WTI researchers completed a man-made snow event for the Pacific Northwest Snowfighters Inhibitor Longevity and Deicer Performance Study. The goal of this event was to evaluate corrosion inhibitor longevity in anti-icers after roadway application following a significant snow event. Three inhibited chloride anti-icers were applied with a specially designed applicator trailer. Snow production began following anti-icer application and continued until a uniform layer of fine crystalline snow was achieved. Test sections were sampled for seven consecutive days with testing of the anti-icers for longevity parameters currently underway at the Corrosion and Infrastructure Laboratory at WTI.
Month: March 2010
WTI staff held a snowmaking event in February
Snowmaking: WTI staff held a snowmaking event in February to check and tune the snowmaking equipment. Based on data from this event, the fan guns will be updated with new weather stations and nozzle upgrades to make snow more consistently and efficiently at temperatures slightly below freezing. Snowmaking equipment upgrades will be completed by next winter.
Instrumentation boxes and conduit have been installed on the data tower
Data Tower: Instrumentation boxes and conduit have been installed on the data tower. Pending good weather, a camera and antennas will be installed on the tower along with a server, DVR, and other network equipment in the shop in the coming weeks. A wireless connection between the shop network and the weather station will also be established.
WTI personnel completed the third Field Operational Test.
WTI personnel completed the third Field Operational Test for the Caltrans Establishing Best Practices of Snow and Ice Removal research project. Similar to previous tests for this project, chemicals were applied late in the afternoon with air and pavement temperatures above freezing. Once the pavement temperature fell below freezing, snow was applied and compacted overnight using the Transcend snowmaking system and a smooth drum compactor. Test sections were evaluated early the next morning by measuring bond shear strength and roughness.
Traffic Safety Culture Summit 2010
Our intention for this Summit was to move beyond informative presentations and towards action on this important work. The role of culture in improving the effectiveness of traffic safety systems is critical.
This page is an archive providing access to presentations and other documents created for and by this event. Please feel free to contact our Center for Health and Safety Culture director if you have questions or would like further information.
2010 Summit Proceedings
Audio voice over, with presentations, for the Monday morning sessions are provided below. Basic pdf’s of each presentation, for viewing purposes, are also provided below.
The following presentations have been made available courtesy of the speakers and are the sole property of the originator (speaker/author). As such, they should not be used, modified, etc. without the originators express permission.
WELCOME:
- Michael Griffith, Director, Office of Safety Integration, Federal Highway Administration
NSRTSC 2010
KEYNOTE SESSION: RURAL TRAFFIC SAFETY CULTURE OVERVIEW
This session focused on the rural context and identifying the behavioral, social and political factors in rural areas that are responsible for (1) the high traffic fatality and serious injury rate, (2) the political reluctance to introduce strong traffic safety policy, and (3) the community resistance to government mandated safety interventions. The format involved three presentations by relevant organizations with time for audience participation and questions. The goal of this session was to focus participants on the rural context and provide background for the later sessions dealing with potential solutions to the rural cultural and institutional barriers.
- Nicholas Ward, Professor, Montana State University/Western Transportation Institute
Presentation (pdf)
- Peter Kissinger, CEO, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety
Presentation (pdf)
- John Dawson, Chairman, EuroRAP, London
Presentation (pdf)
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF TRAFFIC SAFETY DRIVER CULTURE
This interactive session presented different perspectives on driver safety culture and engaged participants in dialogue related to challenges and opportunities for positively improving traffic safety driver culture – especially in rural areas. Participants began to engage in the process of developing a common framework to measure and apply behavioral change strategies predicted on traffic safety culture.
- Dee Allsop, Heart+Mind Strategies
Presentation (pdf)
- John Lee, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Presentation (pdf)
- Larry Wallack, Portland State University
Presentation (pdf)
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF TRAFFIC SAFETY ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
There are many organizations that impact traffic safety – law enforcement, local and state road departments, tribal entities and federal agencies. From the top down, or from the bottom up, how can safety culture move through an organization? This session built upon ongoing local, state, tribal and/or national initiatives to discuss how to achieve and accelerate organizationally a change in traffic safety culture.
- Tony Giancola, NACE
Presentation (pdf) - Bernie Arseneau, Minnesota Department of Transportation
Presentation (pdf)
- Henri Headdress, Fort Peck Reservation Roads Program
THE SCIENCE OF THE POSITIVE – FRAMEWORK FOR IMPROVING HEALTH AND SAFETY CULTURES
The Science of the Positive (SotP) is a theory of transformation for individual and collective cultures. Through decades of research and application, the SotP approach has evolved to become an holistic science-to-action framework for posing research questions and evaluating the effectiveness of intervention strategies. While numerous definitions of “safety cultures” abound, they all seem to operate from a common deficit-based perspective that essentially views “culture as a problem to be solved.” The most pressing need in safety culture research is to correct this misperception and establish a common positive framework for action. The Science of the Positive identifies three core domains that direct intermediate variables toward sustained cultural transformation of health and safety outcomes.
- Drs. Jeffrey Linkenbach and Jerome Evans, Western Transportation Institute National MOST of Us Institute for Positive Community Norms, Montana State University
Presentation (pdf)
Behavioral Breakout Session Presentations:
- What cultural factors are perpetuating teen driver distraction and how can teen driver distraction be reduced by changing culture?
B1 Breakout - What are the main differences in rural and urban culture that relate to the differences in crash risk between these regions?
B2 Breakout - What are the cultural barriers to drivers accepting safety interventions (e.g., speed cameras) and enforcement programs (e.g., random roadside stops)?
B3 Breakout - What can we do to change the culture of speeding?
B4 Breakout
Organizational Breakout Sessions Presentations:
- What Institutional changes should we consider to more effectively address rural traffic safety?
O1 Breakout - How can we (and what specific steps can we) take to better understand and overcome the culture of complacency?
O2 Breakout - What are the challenges and benefits of adopting a zero death goal?
O4 Breakout - CLOSING KEYNOTE
Dr. Ileana Arias, Principal Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Closing Keynote
Washington State DOT donates two Halliday RT3 friction trailers for use at Transcend
Washington State DOT donated two Halliday RT3 friction trailers to Transcend and one was recently installed on a truck. The friction trailer will be used this winter to provide quantitative friction measurements during testing.