ENG INEERING
En Route to Safer Roads in Alaska Education, enforcement, and engineering pave the way
Lance King | iStock
By Matt Jardin
D
rive to Seward or Homer for a weekend summer getaway enough times, and as sure as you are to witness the gorgeous Alaska scenery along the way, you’ll inevitably run into an hours-long delay caused by a head-on collision. Hopefully you really enjoy the view, because once caught in the wait, chances are you’ll be staring at it for a while. Traffic incidents such as these do not go unnoticed by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF). Every accident is analyzed and discussed with community leadership and law enforcement in an effort to minimize collisions that result in hospitalizations or fatalities.
The Three Es For the DOT&PF central region— which is home to 460,000 Alaskans 102 | November 2021
(65 percent of the state’s population) across the Municipality of Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Kenai Peninsula, Whittier, Dillingham, and Bethel—traffic safety begins with the three Es: education, enforcement, and engineering. The first E, education, begins as a conversation between the DOT&PF and community leadership like the Anchorage Assembly or Palmer or Wasilla City Councils. Since they collect their own data on traffic patterns, local governments can provide the DOT&PF with its most accurate look at what traffic concerns most affect the people who have to live with them. “We meet with communities and take suggestions,” says Scott Thomas, traffic and safety engineer for the DOT&PF central region. “It was in Bird or Indian where a resident suggested that we update the reflectors on Alaska Business
Turnagain Arm. Now you’ll notice on all our guardrails in these corridors there are bright reflectors that show up at night. That was a suggestion that’s now a standard for us.” Enforcement, the second E, is exactly what it sounds like: relying on local law enforcement officials to reinforce safe driving. This is especially helpful in mitigating traffic accidents during the time it takes for an engineering solution to go from conception to completion. For good measure, all incidents, from minor speeding infractions to major car crashes, are also reported to the DOT&PF, further increasing the pool of data it has available to improve safety down the road. “Goal zero is we want safer roads for everybody—to stop fatalities, cut back on collisions, and decrease the number of serious injuries,” says Sergeant David w w w .a k b iz m a g .c o m
