ATSSA President & CEO Stacy Tetschner today sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg making three requests regarding changes to the Buy America requirements included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

“In a recent survey of ATSSA members regarding the new Buy America requirements for federally-funded infrastructure projects, there is considerable concern about the impact that these new policies will have on roadway safety,” Tetschner wrote. “Knowing of your strong commitment to reducing the number of fatalities and serious injuries on this nation’s roadways, it is important for you to consider the serious effect the new Buy America requirements will have not only on the roadway safety industry but the public as well.”

Tetschner also noted his concern regarding the "looming deadline" for implementation of the new Buy America requirements.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (Jan. 7, 2021) – The American Traffic Safety Services Association  selected nine companies to participate in its 2021 New Products Rollout  event, which is held in conjunction with the 51st Annual Convention & Traffic Expo being held online over two weeks in February.

Typically, more than 3,700 people attend the largest roadway safety tradeshow in North America to see some of the latest innovations in the roadway safety infrastructure industry. The products submitted as part of NPRO are comprised of a wide range of devices designed to save lives on our nation’s roadways.

This year’s Convention is being held Feb. 8-12 and 16-18.

Additional responses to questions submitted to The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regarding the testing of roadside safety hardware under the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) 2016 were released Monday. 

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) needs an update, and ATSSA is playing a major role in the process. The current edition of the roadway safety infrastructure industry’s guide to keeping drivers and roadway workers safe was published in 2009.

The American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) will partner with FailSafe-ERA on the Right Road Job Training and Placement Program, a program that helps qualified returning citizens receive the training and job resources they need to put them on a path to success in temporary  traffic control.

Reducing fatalities on rural roads remains a major challenge in the United States. In 2016, 18,590 lives were lost on rural roads—more than half of all traffic deaths—even though only 19 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural areas. Two-thirds of these rural fatalities involved a roadway departure, where a vehicle crosses a center line, an edge line, or otherwise leaves its travel lane.

Roadway departure countermeasures are regularly used on roads with higher functional classifications and are proven methods for reducing crashes and improving the safety of the transportation system. Crash modification factors have been developed and promoted for several of these countermeasures, and they can be applied more broadly using existing tools and processes. 

This research studies the upgrade programs implemented by Sioux City, IA, Mendocino, CA, Putnam County, NY, and the Insurance Institute of British Columbia, Canada, and identifies other projects that upgraded sign materials. The research evaluates each implementation practice and examines the crash results, including crash types, sign locations in relation to the crashes, time of day, light vs. dark, weather, and other factors that may have influenced the signs’ effectiveness. In addition, state and/or national baseline crash information for the same time periods will help establish trends.