Comments on: Rumble Strip Campaign Progress

By: Steve Magas

Steve Magas — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:05:22 +0000

We are spending MILLIONS of dollars to keep sleepy motorists from running off the road and taking out mailboxes? This is stupid. Let’s just TICKET the motorists or better yet, actually ENFORCE the reckless driving laws and treat people who operate 2 ton bowling balls carelessly as criminals…

By: Justin Kristan

Justin Kristan — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 00:45:49 +0000

the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments received a memo speaking to NDDOT’s initial plan for rumble strip and stripe implementation. I let NDDOT know that Minnesota had a well developed approach that recognized shoulder use by bicyclists. Changes were made to their policy. It may not be perfect but the NDDOT did contact MnDOT which was great to hear.

By: Richard C. Moeur

Richard C. Moeur — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:51:09 +0000

This report was just noted at today’s Arizona DOT Regional Traffic Engineers’ Meeting as an example of why it’s important to follow good policies to ensure rumble strips are installed appropriately.

By: khal spencer

khal spencer — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:35:06 +0000

Check out Table 7 and its discussion in the NHTSA document Darren Flusche linked to in the previous blog entry to see why “roadway departure” crashes are such an issue.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811363.pdf

By: Larry Bloomfield

Larry Bloomfield — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:02:49 +0000

Ohio DOT says stripes will be used only on roads where there is at least a 3 foot shoulder – which may protect riders on the shoulder from inattentive motorists. OTOH Kentucky has strips on roads w/ no shoulders at all – go figure

By: Ramsey Doran

Ramsey Doran — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:18:11 +0000

in reply to Mr. Lockwood, here in Middle Tennessee, rumble strips have appeared on roads that already had narrow shoulders. Oftentimes, the shoulder is in bad repair and a rider has to choose between rocks/broken pavement/rumble strip/busy road. So, yes, we sometimes have to ride the rumble strip as the least of evils. Too, if you are entering some roads from side roads, you must cross the rumble strip to access the smoother pavement. I have a suspicion that the DOTs in many states have received a really sweet deal on installing rumble strips.

By: Cub Culbertson

Cub Culbertson — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:58:46 +0000

Western Pa. has not been complying with Fed. highway regulations concerning rumble strips. I approached our traffic unit, I work for Pen D.O.T. also, and was politly blown off. Thanks to this effort I was contacted by sec. of transportation,Pa., and am currently waiting on a account of how we decide where and when to use strips. Thanks to the League’s efforts the small voice at least got heard.

By: Jack Lockwood

Jack Lockwood — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 00:33:39 +0000

We have lots of roads with rumble strips in this neck of the woods (Northern MI). The rumble strips separate me from the motor traffic and make me feel safer on my bicycle. I have never ridden on a rumble strip. I have never seen anyone ride on a rumble strip. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to ride on a rumble strip.

By: khal spencer

khal spencer — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:17:38 +0000

Mr. Pillsbury, your assumption is that rural run-off-the-road crashes are a new problem, i.e., this “suddenly” is an issue. What I recall is that at least in the sticks, this has always been a problem. The Germans designed their autobahns to prevent drivers from snoozing off and drifting off the road, for example. We did not.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811232.pdf

Note that Figure 1 is an expanded graph. The percent of RoR crashes has increaased from 68% to 73% (no error bars) and while that is an increase, its not a huge increase.

We drove up to Pilar, NM yesterday from Los Alamos for one of the local art festivals that are popular in our state in late summer and fall. Most of NM-68, which is a stunningly beautiful drive up the Rio Grande Gorge but long known for run off the road and DWI related crashes, many of them head-on, is now festooned with rumbles on both the center lane divider and on both shoulders. This obviously sucks for the small number of bicyclists who use this road (I’ve never seen many cyclists on NM68), but whether it helps keep the descansos from completely taking over that road between Espanola and Taos is anyone’s bet. (Its probably the sheer frightfulness of traffic on this road that deters cyclists, not the rumbles–I hate driving it in anything less than an Abrams tank).

Rumbles are a tough call. We make up a minor to insignificant number of the total vehicles on many of these roads and highways (such as NM-68) and RoR is a huge issue. As Andy has said before, we need to work carefully with our state and national highway folks on this issue to try to reach common ground.

I wish all cars came with electronic sensors that detected RoR so we would not see more rumble strips, but that is probably a wish that is a few years off.

By: Donald Pillsbury

Donald Pillsbury — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 01:52:46 +0000

I recommend more root cause analysis into why – suddenly – drivers can’t seem to keep their vehicles on the road. Is the “graying of America” making it more difficult for older people to see the edge of the road? Are drivers going too fast? Or, perhaps, drivers are having troubles focusing on their primary objective of safely operating their automobile and getting distracted by responding to the ever-so urgent txt msg, fussing with their GPS, watching a DVD, or playing a computer game?