CIRMA) 36th Annual Snow Plow Safety Roadeo, in Wallingford, CT. The weather coopera
ted this year and it turned out to be fun day for everyone who participated.
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The overall winner for the day was the
Town of Bloomfield
.
Here are the first place winners in each category:
- 100 - West Hartford - Alex Daley
- 200 - Bloomfield - Mike Leduc
- 300 - Vernon - Colten Garrison
- 400 - Vernon - Tim Moriarty
- 500 - Granby - Robbie Bahre
Congratulations to all of the winners! Check out the CASHO official
website
.
WTNH News 8 attended the event. You can watch their coverage
here
.
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Connecticut Expanded Mandatory Sexual Harassment Training Went into Effect October 1st
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As of October 1, 2019, the number of employees and employers that are required to undergo mandatory sexual harassment prevention training greatly expanded in Connecticut.
More employers will be required to provide mandatory sexual harassment training to all employees starting October 1, 2019.
The
new law
, dubbed the “Time’s Up Act,” moves the threshold for employers that must provide sexual harassment training from companies with 50 employees or more to companies with three employees or more.
Also under the new law any employer with 3 or more employees must provide 2 hours of sexual harassment training to all employees, not just supervisors. Employers with fewer than 3 employees will be required to provide the training but only to supervisory employees.
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Leading Pedestrian Interval - City of Stamford
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The City of Stamford has the first leading pedestrian interval implemented in CT, at the intersection of Summer and Hoyt Streets. It gives pedestrians 7 extra seconds to start crossing the street before the cars at the intersection going the same direction get a green light. The pedestrian then follows normal crossing laws.
Leading pedestrian intervals enhance the visibility of pedestrians and reinforce their right-of-way over turning vehicles, especially at intersections like Summer and Hoyt, that have a high crash history. LPIs have a significant crash reduction factor, meaning it is an effective strategy to improving pedestrian safety and reducing crashes involving pedestrians at signalized intersections.
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Studies have shown that LPIs can reduce pedestrian-vehicle crashes as much as 60%. It has been successful in several US cities, including NYC, Chicago, Washington DC, Minneapolis, etc. The City of Stamford plans to expand its use of LPI in high pedestrian volume areas. Look out for the head start for pedestrian signals while you are walking in Stamford.
To watch the
Leading Pedestrian Interval Educational Video,
click here
.
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Use these links to get more information about the Connecticut Training and Technical Assistance (T2) Center:
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If you have any ideas or suggestions for future
Connecticut Crossroads
topics, please feel free to email the designer Regina Hackett at
[email protected]
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