Category: transportation

Note:  Copyright of this article has been transferred to the Institute of Transportation Engineers upon it being published in the July 2019 issue of the ITE Journal.

As transportation professionals, each of us – consultants, public agency staff, and researchers – have at least one thing in common: the need to get our message to an audience. Gaining buy-in from clients, citizens, and peers requires us to communicate clearly, concisely, and persuasively.

One of the most effective communicators in the world is not an engineer or scientist. Born in 1915 and standing 7 feet tall, its iconic message causes the largest of machines to stop in their tracks. Some know it by its shape, others by color, and still others by its one-word message.

Traffic engineers call it R1-1. The rest of the world calls it a Stop Sign.

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) helps us communicate safe and efficient use of the highway system across the United States. The MUTCD is the standard for signing, striping, signals, and related items to help all road users travel safely.

MUTCD principles have application beyond the roadside to help us convey information – not just about traffic control, but anything at all.

The Purpose of Communication
Let’s start at the very beginning. Part 1. Chapter 1A. Section 1A.01.

The MUTCD clearly describes its intended purpose by answering the following questions:
• What does it do? Promote highway safety and efficiency.
• For whom? All road users.
• How? Provide for the orderly movement on streets, highways, bikeways, and private roads open to public travel.

What is the purpose of your communication? How will you achieve this purpose, and whom will it impact? In Give Your Speech, Change the World, author Nick Morgan challenges us: “If you’re going to take all the trouble to prepare and deliver a speech, make it worthwhile.” Morgan shares the potential value of the message: “We bother giving speeches because of the opportunities they offer presenters with passion and a cause.”

Whether giving a keynote speech to a full banquet hall, presenting to City Council, or e-mailing a coworker, we must identify a clear desired outcome.

Applying MUTCD Principles
The MUTCD next describes requirements each traffic control device should meet before it is installed on a publicly-traveled roadway in Section 1A.02, Principles of Traffic Control Devices.

Fulfill a need
As any sign, stripe, or signal should only be installed to address a need, so should our communication. Just as unwarranted signs cause distractions for road users, unnecessary e-mails, phone calls, social media posts, and weekly meetings can create clutter for all of us.

Why are you making the next phone call, or sending another e-mail? What need are you fulfilling with your firm’s next press release or social media post? Is this afternoon’s meeting solving a problem, sharing a new idea, or just checking a box?

Command attention
Why should you be listened to? Maybe it’s your qualifications, experience, or current skill sets. Maybe your idea itself is worthy of attention. If you identify the communication purpose and tie it to a real need, the next step is to ensure your message is heard. These days it is difficult to stand above the deluge of information each person receives daily.

The MUTCD ensures traffic signs command attention with a clean, clear message using symbols or very few words, standardized colors and fonts, and consistency. A Stop Sign uses each of these. Its red color and “FHWA Series” font have remained the same for decades and are standardized nationwide. Its unique octagonal shape and vertical placement 7 feet above the edge of pavement ensure it is noticed.

What is the first sentence of your article, or your first words on stage? How do you greet attendees when they enter a public meeting? When behind the podium, how do you command the attention of the audience?

Convey a clear, simple meaning
With only a simple shape and color combination of yellow and black, Chevron Alignment signs alert the driver that they are in a curve – not just any curve, but one that requires their attention and care. The sign has no words, and it’s typically quite small, but its meaning is clear: “Be careful here or you’ll end up in the ditch.”

Improve your messaging with two important words: Clarify. Simplify. Your presentations, correspondence, and phone calls should have a single, easy-to-understand purpose.

Command respect
Traffic control devices that “make the cut” to be included in the MUTCD require research, testing, and continuous improvements to meet the ongoing needs of road users. Facts are required to demonstrate and ensure that we continue to install, maintain, and operate devices for safety and efficiency.

As a young traffic engineer learning the ropes, I was taught to “be the expert.” I observed traffic in early mornings and late nights, weekdays and weekends. Bolstered by these data and my observations, when I met with a citizen who said, “Buddy, you don’t know what this place is like on Saturday mornings – it’s a madhouse,” I could reply with, “I may not know everything, but when I watched traffic last weekend, this is what I saw…”

Without including facts, data, and findings based on experience, your opinions command little respect from our industry and road users, and you are likely to be tuned out. By bringing analytical findings, before-and-after data with statistical rigor, and analysis of impact – and communicating it clearly and concisely – you will command respect from your audience.

Give adequate time for a proper response
Signs and traffic signals are placed on the roadside and above the roadway so road users have plenty of time to receive the message and respond appropriately. Device shapes, sizes, and font styles are combined to ensure adequate response time.

In your communication, leave some “white space” for others to participate. Ensure time for questions during or after your presentation, and hang around after to talk with the audience. In meetings, try talking a bit less and listening a bit more.

Putting it All Together
Treat your presentation audience, workshop attendee, or essay reader like a road user, with the same potential distractions they might have while traveling. They are coming to your presentation or reading your research paper with other things on their mind, and it is up to you to compel them to pay attention to you. Use these lessons from the MUTCD to share your message, and to make the world a better place.

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Photo Credit: Photos Public Domain, http://www.photos-public-domain.com

On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York City, Washington, DC, and outside of Shanksville, PA, in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. It was a senseless act of violence. On September 12, 2001, approximately 115 people were killed in acts of impatience, imprudence, distraction, and neglect at dozens of roadway locations around the country. On September 13, 115 more were killed, and another 115 each day for the rest of the year. By the end of 2001 more than 42,000 people died in roadway crashes in the United States. Each was a senseless act of violence. And preventable.

These deaths are more than just numbers. They are mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, teachers and students, coaches and players, bosses and employees, friends and neighbors. The effect of roadway fatalities is widespread and far-reaching, its toll both economic and emotional.

But there is hope.

Over many years traffic safety professionals have made great strides to improve the safety of roadways, vehicles,and road user competencies. Roadway safety is now considered in the transportation planning process, roads are designed safer, and highway systems are operated to improve safety. All road users, including those not in motor vehicles, are experiencing a safer travel environment.

I have recently completed a textbook, Roadway Safety: Identifying Needs and Implementing Countermeasures, to introduce the basics of transportation safety to a wide audience. I would be honored if you would check it out. You can contact Momentum Press for multi-access purchasing options.

I began researching and writing about color vision deficiency and its effects on transportation in 2009. I’ll be reposting some previously-published articles here with hopes to continue the discussion.

The issue of color vision deficiency been largely ignored by transportation professionals. An estimated 6-12% of the male population has some sort of colorblindness, meaning roughly 5% of road users are affected. The effects are not well documented, but what is known is that color deficient drivers suffer a disadvantage on the roadway.

The topic is important because 90% of what drivers use to navigate is visual, and much of that information is color-specific. Traffic sign types are denoted by color, and pavement markings in the United States have different meanings if they are striped white vs. yellow. Traffic signals’ red and green indications — the two colors most often confused by color-deficient individuals — provide drivers with opposite messages: Red means stop. Green means go.

But to a color-deficient driver, and even more so to a true color blind driver, the colors have little or no meaning.

Grey means stop. Grey means go.

The purpose of Grey Means Go is multi-faceted:

1. Describe the problem and share the small amount of research literature available on color deficiency in transportation and advocate for additional studies on the topic.

2. Share best practices that have been implemented – mostly outside the United States – to help colorblind drivers:

3. Encourage transportation professionals to consider color-deficient road users during design, construction, and operation of transportation facilities.

4. Encourage readers to share their stories of driving with color deficiencies, with the hope of increased community and discussion of this important issue.

How does colorblindness affect you on the road?