Back to School Safety

Many Kansas children will be boarding school buses for the first time this week.  Did you know that riding a bus is 13 times safer than riding in a passenger car and 10 times safer than walking to school?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, most of the children who lose their lives in bus-related crashes are pedestrians, four to seven years old, who are hit by the bus or by motorists illegally passing a stopped school bus.   We want to take a minute to remind drivers of the rules when approaching school buses.

• It is illegal to pass a school bus that is stopped to load or unload children.

• Traffic from both directions must stop on undivided roadways when students are entering or exiting a school bus.

• On a divided roadway, traffic behind the bus must stop.

• Never pass a school bus on the right.

• The area 10 feet around the school bus is where children are in the most danger of being hit.  Stop your car far enough from the bus to allow children the necessary space to safely enter and exit the bus.

• Be alert.  Children can forget to look both ways when crossing the street.

For more tips for children and motorists, click here.

Motoring Monday: Dodge City

If you think old west, one of the first places that usually comes to mind is Dodge City. Re-runs of more than 20 years of the television show “Gunsmoke” give people the chance to watch what it was like back then. But lots of historic areas around the city actually provide visitors their own opportunity to step back in time.

There are many places to visit in Dodge City, a few of them include:

• Boot Hill Museum – transports you back to the 1800s with interactive and historic exhibits that illustrate life back then.

• Gunfighters Wax Museum – life-size wax figures of numerous famous western people and characters.

• Wild West Heritage Buffalo and Longhorn Exhibit – an exhibit as well as American Bison and Corrientes longhorn cattle.

• Historic Downtown Dodge City – features historic locations of interest, custom metal art banners, art museum, guided tours and more.

Lots of special events take place throughout the year as well. For more information, check out http://www.visitdodgecity.org/

ICYMI

Kansas Transportation Secretary comments on short-term highway bill 
Congressional passage on July 31 of a bill that extends federal highway funding through May provides temporary reassurance that Kansas projects and the jobs they create will continue as planned, said Kansas Transportation Secretary Mike King.

“Federal funding makes up nearly a quarter of the funding for Kansas’ 10-year transportation program, T-WORKS, so this bill is important to continue the projects that are underway or already scheduled,” said Secretary King.

“But Kansas and the nation still need a multi-year transportation bill from Washington that provides sustainable funding and certainty for departments of transportation as they address important infrastructure needs. In Kansas, transportation projects provide thousands of jobs in both the short and long term. The economic success of our state depends in large part on maintaining and improving our transportation system.”

Kansas is getting younger.  What does that mean in terms of transportation?

With millennials making up about 28 percent of its population, Kansas ranks ninth in the nation for youngest median age according a recent report by Governing.com.  D.C. takes the top spot followed by Utah, Alaska, North Dakota, and Texas.

Now at 80-million strong in the U.S., millennials are the largest generation in American history.  (The report defines millennials as those born from 1981 to 2000.) 

As more members of this generation become eligible to vote, this could lead to shifts in public policy especially when it comes to transportation as millennials value cars less and public transit more than previous generations. Click here to read more about this trend.

Throwback Thursday

On August 7, 1782 George Washington authorized the purple heart award.  In 2005, KDOT posted signs designated Kansas interstates as the Purple Heart Trail to honor all  members of the U.S. military who have been wounded or killed in combat.


The Kansas trail is part of the national Purple Heart Trail, which parallels the interstate highway system.

A total of 32 signs -- six along the turnpike and 26 along other interstates in Kansas -- were placed in rest areas by KDOT and Kansas Turnpike Authority crews. Each is dedicated to a Kansan who was wounded or killed in combat.

Today's Throwback Thursday photos are from the sign dedication ceremony.  We want to say thank you to all of our veterans for their service.

KDOT Secretary elected president of Midwestern transportation group

Kansas Transportation Secretary Mike King was elected president of the Mid America Association of State Transportation Officials (MAASTO) last week at the group’s annual meeting in Indianapolis.

MAASTO is a consortium of Midwestern states whose goal is “to foster the development, operation and maintenance of an integrated and balanced transportation system that adequately serves the transportation needs of the 10 member states.”

Secretary King said his focus during his one-year term will be the seamless, state-to-state movement of freight in the region.

In addition to Kansas, MAASTO states include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky.  

The Kansas and Missouri DOTs are co-hosting the 106th Annual Meeting of the MAASTO next year in Kansas City.  Check out the video below of Secretary King and Missouri DOT Director Dave Nichols inviting people to attend the conference in Kansas City.

Kansas is getting younger, transportation implications

With millennials making up about 28 percent of its population, Kansas ranks ninth in the nation for youngest median age according a recent report by Governing.com.  D.C. takes the top spot followed by Utah, Alaska, North Dakota, and Texas.

Now at 80-million strong in the U.S., millennials are the largest generation in American history.  (The report defines millennials as those born from 1981 to 2000.)

As more members of this generation become eligible to vote, this could lead to shifts in public policy especially when it comes to transportation as millennials value cars less and public transit more than previous generations.

“The Driving Boom—a six-decade-long period of steady increases in per-capita driving in the United States—is over,” claimed last year’s report from PIRG and the Frontier Group, a study that effusively championed such an outcome and that advocated a number of policy moves intended to hasten it. Millennials—today’s older teenagers and twenty-somethings—are, said the study, which spurred widespread press coverage, “demonstrating significantly different lifestyle and transportation preferences than older generations.”

There have been a number of studies regarding the traveling habits of millennials, here are some of the key findings:

• From 2007 to 2011, the number of cars purchased by people aged 18 to 34 fell almost 30 percent, and according to a study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.  

•  In 2011, the percentage of 16-24 year olds who had driver's licenses fell to its lowest percentage since 1963 at 67 percent, according to the Public Interest Research Group.

• In survey conducted by the Rockefeller Foundation and Transportation for America 54 percent of millennials said they would consider moving to another city if it had more and better options for getting around, and 66 percent said that access to high-quality transportation would be one of their top three priorities when considering a move. 

Some contend that the drop in car ownership among young people is a product of the economic recession.

“Youth are making choices about their travel that are being influenced by the constraints of their personal income,” said a report published last year by the Federal Highway Administration.

However, others argue that it may be a cultural shift spurred on by technology.   While previous generations viewed cars as a symbol of freedom and independence from their parents, millennials can get their freedom through smartphones.  And that technology can offers options that lessen the need to own a car.  It facilitates car-sharing services; it tells you the quickest way to bike between two places; it gives you real-time information about when your subway or bus will arrive; and, because it lets you get work done almost anywhere, it makes time riding public transit inherently more productive than time spent behind the wheel.

Most experts agree it's still too early to tell whether millennials will lead the way in a transportation revolution.

Do you think the trend to rely less on cars and more public transit is here to stay?

Motoring Monday: Mid-America Air Museum

Dorothy calls this town home, and so does the largest air museum in Kansas – the Mid-America Air Museum in Liberal.

In fact, it is the fifth largest air museum in the country. More than 100 aircraft varying from general aviation, warbirds, helicopters or experimentals and homebuilts are housed in the museum.

It also features a hands-on science hall. The museum includes several displays of photographs relating to the history of aviation in the region.

It was started by the late Col. Tom Thomas, Jr., who donated his person collection of more than 50 planes to the museum. For more information, click here.