FHWA Announces the Next Round of Every Day Counts Innovations

Edited by Airton Kohls (Source: EDC News Weekly Newsletter)

It must be acknowledged that the pedestrian is a road user. They travel at much slower speeds and generally travel shorter distances. Just as we want to provide safe and improved pathways for the vehicular traffic, the pedestrian traffic must be accommodated. Yet we have a number of pedestrians that are not able to freely travel these provided pathways (sidewalks). Due to personal disabilities, the hazards of traveling so close to and interacting with the vehicular traffic are greatly magnified.

Every Day Counts (EDC) is a state-based model that identifies and rapidly deploys proven, yet underutilized innovations to shorten the project delivery process, enhance roadway safety, reduce traffic congestion, and improve environmental sustainability. Proven innovations promoted through EDC facilitate greater efficiency at the state and local levels, saving time, money and resources that can be used to deliver more projects. The EDC program has made a significant positive impact in accelerating the deployment of innovations and in building a culture of innovation within the transportation community.

Since the inception of EDC in 2011, each state has used 14 or more of the 43 innovations promoted through Every Day Counts, and some states have adopted more than 30. Many of these innovations have become mainstream practices across the country, like the Safety Edge, Adaptive Signal Control Technology, High Friction Surface Treatment, Road Diets, Smarter Work Zones and Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures, to name a few.

FHWA will promote the following 10 technologies and practices in the fifth round of Every Day Counts (EDC-5):

1. Advanced Geotechnical Exploration Methods offer solutions for generating more accurate geotechnical characterizations that improve design and construction, leading to shorter project delivery times and reducing the risks associated with limited data on subsurface site conditions.
2. The 2D hydraulic modeling and 3D computer visualization technologies featured in Collaborative Hydraulics: Advancing to the Next Generation of Engineering (CHANGE) provide a more comprehensive understanding of complex flow patterns at river crossings versus traditional modeling techniques, facilitate more effective communication and collaboration, and improve agencies' ability to design safer and more cost-effective and resilient structures on waterways.
3. Project Bundling helps agencies streamline design and construction, reduce costs, and effectively decrease transportation project backlogs by awarding a single contract for several similar preservation, rehabilitation, or replacement projects.
   

   Signage, pavement markings and rumble strips are a few of the countermeasures listed on the Reducing Rural Roadway Departures initiative from EDC-5. (Source: FHWA)
4. Reducing Rural Roadway Departures highlights systemic application of proven roadway departure countermeasures, such as rumble strips, friction treatments, and clear zones, to help keep vehicles in their travel lanes, reduce the potential for crashes, and reduce the severity of those crashes that do occur.
5. Safe Transportation for Every Pedestrian (STEP) features several cost-effective safety countermeasures already available to assist practitioners in providing safer crossings for all pedestrians.
6. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are relatively low-cost devices that allow agencies to expedite the data collection needed for better-informed decisions while reducing the adverse impacts of temporary work zones on work crews and the traveling public.
   

   Using Unmanned Aerial Systems for bridge inspections is one of the safety benefits of the UAS initiative from EDC-5. (Source: FHWA)
7. Use of Crowdsourcing to Advance Operations shows how new sources of crowdsourced traffic data enables better management and operation of the transportation system through faster detection of and response to problems, faster and more accurate traveler information to the public, and more proactive and effective operations strategies.
8. Value Capture: Capitalizing on the Value Created by Transportation describes a variety of mechanisms that may be used to derive monetary value from transportation improvements to help defray the cost of their implementation.
9. Virtual Public Involvement techniques, such as telephone town halls and online meetings, offer convenient, efficient, and lowcost methods for informing the public, encouraging their participation, and receiving their input.
10. Weather-Responsive Management Strategies support state and local transportation agencies in deploying improved traffic control and traveler information systems that will significantly reduce highway crashes and delays resulting from adverse weather and promote anti-icing strategies for reducing chloride use.

Transportation leaders will gather at regional summits this fall to review the EDC-5 innovations and identify those that fit the needs of their programs. Our region will meet in Orlando on November 27 and 28. EDC-5 deployment teams will offer technical assistance, training, and resources to help transportation stakeholders adopt the innovations in 2019 and 2020.

For additional information go to: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovation/everydaycounts/