MoDOT Lets Peyton Manning Decide When Road Work Starts

Roadwork on Interstate 70 in Jackson County comes down to whether Peyton Manning has a bad day against the Jets tomorrow.

And if Ray Lewis can replicate Oakland's shredding of the Chiefs' offensive line.

The Missouri Department of Transportation are rebuilding the George Brett Bridge this winter, and its start date is contingent on how well the Kansas City Chiefs do in the postseason. The Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.

As the fourth seed, the Chiefs have a slim prospect of hosting the AFC Championship. For that to happen, the Jets must win tomorrow at Indianapolis. Were the Chiefs to win, they would then have to defeat Pittsburgh at Heinz Field, and the Jets would have to overcome their division rivals at New England. So long as a chance exists, MoDOT will delay construction of the bridge carrying the Blue Ridge Cutoff.

However, if Manning plays as he normally does at Lucas Oil Field, the bridge comes down Monday morning, even if the Chiefs win. Either way, crews will have until 30 March to complete construction of the new bridge, in time for the Royals home opener at Kauffman Stadium.

The new Blue Ridge Cutoff/George Brett Bridge is part of a widening of I-70 through the area. The project so far has brought a new bridge carrying U.S. Highway 40 over I-435. By 2012, ramps in the area will be reconfigured to better handle traffic and accommodate a third lane for I-70. This includes eliminating the junction with Manchester Avenue and adding ramps from Southbound I-435 to US-40. Sport fans from the north will have to use this new ramp to access the stadia, as traffic from north I-435 will no longer be able to access Blue Ridge Cutoff via I-70 east.

MoDOT's trying to lure me home…

…by opening an interchange that has people driving on the left side of the road!?

On Monday, the Missouri Department of Transportation completed construction on a new traffic scheme at the junction of Interstate 44 and Highway 13 in Springfield, best known as the exit leading you to QuikTrip and Fantastic Caverns. The intersection design, called a divergent diamond, has only been done three times before in France. (Were I still on the wrong side of 36°30', or at least in Southwest Missouri, I would likely have driven through this intersection at least once in the next month on account of desiring to visit the grandparents near the Fourth of July holiday and a greater desire to gork out on QuikTrip's fountain quarts whilst driving, but I digress.)

In short, the intersection is structured to where traffic signals only handle traffic across the bridge, while traffic exiting the freeway need only yield to oncoming traffic and entering the freeway simply exit when they need do. This results, however, in Missourians using that intersection now driving on the left side of the road. (Next thing you know, Heartland Chevrolet will add Vauxhalls to their lineup.) Traffic flow across the bridge only one direction at a time, hopefully preventing backups and negating the need for turn lanes. However, there runs the risk of confusing the crap out of drivers, especially at night if the glare guards don't do the trick.

For MoDOT, this is the first implementation of this design coming to fruition (and the first in the U.S.). MoDOT initially proposed it for the semi-truck heavy intersection between I-435 and Front Street in Kansas City's East Bottoms. Along with Front Street, they also plan to introduce it at I-270 and Dorsett Road in the St. Louis suburb of Richmond Heights. And several other state DoTs are looking into it.

If they really wanted to give Missouri a taste of Britain, they could have done a roundabout interchange instead! That's practically the standard along Britain's motorways!

First post from Folkestone, and what else is new?

I'm writing about something back home!

Sure, I could write something up about Barcelona's 2-0 win over Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League final, or go into detail about recent legislation concerning whether Gurkha troops stationed here in Folkestone should receive the right to immigrate to the UK at the end of their service. But instead, I need to talk about helmets.

Last week, I posted an admonishment toward the Missouri Department of Transportation about their citing statistics from a survey they hadn't sourced in their news release essentially lobbying Governor Jay Nixon to veto Senate Bill 202. Again, that bill would repeal the requirement that motorcycle helmet riders over the age of 21 wear a helmet. Earlier today, in response to a request I made under Missouri's Sunshine Law (RSMO Chapter 610), MoDOT sent me PDF copies of the survey and statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. I have uploaded a copy of both.

The survey, conducted by Abacus Associates of Hatfield, Massachusetts, does generally support MoDOT's findings. Technical details worth noting include that the survey questioned 2050 Missourians via telephone last April, with a margin of error of just under three percent. The three percent comes as a result of the weighted sample areas, divided by MoDOT's ten districts. Abacus has in the past been hired for at least five other MoDOT surveys and one of Kansas City's early light rail feasibility studies, according to their transportation CV.

MoDOT's claim that Missourians support the helmet law nine-to-one is reiterated in the executive summary of the survey. Specifically, the percentage is 84 percent strongly or leaning in favor to nine percent strongly or leaning against the current law. Also, the survey found that over half of those surveyed (56%) had never ridden a motorcycle. Of the respondents who said that they have ridden a motorcycle in the past year, 75 percent are in favor, either strongly (69%) or leaning, while 19 percent oppose, including 15 percent strongly.

The NHTSA statistics indicate both how many lives each state says were saved as a result of people involved in vehicle crashes who were wearing their seat belts, in the case of autos, or helmets in the case of motorcycles. The figures were then, based upon additional surveys concerning seat belt & helmet use, synthesized to create a figure equivalent to 100 percent usage. The figures provided are indeed striking: while Missouri and their helmet requirement estimate that eight additional lives can be saved were 100 percent of Missourians on bikes wearing their helmets, on top of the 42 reported saved in 2007, Arkansas & their lack of a helmet law would double their figure at 100 percent compliance, from 18 to 37.

The surveys are available here in PDF form:
MoDOT's commissioned survey on support for the helmet law
NHTSA Statistics on Lives Saved

Nanny knows best and will spend your tax dollars to prove it to the governor!

(For the record, I'm in favor of keeping the law, but I just have the inclination to poke at a certain state agency about their efforts.)

Yesterday, the Missouri Department of Transportation began a campaign to encourage Governor Jay Nixon to veto Senate Bill 202, which would eliminate the requirement for persons over 21 to wear a helmet whilst riding a motorcycle in Missouri. On the front page of MoDOT's Web site is a banner screaming "9 to 1", indicating that Missourians favor the helmet requirement by a 9-to-1 margin. That news release is where I start scratching my head.

From my experience dealing with news releases posted online, it is customary when citing statistics online to also upload the entire survey and the conditions under which it was conducted. MoDOT did not link to this information or even mention how many people were surveyed. Therefore, these figures are not sufficiently backed and must be treated with a grain of salt.

It is my hope that MoDOT, more than likely using state taxpayer money* to push for Nixon to veto SB202 (which passed the Senate 23-6 and House 93-55), will provide the source material for these numbers promptly as to make sure that Missourians are truly in support of maintaining the current law and that states where helmet laws are not in place (namely Arkansas, much to the disapproval of Gravette's Sen. Kim Hendren) are experiencing some of the worst numbers for motorcycle accident fatalities. One cannot rely on vague news releases and bleed-and-lead accident photos to convince people that "nanny laws" are truly needed.

*claim subject to imminent Sunshine Law request to MoDOT.