Today was the quarterly meeting of the TIME Task Force, a group I was “voluntold” to join back in 2005 that quickly became one of the best parts of my job. You know TIME has to stand for something that sounds really complicated and boring, as all task forces and government agencies do: Traffic Incident Management Enhancement. Say that 5 times really fast. But it accurately describes what the Task Force does – finds ways to enhance traffic incident management, which is a bureaucratic way to say getting the wrecks off the damn roads.
What’s funny is that the TIME Task Force has survived seven years due to the sheer force of will of a few people, and the DOT’s willingness to let some of us to serve on the TIME Board of Directors. Other than that, TIME hasn’t been able to get on many people’s radar, or stay on it for very long. The irony is – and I think that phrase will be in every post on this blog – that accidents are 50% of the traffic problem. I would think that any group of people trying to figure out (1) how to prevent accidents or (2) finding “best practices” in getting the damn road open after an accident would be able to command any amount of money needed for the organization. Or at least get the attention of everyone interested in solving Atlanta’s notorious, relentless congestion. So far, that’s not the case.
The fact remains – if there were no “incidents,” the technical term for anything that impedes the flow of traffic – we’d have 50% less congestion. The death toll is the scary part. For every minute you’re stuck in a traffic jam behind an incident, no matter how minor, the chance of your getting into a secondary incident (potentially much worse) increases 2.8%. Yes, this is all technical and wonkish, but it’s backed up by years of data gathering. Putting it in real terms, if you’re stuck behind an accident for 20 minutes, the probability of your getting creamed from the rear by another vehicle – 18-wheeler, even – goes up almost 60%. How do you like those odds? Sound bogus? In today’s meeting, one of the committee chairs told us about an accident that involved two tractor-trailers (18-wheelers) down on I-85 in Coweta County. Those of you down in Newnan and points south know all about this project. I-85 is being widened to three lanes in each direction, which is a good thing. However, the way they’ve been able to do it in such a tight space is to put up barrier walls on either side of the open lanes, creating what I call a “laundry chute.” There’s virtually no room for error. The speed limit has been lowered to 50 miles per hour in the construction zone as well. Too bad that hasn’t made people slow down and pay attention.
The two tractor-trailers “got together,” euphemistically speaking, and they caught on fire, and everything came to a halt. One of the drivers stuck in the back-up – some call it “backwash” – was a lady returning home from Florida. I’m not positive of the circumstances of this secondary accident – either she couldn’t slow down in time and slammed into the back of a dump truck, or it slammed into her – but she was killed. The drivers of the burning tractor-trailers both walked away. Of course, since this secondary accident involved a fatality, that just shut down I-85 even longer.
So if the SAFE thing to do is to get the road back open as quickly as possible, why isn’t there more money and effort devoted to cracking the code? The TIME Task Force has received a lot of moral support and some funding from the feds, the I-95 Corridor Coalition, law enforcement agencies and sponsors of our annual conferences. But most of the real money and concentrated effort comes via GDOT. This would be OK, but now GDOT, like a lot of state and local agencies, is in a real bind.
We saw what happened at the end of the last legislative session. The Legislature couldn’t agree on how to fund transportation, the lobbyists walked out, and the business community threw up their hands. But even if everyone had joined hands, sung Kumbaya from the well, and agreed to throw a bunch of money at transportation projects, we wouldn’t see any results for a long time. That’s not a slam on anyone, just a fact. In another post I’ll try to explain. Lanes cannot be added overnight, and rail lines don’t just appear. But maybe the business leaders and even individuals could help solve 50% of the traffic problem now – by focusing on the people on the “front lines” – the first responders and agencies working together to get the damn road open. It’s not a cure by any means – accidents will happen, cars will stall, trucks will jacknife and tankers will flip over. But if we could get them cleared, fast, before everything backed up for miles, wouldn’t that be worth some investment? Talk about a quick return.
Love this blog I’ll be back when I have more time.
Comment by mrred — April 22, 2009 @ 4:12 am