Motorcyclist Advisory Council (MAC-FHWA)

Welcome all and your participation is appreciated.

Last fall's meeting focused on getting together, Congress' charge, organization, etc.

[anecdote]

(Recording begins here.)

We are waiting anxiously to hear about the recommendations that come out of this group, and then what actions will be taken. Having done this before with other groups, there's a usual set of worries with these groups after the first meeting. The first meeting is usually easy to pull together. Everybody is really happy about being selected. They are excited about coming to the first meeting and about sharing their ideas. And a lot of times what happens, with groups like this, is you lose some momentum, and some energy, between the first meeting and the second meeting–and the second meeting and the third meeting. And if you sit where I sit, the way that you see that is you look at the agenda and it doesn't look like there is a lot of substance. You know, there's a lot of talking, but not a lot of substance. You look at the agenda and you go, "Hmmm. Those are all items we put on the agenda, and not items that were put on the agenda." I start hearing that some of the Council members won't be here–because of this or that conflict that came up at the last minute. And we do have at least one person who is not here today, but that did come up, literally, at the last minute. You start getting requests for, "Well, I can't make the meeting. Could I send so-and-so in my place?" And, I'm happy that none of that is happening with this group. I've looked at the agenda. It looks like you have a lot of really good substantiative topics to talk about, so that my concern... Fran can take care of this, but my concern was that you've got so much to talk about, I have no idea how you're going to do it in the time allotted. (To Ms. Bents) But, Fran's going to take care of that... (Ms. Bents, "Thank you.") And so, there's none of that kind of loss of momentum, or loss of energy, that you worry about with groups like this. And that's a credit to all of you.

So, I look forward to hearing about the deliberations over the next couple of days; the results of the meeting. I'm going to stick around for a little while, here, but I do need to get back to the office before lunch. And I just wish you a successful meeting. And, have a little fun as you think about it. So, thanks for letting me come and talk to you. Michael, I think you are next.

Certainly, as we manage the agenda, it's very important we get in to that after a couple of thoughts on my part. And there is certainly room for all those issues. We purposely, based on communication, based on the exchange and the energy of the first time, went to a day and a half here. And have an opportunity tonight to get to know each other a little better. I know a lot of people do know each other well. But, for the whole group the dinner is an opportunity, as is the extra half day. So, we hope that's valuable for folks. And as Jeff said, there are a lot of rich issues on the agenda. We hope we have the right amount of resource folks here. It is your group. It is time for this group to let us know your thoughts. So, we certainly don't seek, in the agenda, to have us talking to you, but to lay issues on the table and have that exchange. What I thought I'd do, just for a few minutes–literally before Fran asks us to - most people do know each other, but - to go around and talk about where we're from and this and that–real briefly, just to re-visit what I did the first time, a little bit about our role here as part of the group.

When the Council was set up, the legislation required a Designated Federal Official (DFO) who kind of acts as a liaison between the findings, the recommendations, the activities, and the rest of the Administration. As DFO, I inform Jeff, my boss, and others within the Federal Highway Administration of Council concerns and accomplishments. And I'm learning. I'm learning both this role, which is new to me, and a lot of the issues in motorcycling. I've had to admit to myself, I'm not a rider; but certainly have been involved in many aspects of the highway community, like sign planning, construction, safety, certainly, and so forth. So, I hope that we can bring an open mind and fulfill our responsibility. So, please call upon us for what ever you need from the Federal Highway Administration. We purposely set up this group without a Chairman. This is not like many one of the entities, organizations, state, associations, and so forth. This is an opportunity to exchange, to come to a common ground, and to pursue what we might do to correct situations, and to do the right thing through the Federal Highway Administration to promote motorcycle safety. We certainly do exchange and work closely with our sister Agencies. We've got a couple of folks joining us today (directing attention to those seated in the rows behind the Council) from NHTSA. And certainly, they have a very active role, as most everybody around the table knows, in aspects beyond infrastructure, design, operation, maintenance, and so forth, and aspects of motorcycle safety. So, that's just a quick run-down in terms of my role. What I'd like to do is highlight a few things that I've been aware of, just to let you know where we are. You mentioned the Secretary's interest, and yes we know that continues. We have contributed to some of the information and invitations the Secretary has received, but I think most of it has come from NHTSA, in terms of her interaction with the motorcycle community. We did have an opportunity, right after our meeting in October, to brief our Administrator about the recommendations, the type of interaction, the issues that have come to fore with this group. So, we had that opportunity and gave a run-down of that to Rick Capka. Rick was also with us when we went to the Secretary after our first meeting in October. We reach out to our Administrator's office and the Secretary's office. And as a matter of fact, Peter Nonis from the Association, AMA, came by and met with our Administrator in late January, and highlighted some of the priority issues. These include, this Council, and the Motorcycle Crash Causation Study, the types of things that the industry, that the Association, the motorcycle safety community were particularly interested in, and very receptive of the conversation with our Administrator, Rick Capka.

We did get our Website for the Motorcycle Advisory Council up and running and we've got full information there, and again I think that your contacts with your Association membership, your community, and so forth are helpful. Hopefully folks are paying attention to that and are aware of the types of issues that are coming to the fore. So, our Website got up and running, I believe by December, or certainly by January. We got some information out in January to the members of the Council on a presentation we pulled together. We got some feedback on that, and information that was presented and talked about at TRB. So again, we're trying to keep up some flow of information. And we're able to do that.

And, the last thing, couple of things, that I wanted to mention, that you may not be aware of, is that we also are taking some initiatives on the exposure side. The Federal Highway Administration is the recipient from state DOTs, state agencies anyway, on travel data, motorcycle registration, and vehicle miles traveled for different types of vehicles. We certainly have been aware of the concern of the overall quality of VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) data for motorcycles in general. So, we made a proposal to our Policy office, and they are the policy information office, to issue an initiative to seek, from the states, improved data. We should have some communication out to our field offices, that jointly signed the Memo with NHTSA actually, encouraging efforts to improve motorcycle VMT data, and in fact, to require separate reporting on that topic during the next cycle. So again, we're trying to get out there and get better information in terms of exposure rates and such.

And also, the NTSB chairman testified at the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Motorcycle safety was one topic reviewed there. He referred to the 2-day forum that they did last summer. So again, the issue is staying in front of people; staying in front of Congress; the Administration and so forth. And I think it's been mentioned, May is Motorcycle Safety Month. So we've gotten word out to our field offices and encouraged others to do the same. So it is a good time to come together and carry forward the types of thoughts and recommendations that you've begun. And as I say, very quickly, informally, just a run-down of these things that we've been aware of, since the time of the first meeting, some initiatives. We've got some additional activities that have taken place and that are in the meeting packet, for this meeting today and tomorrow. And, with that I think... Any questions about those factors? Or from Mo or Sue or Diane, anything additional in terms of status or issues that I may have left out that may be appropriate to put on the table now–talk about or mention? (Pause) We'll have plenty of time. (Pause) Let's see who everybody is...

OK, I'd like to spend just a minute reviewing what is in your folder. First and foremost, we have a draft Brochure that is being developed by the Federal Highway Administration in response to your suggestions on improving awareness of motorcycle safety. We'll be talking about this brochure tomorrow morning. So you'll have a chance, maybe later this evening, to take a look at it. And if you have any suggestions or comments, we'll be glad to entertain those tomorrow. On the left side, of course we have the Agenda. We have a very full agenda today, as you can see. But that is not to say that we're not interested in any of your comments or new ideas. We'll make time for all of those. Even if it means skipping breaks and meals... just joking. We'll get it all in. But, this is your Council and we're here to review and discuss your concerns. So, you make sure that you raise them, and I'll make sure that we have time to give you your due. Here is the latest–but, I understand now out of date... Steve (Laughter)–listing so that you can contact one another, outside of the meeting. We have a copy of the presentation that will be made later today, by Umesh from NHTSA, on the safety statistics. And I did email to all of you the Monash Report on Intelligent Transportation Systems. Monash University is in Australia; I understand some people had a problem opening that file. So, we have a hard copy here, just in case you weren't able to open it when we sent it to you.

OK. Let me go over a few of our basics; there are some housekeeping items. For restrooms, go out the door and to the left. As you'll note on your agenda, we will have some brief breaks, and we will be breaking for lunch, of course. And unfortunately as you've noticed, we can't offer refreshments here, but many of you have found the Starbucks downstairs. There's the Bistro and you can get what you need there. And we will also have a dinner gathering there. I've reserved a table for all of you who are interested in attending tonight, at six o'clock. It is in my name, Fran Bents, and I've been told it's pasta night at the Eads Bistro. So, I hope you enjoy. Please set your cell phones on vibrate. The meeting is being recorded, as you can tell, and we will be producing a transcript that will be placed on the Website. I also do have a microphone, as you can see, and I ask that you let me hand you the microphone when you're speaking. That's so a) we can hear each other, because I think they're testing tanks in the room above us, and b) that we're able to pick up what you'll have to say on the recorders here. And we also have someone from our staff, who is not doing a verbatim transcription, but capturing highlights, and that will be available a day or so after the meeting.

Shelley Boyd is here assisting, and Shelley will be recording recommendations, things like that, and if you have any special needs, please let her know. For the benefit of Ed and Mel, who weren't here last time, let me tell you what my job is–to keep you all productive and going in the right direction. So, although each of you represents different organizations and agencies, we're here because of common interest in, and commitment to, transportation safety. It's my job to help you to each have a voice in developing approaches to improving motorcycle safety. I'm going to do my best to make sure that each of your voices is heard, and my goal is to assist the Council in making decisions and recommendations that reflect the views of the majority of the members. So, the decisions that are reached may not always be unanimous, but they will certainly reflect the consensus of the group.

Ground Rules: I'm going to cover all of the agenda topics, today, and draw the meeting to a close by 4:30. I may allow you to digress, slightly, from the topic at hand to better explain your positions. I will try to again focus on the topic that we're discussing at that time, so that we can achieve our common goals. Reminder, I'll be using the microphone, so please don't speak until I get to you. I may sometimes ask you for additional information, because I will be preparing a summary report and I want to make sure that I fully understand what you are saying. And, I will periodically reflect on where we are, and what we have achieved. At lunch time, we'll probably review whatever big recommendations or Action Items you have created. I'll probably do so again at the end of the day, and again at the end of the meeting, to make sure that I'm capturing the essence of what the Council is achieving. So, I hope you will please let me know how I can help you to have a more productive day. Any questions? All right!

Well, with that, let's get started on our report on Action Items. And I understand that Bob, you have a video on painted road markings...

I do. That's it. If I can have a minute to intro it, it would be probably be helpful for everyone. At our last meeting, we talked about lots of different things and we listed some of the opportunities we might have to improve highway safety. And one of the topics that we discussed, I think quite thoroughly, was the topic of pavement markings. A little background on myself, I said earlier, I'm with Potters Industries. I've been in the highway safety business for over 20 years. My focus has been on signage and pavement markings. I've been a very active member of TRB and ATSSA, so I'm very familiar with the work zone safety initiatives that we're all involved with. And, pavement markings are very near and dear to my heart and, for those of you who are not that familiar with them, in my opinion, they are probably the most taken-for-granted safety device on our roadways. And, they're critical and extremely important for positive guidance, both day and night.

I think that several years ago, the Urban Institute here in Washington, DC, did a study–it was a benefit/cost ratio study of pavement markings and as I remember–they determined that pavement markings, the benefit/cost ratio, was 60/1. Which, for all practical purposes, means for every dollar we spend on pavement markings, the societal return is $60. There are very few other on-the-road traffic safety devices that have a benefit/cost ratio equal to or exceeding that number. And, they're very low-cost; they're very efficient traffic safety devices. But yet, they don't necessarily get as much attention as I think they should. So in our meeting last time, we talked for, as far as motorcycle safety, it would be good safety measure to have wider and brighter pavement markers for, again, positive delineation and guidance both day and night. There is not a lot of work done on this. Again, I cite ATSSA. Industry and ATSSA have worked together to promote brighter and wider pavement markings. As a matter of fact, wider pavement markings were a part of the past SAFETEA-LU legislation. ATSSA and several members of industry put together this informative CD, which started–Mark, you will be familiar with this, it started–with a study by the Texas Transportation Institute. This is the study that provided the background added to everything you'll see on this CD. This study is available to any of you that are interested in having a copy this, leave me your business card and I'll be glad to get it to you. But, it started with a really good background study by one of the better research highway organizations in our industry today and through ATSSA we generated this CD. So if you go ahead and hit the Play, we will... (From someone, "the study itself, was that recently done?") It was actually completed in March 2002 (Someone asks, "So, is this going out through ATSSA–available through ATSSA?") It's available through ATSSA, yes. And if you look at the left border, in addition to the video portion, there also is a hardcopy of the study.

ATSSA has looked at this particular issue. And, I think we discussed this the last time we were here, the emphasis at that point was at intersections; at stop bars, you know, those large intersection areas where there are broad delineation devices that are made of thermo-plastics. Stop bars could be 4 inches, 6 inches; they could be 3 feet wide, in addition to the arrows and those types of things. And, it's because you're coming in to a stop, in those locations; or, you're making a turn. There really wasn't an indication for long lines; that there was data that supported the long longitudinal lines–that there was data supporting the need. And then the other issue that you have to take into consideration is that one of the initiatives by the FHWA is to have brighter lines.

As you start adding these abrasive materials to the thermo-plastic, you start reducing the levels of reflectivity in those lines. So, there are some trade-offs here... that really need to be looked at. So for us to say–a very good point, but for us to say–that maybe we should have skid-resistance in all long lines... How many accidents are there–motorcycle accidents–as a result of long lines? There's probably some data on that. Versus, what is the trade-off in reducing the retro-reflectivity of those pavement markings by 100, 200 or more, milli-candela. So, it's a little bit more complicated than just adding it. That's why I think the last time we talked about that, one of the places that I think we could focus FIRST is at the intersection. Because, I think we'll all agree that, that's where we're coming in as motorcyclists to a stop. Those stop bars are slippery; those turn arrows are slippery. And, let's get some data there.

I'm surprised you hadn't asked that yet. (Laughter) I don't know. We don't have official processes or procedures that I've been aware of. Fran, I don't know if you've dealt with this, in terms of any other activity, or not. The report outlines recommendations, observations and advice from the group. That's documented in the open public meeting and a report does come to the FHWA. Now if the members would like to put more formality to it–in terms of a jointly-signed letter–I certainly think we can manage that, if you decide to do such a thing. But in terms of sending it on, or providing it AASHTO or this and that, we could take on that role; to say that this advice has come to us and we want you to be aware of it.

Now if any of the members, or the Council as a whole, wants to put more horsepower to it, for some observations to add to it, you are technically the advisory committee, the advice Council to the FHWA–the Secretary through the FHWA. So, if there's some specific observations that you as a group want to make to AASHTO, or TRB or other entities that certainly is information that we would provide. Now, if there's something specifically that you would want to ask of those other groups, based on the influence, based on this group coming together, I think that could be a separate letter. There are not rules that prohibit it, so my observation would be something that isn't prohibited could be done.

I was just going to build a little bit on what folks were saying about involving law enforcement. Because in TX, we have the data–and I'm not an expert on this, but we have this CRIS data: Crash Reporting Information System. And we're just trying to get that up a little bit better than being able to access 2001. So it's just really about to go online with that. And you know when we look at things–particularly from one of my interests, which is bridge-rail–this data is showing that we've had 90 over-rides or breaches of bridge-rail in the last year. I don't believe that. OK, so what is happening? How is that being coded up by the law enforcement at the time? Are they mistaking guardrail for bridge rail? In other words, there are a lot of issues here.

Over here, we were talking a little bit about the contribution of pavement striping, and the slickness of pavement striping, if that was a contributor. Or was it just purely a run-off-the-road, motorcyclist-falls-asleep type accident. So, there's numerous things that we–I think everybody–would like to work more closely on with law enforcement, to make sure that stuff's being coded for motorcycles that's unique enough that we kind of know what we're doing today.

Yes, go ahead and bring it up. What I was talking about before was I asked for an opportunity to talk to district engineers, and so there's a bunch of boys and girls dressed very nicely in a room, and they meet frequently. I've made a number of presentations there, so when I ask, I'm usually invited, although it took a couple of months to get me there. I was there in June. And I just wanted to do my own little experiment with raising the awareness of folks who weren't motorcyclists, and just see how this would work, and I was very pleased with it. So I'm going to take a little bit more time, but what I told the district engineers was that I was going to accelerate hard through the presentation, speed through this presentation, and stop for breath when I'm at the end for questions. I was supposed to compress that into 5 minutes. It didn't work. So what I'm going to do first is review–get a little bit of review, I'm not giving all the slides that I gave there; but this actually moves pretty fast. I'm going to do a little bit of a review. So what I ask in the next slide is where did the data that I'm talking about come from? And I quickly went through and gave them a place to look–a URL to look–for what we call the Fatality Analysis Reporting System; FARS is what we call it. And the other place that I look for some of the data that I'm using is the NAMS. But if I have to bumper-sticker the data for them, there are 5.8 million registered motorcycles, which represent only about 2.37% of the 243 million passenger vehicles that we have. And then we know the fatality numbers for 2005 from the FARS data. And that's the highest level since 1990. In historical reference, that's more than twice the number killed in 1997. The data that I was able to get show that motorcycles represent 0.3% of vehicle miles traveled in the U.S., but they're over-represented at 10.5% of all crash fatalities. Simply put, I said motorcyclists are 34 times more likely to die in a crash than the occupant of a passenger vehicle. Crashes of motorcycles are not new; this is from 1957. That's not blood on the pavement (referring to the current slide), that is oil. You'll notice it's also a police motorcyclist. Not only was this guy not paying attention; he was really not paying attention to the right vehicle. It makes you wonder what the accident report looked like for this particular one. Should we be paranoid? I don't know. (describes more slides) You know what they say, "It's not paranoia, if they're really out to get you!" And maybe they are. So reviewing Ms. Peter's stuff, we're looking at the 3 Es, and then the 4th one that she adds, that we all know, and when we're talking about that we know that engineering is there–engineering not of motorcycles, but rather how does highway infrastructure and design affect motorcycle safety. I wish we could get into education like this (referring to the current slide). You can see here that... not too much in the way of protective gear and their error is not apparent. The arrow points to the small child that's nestled in there. So obviously, there's a need for education. So I told them that what we were supposed to look for were some issues of barrier design, highway design, construction and maintenance practices, ITS counter-measures, which we're going to talk about in just a few minutes I guess, and then also warning signs you need for motorcyclist.

But what I'd like to do as a review–and Ed, you haven't seen these. This is what we were talking about on some of the crash testing that was done in Germany. Dick Powers provided me with this; the reason why we think it's Germany is because of all the text that I see associated with this in German for camera angles. We get into this argument about crash-testing, and how representative is crash-testing of real life. Crash-testing is the 95th percentile or whatever it's supposed to be covering. This happened just recently in Austin, less than a mile from my house at the interchange of Rt. 1 and U.S. 183, and exactly this happened. It was just kind of interesting–and I don't mean to be gross, but–the police found a motorcycle up there, and they must have looked around, there was nobody around. He must have walked away. And a vagabond found the body about 4 days later, under the bridge, which was a 50-foot fall. This guy was simply missing–wasn't where they were looking for him. This exact same thing happened, almost, with this weird crash-testing; this is precisely what happened a mile from my house. (Describes more slides.)

One of the issues that interests everybody is cable barrier. TX is a good place to look at some cable barrier, because we have 600-700 miles of that, either under construction or in place right now. This one's in Poland. And most folks were shocked to find out that motorcyclist were concerned about–and I'm going to quote one of you, from the last meeting–"the ability of soft tissue to pass through cables." (Laughter) We're going to get frozen out on that, a little bit, and the reason is–I pulled this report–that 600-700 miles of cable barrier that we have underway. We have 73 projects for cable barrier underway; 17 under construction. What we were looking for was cross-over data–we only use this for median barriers–for fatalities and crashes. So we had 47 cross-median fatal crashes the year before the cable-barrier that resulted in 52 cross-median fatalities. And the year after–a big scientific example, but–we had one wreck and one fatality that got through that cable-barrier. So, what you're talking about is to go from 52 deaths to 1–and that 1 death was a flipper that the cable-barrier wasn't going to stop anyway. So, what that says, with these types of numbers, it's going to be hard to have anybody pulling up cable-barrier. We've seen that in 1 year. So, cable-barrier is probably here to stay. We're going to have to figure out what we do with it. I like to concentrate on issues that we can affect and we can change, and I think the cable-barrier is one we're not going to be able to do very much on.

So let me get in to a couple of them. I was trying to identify, for district engineers, some of the places we're looking at. Pavement markings was one, next were milled and grooved surfaces, rumble strips, bridge and pavement joints, open bridge deck surfaces, shoulder edge drop-offs, and steel plates. I'm going to talk about these, just real briefly. Well obviously, we've beat pavement markings real hard, but they didn't realize the slickness of pavement markings. Milled and grooved surfaces–that's what, in the business, we call milled surfaces–we all know that, how the motorcycles can follow in those grooves a little bit. Rumble strips, we had talked a little bit about the edge rumble strips and how they can de-stabilize a motorcycle. Bridge and pavement joints, open bridge deck surfaces; when we get on to our bridges we get what we call that thump, at the end of the bridge on bridge expansion joints.

I ride a Sportster; it does have suspension. But it's a pretty rough ride on some motorcycles–especially for a passenger. But the open deck bridge surfaces–what we call grates–in FL, I have a good friend whose Harley bit the dust on one of those. It was just a little bit wet on that grate, and I mean he said it was like ice! When he got on to that, he was down.

Shoulder drop-offs, we'll talk about that in a second. Steel plates, I'm going to talk about that extensively. Another area of discussion that I brought out was in the design green book: the merge lane length transitions, I got into that a little bit; how we're changing that–I talked to the district engineers a little bit about that. Drainage issues, I'll cover that a little bit in my signage area. But where we drain and cross the roadway, sand and silt on roadway, while that may not affect cars that much, for motorcycles it can be really bad. Skid-resistance at toll plazas, we talked about, and pavement markings that I was bringing forward.

And so it really breaks down from a state DOT perspective, to issues of surface friction, ride quality, and the need for motorcycle-specific signs. So, that's what really got the district engineers interested. Now, they realize that ride quality is more important to motorcyclists and it got them very interested in that. Anything that has to do with surface friction. This one's kind of a gross photo. This bike is just about to go down. But what you'll notice though is that he is attempting to steer to get out of it, right on top of pavement striping–right on a center stripe. Now there's an argument that, motorcyclist that I've shown this photo to say, this guy was going down anyway. And yes you're right. They don't have protective gear. I don't know why that girl was wearing sandals. But, there you are. However, that corrective action that the guy's trying to take, once he realized that there was a problem, was right on a pavement stripe. It's the only photo I know of that says, "maybe pavement stripes are slick."

(Next slide) Shoulder drop-off. What we're trying to say is that as we in TX and other states continue to overlay and overlay more–and we do that for all the right reasons: ride quality, preserving the pavement structure, not allowing you to get wet, everything that we do that for–we end up with an edge; rather than just dropping off. For motorcycles, this is still probably not good. Once you commit to getting off that pavement and off that edge, you aren't getting back on. It allows cars to get back on, and that's very important. FHWA has, along with this brochure, a great video with a shot of a car going off-edge and trying to get back on. So with motorcycles, that's probably not something we're going to really be able to do much in.

Let me talk about steel plates. That's my buddy Lloyd, at the far edge, in downtown Austin. Utility plates are an issue for... as I brought up earlier; Austin is a very bicycle-friendly community. And we all come from bicycle-friendly communities, but this one has a bicycle-friendly Mayor–a beloved Mayor, and it's interesting that somebody could still be beloved after being Mayor. But he slipped on what he believed to be a paint marking and he's pretty incapacitated from that particular crash and does remember it very well. So the city has really moved up its bicycle-friendly things, which happen to benefit motorcycles. So you can see that they've taken their steel plates and ramped them to the left, and ramped them to the right, so that they work for bicycles and motorcycles.

They've got expanded metal mesh down; tacked it down. It seems to stay down most of the time, unless somebody does a really hard burn-out on it, and they can take that up. They have the ability to pick up the places, also. You can see how they just cut it out there so they can still pick the plate up and get it out of the way. Dr. Bill Hadley with the City of Austin provided me with their details and specifications. And I'm willing to make those available to anybody. In general, those specifications are kind of global. They don't say, "Thou shalt do this," they say, you must provide some skid-resistance on these plates, and then there are a number of ways that the contractors are allowed to do it. The contractors in Austin appear to be using mostly this expanded metal mesh.

There's another one that I investigated called Slip Knot. At SlipKnot.com, you can see that they can put this coating on almost anything; you can see here on a road utility plate. Just a proprietary way to put some resin or grit-based thing onto these plates, so that they can work. Another one we talked about was toll plazas. As we talked about toll plazas, I thought about my work in Taskforce 13 and how they tried to do a number of things. But Tyre Grip is a good product–and I don't own any stock in it. Tyre Grip is used in a number of places to be able to mostly impart color delineation. That's what they're doing, and they're doing it with a grit that has that color. So you'll see in the middle, red for maybe a bus lane, blue for the toll way. And you'll see they've put this resin and grit down on the toll plaza, and it's used on curves, as well. They know that it increases skid-resistance. (Someone says, "I hadn't even thought about that.") We had talked at our last meeting about getting to a toll booth and putting your boot down, and you're on top of AC water or oil, etc., etc., and this is a way, with a product out there right now, folks could use to prevent that. So, it's not an emerging technology; it's one that definitely exists. I don't know if anybody's thought it before, but it's a great a way to increase skid-resistance, as we talk about pavement markings.

OK, I want to talk a little bit about some of the motorcycle-specific signs. I like to have a little fun with these... (Describes slides.) "Slow Men Working," (and others...) (Laughter). I was in Louisville, KY, in December... and you can see there's a lot happening there. There are many signs and billboards and stuff, I guess, you're supposed to look at a changing information sign and a lot information being imparted really quickly. I pulled over to get this, "Uneven Lanes. Attention Motorcyclist." I show this to folks to say that there is a need for a number of things; to show direction as motorcycle-specific, and some way that motorcyclist can be attracted to that information. Because there was so much happening there. What was actually going on was the concrete was faulting; not in the traditional way that you think of concrete faulting–laterally, across the road–but longitudinally. And they had up to 2 1/2 inches of faulting. And that is what that sign meant, when it said Uneven Lanes. They had no plans to change it, so they put up this sign. The problem is, it's not on the median; so if you're in the slow lane, maybe you see it. But if you're in any of the other 2 lanes, you're not going to see that sign. You all probably know this, but for those who aren't motorcyclists, if you have a fault longitudinally and you go from the high side to the low side you'll be surprised. But if you're going from the low side to the high side it's going to be worse than a surprise. This is something that is happening. They were trying to address it here and I'm not really sure that they were doing that good of a job. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what my colleague, Don Vaughn, and I talked about when I was at AL DOT's design conference in February.

Well, yeah... They were looking at it as partially that... The issue was they were really wanting to inform motorcyclists. But as we talked about, a lack of funding... "What are you guys going to do about this pavement? What, are you going to overlay it?" And they say, they have no funding to do anything. I usually really reject the use of signs on median barriers. That's part of my expertise is crash testing median barriers. How do you put signs on median barriers? That's really unsafe. Someone rolls up on the median barrier, hits that sign, clips it off. Now it's tumbling through the air. We're going to involve, shall we say, innocent people with that sign coming through the windshield, and all that sort of stuff. Here, though, they probably need one. Because up ahead, I wish I had stopped to take a picture of the fault in the concrete, but we could darn-sure see it, even at 50 or 60 MPH. So they realize that they have a problem; this is what they were doing about it. You're right, it's a very limited attempt at anything–and I don't mean to get on KY DOT, that's not the issue. But I'm trying to show somebody who's trying to do something and they weren't quite going far enough–in my opinion.

Don Vaughn sent this one to me. You can see it's a work zone temporary sign; it's orange with a little flag on it. But he's tried to incorporate a motorcyclist logo. I'm not sure if that's the right logo, or the motorcyclist should be seen from the side. I'm not sure what the logo should be. But let me read something that Don has provided us. He's "...developed some motorcycle-focused placards that will be considered by the Regulatory and Warning Sign subcommittee for inclusion in the MUTCD at their June meeting." That is excellent! Sometimes things move fast. Sometimes they take 10 years, but sometimes they move fast. Don believes that a letter of endorsement from the MAC would help to emphasize the importance of such signage. He has offered to draft the letter if the Council supports the concept (Someone says, "so we got a volunteer!") (Laughter) Yes. He feels fairly strongly about it, based on what he's doing over there in Alabama. (Mr. Salontai, "for once, Bob doesn't have to draft it...") (Laughter). So when I met with our MUTCD experts at TXDOT about this, they were absolutely adamant that motorcycle-specific signs were not something that they were going to do; that motorcycles are motorized vehicles and we're not going to give them special consideration, like bicycles and pedestrians might get. So that's why I'm saying that maybe we can do things where motorcycles can tag-along with bicycles and pedestrians, because they get lots of politics.

I'm going to talk about that more, and mention it again in the rest of my presentation. (Mr. Salontai, "OK") (Resumes describing slides on signage.) And this one there's nothing for you to read. I pulled it off of our Website and I want to tell an interesting story. Sometimes you're really proud to be working for a state DOT, and this week was this way. So we're fixin' to come up here and meet with y'all, and I'm really happy about it. And I go through the notes from our last meeting, in October, and it was like, "Oh! Mark promised to do this!" What I was going to do was get with our Web people and see if we could come with an icon that motorcyclists could run over to and click on, and get specific motorcycle information–here, we've lumped it in with bicycle information–and have a place that we could talk or complain about issues. Maybe it's cable barriers; maybe faulted pavement; maybe it's a bad pavement joint. So I said, "Awww. This really looks bad for me." I wouldn't tell this story unless it had a good outcome; I would have said I just never got around to it. So I called the right folks–like I say, I've been there 28 years–and they liked the idea. And 6 hours later, we had met on the phone with the division head of Traffic and Operations, Transportation Planning, and the head of our Office of General Counsel. And everybody loved this idea.

So Friday when I get back, the first thing I'm supposed to do is "pick wallpaper and curtains." I'm supposed to pick what the logo is supposed to look like and what color it is. It is going on the Traffic Ops Website. I want it to go on the main page. Now they jealously guard the main page; I might have to go to the Executive Director on that. However, help from this group would also be welcome, with regard to that sort of stuff on our Website. Because I know our Executive Director and he's definitely interested in safety. There has been nobody that I've talked to this week that thought this was a bad idea. All the division heads wanted to slow things down–that's the way I always think of division heads–but it wasn't that way this time. This is going forward. It is motorcycle safety and they jumped on that idea, immediately. They carried it a little bit further and said, when an issue comes in from a specific district, we will immediately send that to the maintenance folks in that district, so it can be taken care of, then of course at that point, Headquarters could ask, "well, what did you do to respond to that?"

There were concerns from the lawyers, that you're creating a written record of problems. Then if we don't respond to it quickly–and I've testified in court before–there could be an issue. But that wasn't an issue with our people, because it was about safety. So there will be something in the near future to click on for motorcyclists' complaints in TX. Hopefully, every state will follow that lead. I notice a lot of times that states will follow the lead of other states. And if so, it warms your heart when you see that happening. So again, I'm breaking our vulnerable into 3 classes: pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists. They look at motorcycles differently because they are powered vehicles; but no, I don't think so. Out of 43,000 total fatalities, we had 4,800 pedestrian deaths in 2005, 800 bicyclists, and about 4,600 motorcyclists. Motorcyclists are working their way up to pedestrians and what I tried to say, when I got up in front of the district engineers, there is an AASHTO specification guide on bicycles. The current one is from 1999, but we would not consider designing a lot facilities with out this spec, I asked them–talking about rail height, width, all these sort of issues important to bicyclists. Nor would we consider an intersection without the Guide for the Planning, Design and Operation of Pedestrian Facilities. But they send us numbers and they (district engineers) asked, "Why don't we have a motorcycle one?" I said, I have no idea what's going to happen in the next 5 to 10 to 20 years–because these things were a long time in the making. But do you think we're going to have a motorcycle-specific design criteria that's come from AASHTO in the next 10 or 20 years? I think we will. So I always say, we baby-boomers are buying motorcycles in record numbers. I think Harley sold 300K last year, or something like that, which is incredible. We're also crashing in record numbers. So the issue to me is we are not going to see a decrease in the number of motorcycles. Also because gas prices are going up, there will probably be some increase. Hopefully these deaths go down, but the issues that contributed to these deaths are not going to go away. Regardless of the safety statistics that support the point that I was making. There are many of us who are going to ride motorcycles just for the pure joy of it. (Describes more slides.)

Anyway, I think I was successful in making that presentation; I'm looking forward to making other presentations like this, where I mix things up. There is a motorcycle bar that some folks from work go to–a biker bar–and they want me to come and make the presentation. Which I'm totaling willing to do. Anywhere, anytime, so folks understand what's going on; what their obligations are to communicate to us, and what we think our obligations are to motorcyclists, and where we think we're going to be going. Question.

I'm sorry, just a real quicky. What we did–I got with our pavement expert for exactly what you're talking about, Ed–we developed a hand cast on paint just for those reasons. We're going to deploy some of those as an experiment. We did them in a parking lot and they seemed to have held up well. As you pull in our parking lot at night, you see those strips, and it's incredible how much light reflects back. You're not just talking about yellow or white paint. You're talking about something that will actually report back some retro-reflectivity. And then–(to Mr. McClune) Hold on to your thought.

There's one last thing that I wanted to say. I forgot (Laughter) and that is–it sounds goofy but you hope you save people by the dozens or hundreds, and then maybe you save them 1 at a time. What we do over at TXDOT can't be any different than any other DOT. We throw away acres of retro-reflective material. By the rules it has to be thrown away and it just can't be sold. So it goes into the dumpster. Except when we Mark and Lloyd it. We get huge sheets of this retro-reflective material, cut something out of the middle randomly somewhere, that's tested in a 75-foot flat black room for how much retro-reflectivity comes back. And then it's rolled up and put in the trash. Well I've done this for years now, and Lloyd's going to be taking it over for me when I retire in the next couple of months. But, we get these emails that say, "OK, we're ready." And what are they ready for? Well there are 3 grades of that material. Engineer's grading, there's license plate grade, high-intensity, which has little diamonds on it. And then there's a diamond grade that has that prismatic stuff. And they throw back increasing levels of light. Well, we take that stuff and we cut it up in roughly square foot by square foot. Then we throw it into a box or a bag and we give it to them for free to any motorcycle shop who will take it, and any bicycle shop who will take it. And, guess what? They do. If they sell it, they need to get it off the rack because they sell little pieces of it like this for about 3 bucks, and we give it to them for free. The only rule is they can't sell it. As soon as I find out they're selling it, they can't get it anymore. It has to be free. We always have takers for that. None of it goes in the trash anymore, amazingly. And it takes some volunteer effort. That's on a small level that I've gotten back pictures from people who have taken some from the motorcycle place and they send me back an email. OK, some people get a little gaudy with it, but that's all right, right? On the back of their motorcycle, you know they will put some of that stuff in the colors that they like. And even in the day light, the sun will hit it and it will come back. It's just incredible how much conspicuity goes up. And then the Harley dealership that I deal with, they bought 2 dies. One is a silhouette of TX or a punch-out of TX. It takes just a little piece of it and they put it on the back of their helmet. And then if you get pulled over in Travis county, which is where Austin is in TX, if you get pulled over by a Travis county motorcycle cop, you are going to get away with it. I'll tell you that right now. Because on the back of each one of their helmets is a white silhouette of a little pig; very distinctively a pig or whatever you want to call it. And all you have to do is you just have to say, "I know how you got that piece of retro-reflective material. I know where you got it from." So every one of the Travis county motorcycle cops have that on the back of their helmet. And we always say about highway safety, highway safety is kind of a grisly business because you hardly ever, in fact actually never, get to meet the people whose lives may have been saved by any of your actions. But I always say, but you know you shake hands with them everyday. So we really know when we're saving somebody, the issue is to get out there and try to, just one at a time.

So acres of that stuff are getting distributed for free. (Someone asks, "Why do you have to throw all that stuff away?") It's by the rules. Because otherwise somebody would go in the dumpster and take it. And you know that they would sell it for $3 apiece, or whatever. So nobody can take it home. Now I don't work for Materials and Testing division, so I can take it home. (Same one asks, "Well, why are they getting rid of it in the first place?") Well we get lots of samples. All kinds of samples come in and the samples have to be disposed of in the dumpster. (Someone says, "...because it can't go bad, I mean, why..." Well, because anything that comes in, if we were to use it for personal profit you know that's what they're trying to avoid. They don't even let them take the cardboard boxes home in Materials and Testing.

Let me ask you a question. How many of you have seen this presentation? I've seen most of the faces in here and you may have seen the presentation that I've done at NTSB and several other places. (Mr. Bloschock, "I have not seen it, and I'm looking forward to it.") As Mark mentioned, in his slides we saw the 2005 data; which is the latest data we have as of now. Motorcycle crash-related fatalities are reaching the level that we last saw in 1986. There was 100% increase in fatalities in recent years. From what I'm hearing from the industry about sales of new motorcycles; which I believe crossed 1.3 million in total sales, I think that just based on exposure itself we are going to see an increase in line with what we've seen in the last 8 years. We were at 5% in 1997 we had the lowest number of motorcycle rider fatalities. And now the latest is about 10.5%. So they're increasing rate comes out of proportion to all other fatalities. Except in 2002, we're seeing that the increases in all highway fatalities have been accounted for by increases in motorcycle rider fatalities. That's what's troubling. The all-highway fatalities have been increasing in small numbers, even with some of the declines we are seeing–passenger vehicle occupant fatalities and some fatalities in bicycles. Looking at 1996-2005, as you can see there is a decline in the passenger vehicle occupant fatalities. Of course there is quite a bit of increase in the overall fatalities. All occupants have also declined. Other occupants have a slight increase. But most of the increase that we're seeing here has come from the motorcycle riders. And to some level, that has nullified the effect of the decline in the passenger vehicle occupant fatalities that we've seen in the last 10 years.

In the individual breakdown of each year, you can see there is a motorcycle increase, with the corresponding declines among passenger vehicle occupants–even though we have seen quite a bit of increase in the registered vehicles and also the VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) among passenger vehicles. And a lot of it is coming from the light trucks, especially the SUVs and pick-ups. Going back to the exposure risk, I know there is discussion going on–David also mentioned about the symposium–with respect to the collection of exposure data for motorcycles. Even if you look at the registrations itself as another measure of crashes, even with the increases that we are seeing we still see a substantial increase in the rate per 100k motorcycles, it clearly shows that there is some increase that can be attributed to the increase in exposure. The 2005 data shows that the total registrations is 0.23 million. That's about a 16% increase since 1997; but if you look at the fatalities, it's 400%. So there is some imbalance we are seeing between the two, even after accounting for the exposure increase.

I know that there are a lot of questions, with respect to the VMT, which in my opinion, probably is a better measure of crash risk than is registration. And as most of you can probably relate to, every individual motorcycle is owned by a rider; that increases the registration numbers. Whereas the actual vehicle miles traveled probably gives a better exposure risk. We do have a lot questions on the VMT data, itself, on motorcycles. Which is a problem that in the future we will be able to get a better handle on. To a large extent, the increases are in the 40+ and 50+ age group. The industry council data also suggest that those are the riders who are buying the new motorcycles. So it's a question of where the exposure is going, too. Unfortunately, we don't have an idea of how many riders in that age group there are in the population to really look at the risks for those age groups. The other thing that we are seeing is a large increase in the larger motorcycles. Once again, looking at the industry council, I think those are the motorcycles that are being really bought, or sold. So once again, it's an exposure based one. We really don't have the data to really see how many number of these motorcycles are there to compare crashes among these groups. But in general, this is what the data is showing. Once again, these are the age groups (40+, 50+) that you can clearly see the largest increases. Even though we do see some increases from 30 to 39, and 20 to 29. The 20 to 29 so far has been the one with the highest number of fatalities. But 40 to 49 seems to be taking over. Once again, this is the age group that are buying the motorcycles and what we're hearing is the returning riders are in this age group and are the ones who are getting back into riding motorcycles.

The only measure that you can really look at, in terms of exposure, in order to see what's really going on with the older population. And I know that the older population is not a real indicator to motorcycle rider population, and like I said, we don't have the motorcycle population by these age groups. But if you look at the overall population by these age groups, there is clearly an increase even in fatality rate. Engine size is where we are seeing an increase among motorcycles, 1,000 and over. We are also seeing some fatalities contributed to the larger engine sizes (category). But from what I'm hearing from the motorcycle industry and the riders groups, that's another very popular group of motorcycles that riders want to buy and ride. And probably we are going to see an exposure-based increase in fatalities in this engine size (category), also. Just looking at this larger engine size motorcycles and then passing the data down to the age groups that we have seen, clearly the larger engine size motorcycles seem to be going along with the 40+ and especially the 50+ age groups. And that's where we're really seeing the increases in these larger motorcycle groups. The 40+ age group has accounted for most of the increases. On the next slide, clearly you can see that these 2 age groups and the larger motorcycles seem to be the population most at risk in these crashes. And I think the industry council data clearly suggests the same kind of phenomenon.

Yes. If you look at this age group in here, it has gone from 1.07 to 2.05. Even assuming that the riding population is the same as the overall general population. And that's what I'm trying to say here is that even if you look at that, it's more than doubled. And if you look at the 50-59, it's over 3 times. I'm saying that this is the demographics that seem to be riding and coming on to the population today. Typically if you speak to a person of the general public, the perception is that motorcycle riding typically used to be the younger riders. But it doesn't seem to suggest that that is what is going on, in terms of what we are seeing in the crash data. Even the industry council data seems to say that. The new riders who are buying the motorcycles seem to fall in to this [older] age group category. So, there is some exposure-based risk that is going on in here. There is no question of that.

Unfortunately, I don't have the registration data by age group, because that could give us more information on that. Maybe we may find that this is the age group that has the highest crashes. I don't know that. Based on the data that we have right now, it seems to indicate that this is where we are seeing the increases, in terms of raw numbers. But if you really want to look at the crashes, I only have age group by population as the only indicator of crashes. But it seems to me that this is where it's going. I don't know if that answers the question or not. But what I tried to do is maintain the same age group differences in these 4 categories. And only in these two [40-49 and 50-59] I kind of clumped them; the rest of the categories have one group of data. I have consistently done every part of the data that you've seen in the same coordinated age groups that you are looking at. And, no. I'm not trying to say that those are the age groups that have the highest risk, or that that's where the problem is. All I am saying is look at the demographics itself; that's where you seem to be seeing the data, in terms of the people that are getting killed. That's why I'm trying to change the perception that a lot of the people that I've talked to seem to think; that is it the younger riders who seem to get involved in crashes. And that doesn't seem to be showing that in our data.

I think the industry council does do the age-grouping differently. But they seem to say at least that they are the median age of the new rider buying the motorcycles. Also they say that over three-quarters of the new motorcycles that are being sold are the 750+cc engine size. They don't break it down any further than that. Also the data that we are seeing here seems to follow that trend of who the riders are and what kind of motorcycles they buy. So there is definitely a shift in the demographics and kind of motorcycles that they in general like to ride, and that's where the industry's going. Because they definitely want to sell what the riders would like to buy.

Two-thirds of the riders in the 40+ age group own the larger motorcycles; clearly indicating an association of this age group to these larger motorcycles. The mean engine size clearly shows the increase in the age group. Starting back at the 30-39 age group at 750(cc), going up to the 60+ age group and to 1,000cc. So it clearly shows the size of the motorcycles that getting into these crashes, and the age of the rider. (Mr. Salontai, "They're manufacturing more of those motorcycles.") Yes, sure. I definitely agree on that. (Someone says, "Plus with gas going up to 4 bucks a gallon, we'll probably see an increase in the smaller cc sizes...") (Mr. Salontai, "Four? It's already up to 5. You're not from CA, are you."?) Yes, you're right; the larger motorcycles are being sold so the exposure's going to go up...

No. No. These are not based on the crash; these are based on the individual driver or the operator. That's the difference in here. (Mr. Zimmer, "Right. I just wanted to make sure.") Sure. When you look at the alcohol involvement among motorcycle drivers in the different age groups, you can see it's higher in 40-49. It is different in passenger cars and light trucks; which is 30-39. Looking at the Engine Size (category) and then the alcohol level, once again you see the larger motorcycles seem to show the highest alcohol involvement–4 in 10. Licensing (slide). One interesting thing when I looked at the data I didn't seem to think was going to fall out, 1 in 4 of the motorcycle operators involved in a fatal crash didn't have a valid license. Now when we say a valid license, they didn't have that one to ride a motorcycle; they didn't have ANY license. And when you break it down by the age groups, it seems to be more prevalent among the younger age groups. There are some issues here with the other age groups also, but certainly if you look at the bigger factors it's in the younger age groups.

Looking at the Weekday and the Weekend (categories), because motorcycle riding is still, probably to a large extent, associated as vacational riding, weekends are where we see more than twice the number of fatalities. It clearly indicates that fatal crashes are a big part of the issue during the weekends, among the motorcycle riders.

right, much higher. Absolutely. But what it indicates is probably to some level, maybe if you are doing a campaign or education or those kinds of things. This, at least, tends to show where you can really focus. And obviously, that's when you see the big volume of riders; during the weekends. When you look a the breakdown by age groups, the 40-49 age group seems to be the one which has the highest crashes, in terms of fatalities, during the weekends; compared to any other age group–just when you look at the weekend data. Looking at engine size during the weekends. Once again, the larger engine sizes (have the highest number of crash fatalities) during the week. Probably due to exposure and riding demographics.

Just to summarize what I have said, in the demographic that we are looking at, I know that I just generally mention 40 and older in here. Of course we have the 50-59. And probably in the next few years, the demographics are going to shift. You might see the 60+ shift, depending on how it moves. And then of course the larger motorcycles, when you look at the exposure, we may see the raising is in the risks. I'm not going to go into the VMT, but even the registration of motorcycles is one way of measuring the risks. We do see a disproportionate increase in the fatalities by looking at the registration data, itself. And then the larger increases in the 40+ age group, when you look at the population as another way of looking at the exposure, itself.

I have a very unforgiving 5-year-old, who looks at me accusingly every time I come home late, so... (Laughter) I will give a brief update of the Motorcycle Crash Causation Study. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, I'll provide some background. It is written in the new SAFETEA-LU legislation that the DOT provides grants to Oklahoma Transportation Center to conduct an in-depth motorcycle crash causation study. We are to employ the OECD methodology–that was specifically stated–and the grant was for $1.2 million per year for 2 years. Since Oklahoma is a university transportation center, they are required to provide a 50% match; which means we provide $1.2 million a year and they provide $1.2 million a year. And that's the only way that the study can get moving is if they provide a match.

There are actually 2 efforts ongoing. NHTSA has a pilot study that is actually moving along right now, and we hope for results that will feed in to our main study. So, the objective of the pilot study is very similar to the objective of the main study in looking at motorcycle crash causation. And they were to investigate initially the feasibility of using the OECD methodology, but we pretty-much decided that we will use the OECD methodology for our study. These are the milestones for the pilot study (referring to presentation slide). And what you see in italics are kind of iffy dates. Before we can get the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] approval–because of the nature of data that are being collected; it's considered survey data and these types of data collection that involve surveys, where you come into contact with people, have to go through the OMB approval process. So we've decided to combine both studies as one OMB package. We've submitted an initial package, which was a 60-day Federal Register notice which posted, and there's another step called the 30-day notice, which we're working on right now. We don't know when that's going to be approved, so that's why all other things (in italics) are contingent. If everything can move along, by July we get the OMB approval, hopefully we'll have the final report in October 2008 from the Pilot Study. The results of that will give us forms that we can use for the FHWA study; training that we can also use to train the people who will collect data for the FHWA study, and of course the final report, which give us an initial idea what worked, what didn't work, in terms of data collection and hopefully some indication of where the direction of crashes is going, in terms of causation. The status of our study at FHWA: we do have a signed agreement, but it's pretty-much on hold. The start date is contingent on when Oklahoma can provide the matching funds. The period of performance will be basically 4 years, when it starts. The total funding is going to be roughly $5 million. We don't get to use all of that money because there's this thing called take-downs and Congress made this slight error in over-designating funds that didn't exist. So there isn't really $1.2 million that they gave us.

As I say, we will be using the OECD methodology and we are going to look at what's causing motorcycle crashes, and hopefully we can determine what will prevent these motorcycle crashes. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered, and hopefully we can answer some of them. But I know we can't answer all of them. We'll be looking at risk factors for the riders and drivers of those involved in crashes; very typical things that you can look at in a crash causation study. We'll also be looking at what's important to FHWA–roadway geometrics and traffic characteristics, which don't get a lot of coverage in these types of crashes. FHWA is very concerned about what we can do to the roadway to help improve things. NHTSA is typically more experienced in taking care of the vehicle and the driver/operator side of the crash picture.

Here are our milestones, for the larger study. We did have a project working group meeting back in June 2006. We'd like these annually, but since we're on hold right now we haven't had the funds with this one this year. When we actually do get started we will schedule a work product. The pilot data will probably be collected by 2008; we collect the data for the main study–the start of that–in April. As I said, we're working on a schedule, and as you'll notice the timetable to match the funds. Once we get those, we can keep moving forward. And if you have more questions, I probably can't answer them. I don't have much more to tell you.

And I think the industry as a whole, in terms of vehicle detection and classification and procedures–signal timing and changing, and so forth–is trying to get better and better and get away from the loops. There are a multitude of kinds of ultrasonics and video detection, and so forth. That's actually been under continuous development and improvement over 10 to 15, 20 years. The industry is learning more and more, but there aren't any perfect solutions. And there aren't mandates that all of that has to be out. So those are some of those things, again, that states, cities, counties make choices on.

But I think it is very valid for this group to reiterate the concerns, for example for tolls, Easy Pass, for vehicle detection for turning the red light green, and overall how motorcycles are being considered, in terms of the services that are envisioned as part of ITS in general. There are a half a dozen or more major initiatives. Vehicle Infrastructure Integration being principle among them, but also collision avoidance at intersections and those sorts of things in which the auto manufacturers, along with USDOT and state DOTs represented by AASHTO, have coalitions on. I think again, a message into those coalitions reminding folks and asking, "how are motorcycles part of this picture?" could be very appropriate. I think what also could be useful - is there anything more specific, in terms of the manufacturers, the groups that are represented here, and so forth, that would be part of that message? I guess that would be mentioned, given the status as automobiles and other vehicles. Some of the unique features, if you will, in terms of detection and such–other elements that this group would want to bring forward? I think that also could be useful to identify. Not necessarily today, obviously. But one reason we brought this [Monash Report] to the fore was this was the first I had really seen of such a complete treatment of potential activities in ITS and motorcycles, and we thought folks would be interested in it. We certainly didn't see this necessarily as a program that we could carry forward here. But things that would rise to the top with this group, again passing them on would be fine.

Good morning. I didn't get a chance to catch up with everybody yesterday; but, for those who did get together last night, we had a pretty good time. So I'm thankful for that. And also if I do not have a chance to get back and see each of you individually before you leave, I want to thank you for coming, and just thank you for your participation and making this what it has been over this past day and a half.

I have a couple of things to go over here; make sure I touch base with you on. You should have those Federal Register notices that I talked about and showed yesterday. Also on one of those, it should have the seven different concepts that have been rejected. (Mr. McClune, "They've been rejected?") Yes. That was in 1997. When they took it out and sent it around and got feedback in the Federal Register notice, all those had "bad comprehension" by the people looking at it. So those did not move forward.

Some of you asked for copies of Mark's presentation yesterday. The video clips, with the cadavers, are not for general consumption. So those won't be available to put up on the Web. But Mark has offered to edit back his presentation with the product information and the other information that you wanted. So he'll get that to me and we'll get that up on the Web. Thanks, Mark.

I'd like to spend a minute this morning first thing to review what we accomplished yesterday and make sure that I get it right. Oh! And welcome to Kathy Van Kleeck. Good to have you back. OK, here we go. These are all of the recommendations, starting at the top. Some should look familiar to you. 1.) A suggestion that there be a Web-based survey of motorcycle riders. To attempt to identify safety issues and to try to work through enthusiast groups. 2.) A recommendation that pavement markings should include skid resistance for junctions, school zones, and crosswalks. 3.) Research should be conducted on pavement markings, with regard to line width, retro-reflectivity, and skid resistance. Those were in the morning. 4.) To improve pavement markings, with regard to line width, retro-reflectivity and skid resistance. For the afternoon, there was sort of a statement–a recommendation–that 5.) Motorcycles should be included with all bicycle and pedestrian safety issues. Because they really are the three vulnerable groups; not just bicyclists and pedestrians. 6.) All safety research issues should include motorcycles, and 7.) We should increase the conspicuity of raised medians. If anyone recalls anything else, we'll add it to the list. Of course, we'll be going over the transcripts, too. Jeff.

[Updating Action Items.]

Bob had some questions this morning on what the draft resolution on pavement markings should look like. So we can go back to that after we talk about what Don Vaughn has created. The second one is that FHWA will pull together information on what's going on in ITS, and present that at the next meeting. The third is for Don Vaughn, part of the hand-outs you got yesterday, to draft letter of endorsement from the MAC that motorcycles be included in the MUTCD. The fourth is that Don will also draft a resolution from the MAC to AASHTO recommending that motorcycle-awareness be an essential element in the design, construction, and maintenance of roadways. Don did volunteer for both of these. We're not volunteering him, since he's absent. (Laughter)

I'm going back to my thing. Surface friction and ride quality, and whatever examples we want to put out there. For instance, where he's had milled or grooved pavement as one of the things; or utility plates, another thing. What I showed in Louisville, the faulting of pavement, whether it's temporary or permanent, that same symbol folks seem to get. If you watch cars go through an overlay area, they tend to not change lanes. If there's some serious shoulder drop-offs or other issues that need to be addressed...

What do you all feel about, as I know Darrel was talking about, curves? Because he's got a lot of straight roads in South Dakota and then all of a sudden a curve. For example, the first traffic light in Childers, it's 140 miles from Amarillo, and you go through nothing for 140 miles. The first traffic light is a killer. So they adopted something that Florida adopted–I think it came from North Carolina–it's a strobe that's in the lights. So when the light is red, you get this white strobe (Someone says, "Virginia does that...") and that's the only one I know of in Texas. But the issue is that thing was run all the time. That strobe is something, not standard, but specific to unique locations. And it's the same thing with motorcycles. We have some unique needs. Is there some creative thing that can help the motorcyclist? And Darrel, since you have the biggest motorcycle rally, you have some of the most unique problems.

We have Nick Artimovich, who is going to be talking to us this morning about international barrier designs with motorcyclists in mind. Nick.

Office of Safety Design

Thank you. When Mo asked me to represent FHWA and talk a little bit about barriers and motorcyclists, I told him I had about 45 seconds worth of material, but give me a whole minute–just to be sure. (Laughter) But he gave me 45 minutes. Fortunately, you've taken up most of it... (Laughter) ...now it's getting back down to 45 seconds. I've been dealing with roadside features with FHWA for the best part of the last 2 decades. And am now the specialist on roadside and median barriers. Mark has shown you some of the crash testing that has been done, all European; dummies and cadavers into various barriers. With the comment that we might not be ready for that because there are not a lot of things in the way of countermeasures. Well I'm about to show you some of the countermeasures that the Europeans have come up with, and are being used sparingly on some of the European roads.

The Australians are also looking into this. But before I get into this (presentation) on barrier design, I'd like to advocate good roadside design in the first place. And that is to have a roadside that is free of hazards in the first place. I teach the roadside design guide course, by the National Highway Institute, and we have a priority for roadside design. The first thing is to remove hazards. So if you have a concrete bridge column, a tree, a rigid sign symbol, the best thing is to eliminate them. If you, for example, can't eliminate a drainage pipe–because you still need to get the water out of the roadway–you extend that pipe out further, or you match the end of that pipe to match the smooth roadside slope. So that any vehicle traversing the end of that pipe basically will not see it. Just go over it and continue on to a safe stop.

Clearing trees is a problem around the country. I spent some in Nebraska on a training program and I really learned the value of trees out there; they do not take them lightly. Trying to get the people to address the roadside issues, with respect to trees, is a difficult one. FHWA has put out a video to help the state highway and other agencies dealing with roadside safety to communicate the tree hazard problem. Because they really don't see themselves as risks for roadside crashes. So good safe roadside design is always the first priority.

When you cannot eliminate a hazard, when you can't move it far enough away so that it's less of a hazard–when you can't make it break away, for example–then we can start looking at ways to shield the motorists from the hazard. Of course, the W-beam barrier, the cable guardrail, the concrete safety shape barrier, we've done a very good job of designing those for the vehicle and [for] some truck impacts. But when it comes to motorcycle impacts, we, in the U.S., have not considered those, as of yet. We have hosted presentations from our European colleagues and understand a little bit more about the situation, over the last few years. But, we have not begun incorporating that into our designs, yet. The Europeans are just starting that.

So let me get into showing you just a little bit of what they are doing over there. (Begins showing the slides of the PowerPoint presentation.) The Europeans have been looking into roadside barriers, with respect to 2-wheeled motorized vehicles, because those are a large proportion of what they have on their roadways. One of the most hazardous features of roadside barriers, of course, is the posts, as Mark has shown in the presentation. There are a number of counter-measure designs which have been implemented to reduce the hazards of those posts. The SPM, Supplemental Protection for Motorcyclists, a Spanish design, was crash tested in Leon, a test facility in France. Using dummies, they showed that it did exhibit fairly good performance; well within the limits. Head Injury Criteria (HIC) of 1000 was enough to cause fatality and the HIC for this supplemental device was on the order of 150-160. So it was well within the limits. They do specify in the Spanish specs to crash test, both at 60 KPH, about 38 MPH, and an angle of 30°; the dummy is accelerated toward the barrier. One instance is where the dummy is sliding parallel to the barrier itself. The other is where the dummy is projected head-on. (Mr. Halladay, "So these are tests done without the motorcycle, just with the dummy?") That's right. They assume the motorcyclist has already left the bike and is sliding toward the barrier. I was able to see the tests on YouTube [.com]–unfortunately, I wasn't able to download those–but the flexibility of this thin sheet of steel is amazing. It almost looks like fabric; the way the dummy hits the barrier; the way the barrier flexes and redirects the dummy away from the posts. It's amazing how well it works. There is another design, woven polyester, and that looks very similar. The flexibility of both of them is amazing. It really does capture and redirect the motorcyclist away from that hazardous post. In practice that SPM and other protection systems are limited in Europe, pretty-much, to sharp curves where frequency of motorcycle impacts with the barriers [is higher].

It's not a system that they intend for general use. They have so many thousands of kilometers of barriers, and they do need to limit the use of these. (Mr. Killion, "Are they inflated type tubes?") No, they are all just rubberized plastic tubes. I don't have very good detail on these, unfortunately.

The German system looks similar to the Spanish system, with a flat plate below the rail; however, you'll notice that this plate is affixed directly to the post. It doesn't have the flexibility of the Spanish system that was off-set. So, this is more like hitting a steel wall, as opposed to hitting a flexible barrier; that would cushion the impact, as well as redirect the operator. In this case, similar to the concrete barrier, it's like hitting a steel or concrete wall. But it does, again, avoid impact with the post itself.

Now the Italian custom system incorporates motorcycle protection with the steel automobile rail itself. It does offset that lower portion away from the face of the post. So, that has a good amount of flexibility, also. Some barrier designs, whether the guard rail or the cable, use posts that are less hazardous to a rider who might impact it. On the left you see the conventional Wye or I-beam post, used in U.S. guard rails. The most severe injuries come, of course, from impacting those sharp corners. The Charlie post–or Sigma post or C-Shape post–rounds those corners and reduces the severity of impact.

A method of protecting cyclists from post impacts is by wrapping the post with a plastic or polystyrene shield. I've seen installations in Europe. I believe Germany and Austria make great use of these, especially at curves and for road rallies for motorcyclists. They will retro-fit the entire route of the course with these post protectors.

The Swedish system for cable barriers has a system for protecting, not only the post near the ground, but also for the upper part of the post, where the motorcyclist is still on the vehicle when they impact. This is the French system. This time it's shown shielding the posts of the cable barriers system. Again, it's a fairly flexible system; intended to distribute the load over the face of that and redirect the motorcyclist away from the post, itself.

As far as standards, there is no European-wide standard for designing barriers for motorcyclists' protection. Spain, Germany, and France do have their own standards. In no way are they harmonized with each other. The English TRL, Transport Research Lab, is looking into developing a standard for the U.K. So that would be four. But there are no plans, as of yet, to introduce this into the CEN, or the European standards. EN-1317 is their standard for roadside barriers, or roadside containment devices as they call them. But there are no plans to include motorcycle protection into that European standard. I just got word from England this morning about that. But that doesn't mean they are standing still. There is a 1-day workshop next month, the 6th of June that is open. It's in Spain. It'll be simultaneously translated and available for anyone interested in any of the infrastructure problems and designs to accommodate motorcyclists. That is a little longer than 45 seconds, but that is what I was able to pull together on European practices. Are there any questions on what they're doing in Europe? I know the Australians–in fact, many of the pictures I got were from Monash University–are looking at that extensively.