Throwback Thursday

This family is utilizing one of Kansas rest areas in 1970.  Do you recognize this rest area?  Tell us where it's located in the comment section below.

Are you ready to give up driving?

Photo Credit: BizNews.com

This week, Google’s Self-Driving Car has been in the news for the 11 accidents they have been involved in since implementing technology six years ago.  The company points out that these none of these minor accidents were caused by self-driving cars, rather human error is to blame for these non-injury accidents.

While driverless cars are still a long way into the future, the idea for the driverless car has been around since the 1950’s. The first autonomous cars produced were in the 1980’s. Progress has been slow and because safety is the top priority, every map, movement, and turn has to be precise.

Driverless cars seem scary and a potential hazard, but human drivers are dangerous too.  There have been 98 traffic fatalities in Kansas alone this year. 

Computers do not second guess, get distracted, or make any kind of instinctual decision. Computers make decisions based on calculations, data, and the information it has been given by engineers. And Google’s self-driving cars have now had over 1.7 million miles of testing with only 11 minor accidents and the company is pleased with its safety results.

But like any computer—there’s always a chance for a glitch to occur and cause some potentially dangerous issues.

Are self-driving cars the way to go?  Tell us what you think in the comment box below.

5 things you didn't know (or need to be reminded) of about cell phones, driving and the brain

• Conversation is one of the brain’s most complex functions and a cellular conversation is more mentally taxing than conversations with passengers.

•  The chances of being in a crash increase 400-500 percent within 10 minutes of talking on a cell phone, even if it’s a hands-free device.

•  Knowing the risks of a certain activity doesn’t change behavior. The brain deceives us into unrealistic expectations about our own abilities.

•  Having your eyes open isn’t enough to prevent distracted driving. A driver’s field of vision while using a cell phone is reduced to about the width of the steering wheel and as far ahead as the front bumper.

•  Multi-tasking is a myth. The brain only allows us to task-switch.

These are among the observations, findings and research of University of Kansas psychology professor Dr. Paul Atchley, who has been conducting research and teaching about cognitive factors related to driving for more than 20 years.

 

Oh, the places you could go

If you love maps but have not scouted the extensive map collection on the KDOT website, check out the collection. There are so many opportunities for the cartography nerd or the casual map observer that you may want to get a fresh cup of coffee or tea and settle back for some serious clicking.

There is, of course, an electronic version of the Official State Transportation Map (including the inset city maps from the back of the paper version). And you won’t just find the current one; there are over 50 years of state maps dating all the way back to 1863.

Plus there are county maps (all 105), cities, school districts, traffic counts, railroads, bicycle routes, county bridges, bridge restrictions, bridge vertical clearances, interchange sketches, highway route changes and lots more.

If you’re a Kansas history buff, take a look at the 19^th Century Kansas Trails map. It has Pony Express stations, Indian village locations, battle sites, cattle trails, stage coach routes, western migration trails, commerce routes from the 1800s and lots more!

So kick back and explore Kansas on your computer with some of the great maps KDOT has to offer.

Throwback Thursday

We look back at survey work being done in 1967.  Can you name what highway this is?  Give us your best guess in the comment box below.

Historical marker unveiled to honor Fool Chief's Village site

Secretary Mike King and Governor Sam Brownback joined the Kansas Historical Society as they unveiled the latest Kansas Historical Marker denoting the site of Fool Chief's Village yesterday. This site was excavated before the construction of a new Menoken Road interchange in 2014 through the cooperation of the Kansas Historical Society and the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Check out the video below to learn more.

Find out what was in April's construction letting

The U.S. 77/I-70 interchange improvement in Geary County was one of the projects approved in KDOT’s April letting. The existing interchange will be retrofitted into a diverging diamond interchange, which is a cost effective solution to improve safety and to handle a high volume of left turn movements at the ramps.

Diverging diamond interchanges have fewer conflict points (less opportunities for crashes), better sight distance at turns, increased left turn lane capacity, less driver confusion and it makes enter a ramp the wrong way extremely difficult. Construction is expected to begin this summer on the U.S. 77/I-70 interchange and be completed by December 2016.  

Two diverging diamond interchanges have been built in Kansas – one at I-35 and Homestead Lane near Gardner and one at I-435 and Roe Avenue in Overland Park with six more either under construction or planned for construction.

To see all of the projects approved in the April 2015 KDOT letting, click here.