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Show HIGHWAY SAFETY Nebraska Rural Safety Project Wins Traffic Engineering Award How one state reduced automobile automo-bile accidents 91 per cent in one year at a dangerous rural highway intersection at trivial cost, simply by removing an unwarranted traffic traf-fic signal and installing stop signs and warnings, has been voted the best example of traffic engineering results submitted to the Association Associa-tion of Casualty and Surety companies com-panies in its 1950 competition for traffic officials. First prize of $100 was awarded to J. Edward Johnston, of Lincoln, Lin-coln, Neb., state traffic engineer, Nebraska department of roads and irrigation, for his entry in the second annual "Getting Results Through Traffic Engineering" contest con-test sponsored by the association's accident prevention department. It showed how accidents have been nearly eliminated at the junction of highways U.S. 30 and Nebraska 15, near Schuyler, where 32 accidents acci-dents had injured 13 persons in eight and a half years. Only one very minor accident occurred during dur-ing the first year after the change was made, compared with 11 during the preceding 12 months. The important contributions to greater highway safety being made by the nation's traffic engineers and officials are indicated by seven case histories of results, Including Mr. Johnston's, published last year in the accident prevention department's depart-ment's bulletin, "Getting Results Through Traffic Engineering." By actual count, according to Thomas N. Boate, the association's associa-tion's director of public safety, the 1950 examples of engineering engineer-ing results prevented 70 accidents, acci-dents, nine deaths and 61 injuries inju-ries in comparable periods after safety projects were completed in five cities and on two rural highways in seven states-Tennessee, states-Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Nebraska, California and Michigan. Nine deaths and 65 injuries had occurred in 90 accidents at locations loca-tions studied by traffic officials before the changes were made in the seven projects outlined in last year's bulletins. There were no deaths, injuries were reduced to four, and only 20 accidents occurred after the changes were made, Mr. Boate said. IN THE ASSOCIATION'S annual competition, major factors considered consid-ered by the judging include effectiveness effec-tiveness of a project in reducing accidents and traffic delay or congestion, con-gestion, and relationship of the value of benefits to cost of the improvement made. The example submitted by Mr. Johnston showed that the prize-winning Nebraska rural crossroads project enabled the authorities to increase the speed limit from 25 to 35 miles an hour, thus expediting traffic at the same time accidents were reduced 91 per cent. Eight times as many accidents acci-dents had occurred at the Schuyler, Neb., intersection as were experienced at a similar location on U. S. 30 where only stop signs were used to control traffic, a study revealed. Analysis Analy-sis showed that fixed-time signals sig-nals were not justified, so the lights were removed and 48-inch reflectorized stop signs and stop ahead warnings were erected erect-ed to control traffic on Nebraska Nebras-ka 15. Other successful traffic engineering engineer-ing projects published in 1950 by the Association, ranging in cost from $5.50 to $30,080, included: establishment es-tablishment of a four-way stop in Nashville, Term.; channelizing and installing signals at Y-intersections in Los Angeles and Charlotte, N. C. ; bus rerouting and signal retiming in midtown Norfolk, Va.; instituting mid-block transit loading zones in the central business district of Shreveport, La., and re-signing a rural junction near Grand Rapids, Mich. The 1951 "Getting Results Through Traffic Engineering" competition, which again offers a $100 award for the best example submitted, is open to all engineers, police and traffic officials. Entries should be sent at any time during the year to the Accident Prevention Department, Depart-ment, Association of Casualty and Surety Companies, 60 John Street, New York 38, N. Y. |
