What Are Your Dreams?

"On the Road, You Can Make or Break Your Dreams." 

No doubt, dreams can end in an instant with distracted driving. But one teen in Hannibal is working to change that through a song.

Kori Caswell is one of 10 finalists in the Belt It Out contest, presented by Ford Motor Company through its Driving Skills for Life program. You're invited to vote for the top finalists. Visit drivingskillsforlife.com to vote for Kori today and to show your support for teens driving without distractions.



Distracted driving is the leading cause of traffic crashes in Missouri and nationwide.

Don't let your dreams be broken.

As Kori sings,

     "Keep both hands on the wheel, face straight forward, and turn your cell phone off....on the road, you can make or break your dreams."

A Winter Wonderland

It seems a white Christmas is on the way for Missouri!

While my children are thrilled, I have to admit I'd prefer clear, dry weather for our family and the many families traveling this weekend. I'm glad to know MoDOT has been monitoring weather conditions all week and is ready for action even before the wintry mixes begin.

What's it like at MoDOT when that winter wonderland becomes a reality? Check out our post from last week - many employees will be working over the holiday to make sure the roads are treated and plowed, and we hope you'll let us know how we're doing.

In the meantime, it seems Santa has been cleared by the FAA for travel, and the reindeer of course have their secret weapon with Rudolph. The winter wonderland outside shouldn't keep Santa from getting around safely, and MoDOT will be out there doing everything possible to make sure your family has safe travels as well.

Learn more about the safest way to drive in winter weather at http://www.modot.org/newsandinfo/District0News.shtml?action=displaySSI&newsId=63601.

Missouri Miles

For this month's Missouri Miles, listen to MoDOT's new director Kevin Keith, appointed this month. You'll also learn about a MoDOT employee who walked more than 90 miles to pay tribute to his fallen co-workers and to raise money for a Fallen Workers' Memorial. Get the latest update on MoDOT's five-year direction and how we have worked to cut costs. Finally, don't miss the view of the windfarms. All that and more on this month's edition!

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Part 2:

Who I Want to Be

I try my best not to be a helicopter mom. I try to let my kids, you know, make their own mistakes (on selected things).
But lately, my friends are probably starting to hear the sound of chopper blades when I’m around. Okay, I may preach a little about the benefits of seat belts and always ask if everyone in my car is buckled. Not to mention telling them they absolutely cannot text and drive.
I’ve begun to notice when my friends call me from their cell now, they quickly tell me they aren’t driving or that they didn’t text me earlier because they WERE driving.
So I think I’m developing a rep as the ENFORCER among my friends, family and neighbors.
Is it who I want to be? Well…. I’m a grownup now and I guess if it keeps any one of them, or anyone else from hearing the sounds of chopper blades from the Lifeflight helicopter after a car crash then it’s a badge I’m willing to wear, with honor.

Golden Hour

 
The Eads Bridge photo above has been chosen for the cover shot and January photo for the 2011 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials calendar. It was taken by Cathy Morrison with MoDOT.
The photo shows the golden hour of Eads Bridge, a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, connecting St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois. Today the road deck has been restored, allowing vehicle and pedestrian traffic to cross the river. The rail deck has been in use for the St. Louis MetroLink light rail line since 1993.

The Human Toll

toll: verb -- To ring slowly, with regularly repeated strokes, esp. for announcing a death
The human toll of impaired driving is devastating.
In 2009, 280 people were killed, 1,140 seriously injured in crashes involving a drunk driver. In Missouri, someone is killed or injured in an impaired driving crash every 1.9 hours.
Those that are killed leave a void that no one can fill. They leave behind family, friends and loved ones who are haunted by their loss.
But, not everyone is killed in a drinking-involved crash. Some are injured and their physical wounds heal with time, some suffer permanent and disabling injuries. Some victims have difficulty overcoming the emotional and psychological impact of the crash. All are changed forever.
Visit our wall on Facebook at www.facebook,com/humantoll. We want to remember those who have been injured or killed in impaired driving crashes and to remind others of the importance of driving sober not only this holiday season but always.
We invite you to share your story of how impaired driving has affected your life, or the life of someone you love.

The Wheelies Are Optional

It isn’t every day that your job requires you to wear a bike helmet, but on Nov. 8, staff from MoDOT’s Kansas City office wore their helmets with pride as they rode through town on two wheels as part of a workshop for transportation planners and engineers on “Understanding a Cyclists Perspective.”

Hosted by the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation, the six-hour seminar introduced staff to the physical, mental and agility challenges of actually maneuvering a bicycle through active traffic. The agenda included classroom and hands-on sessions and covered:

·         Benefits of cycling

·         Principles of traffic law

·         Lane choice and position

·         Bicycle crashes

·         Sharing the road

·         Bike handling skills and urban practice ride

The concept of the workshop was developed as part MoBikeFed’s effort to form a new KC regional bike and pedestrian advocacy organization.

“This organization will partially focus its time and resources on bicycling and pedestrian education. A hallmark of this education will be to offer it to transportation staff and elected officials throughout the Kansas City region,” Said Eric Bunch, program coordinator for the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation.  “Before we take the program to a bigger audience we needed to get feedback from the experts. MoDOT District 4 has been a great supporter of bicycling in the Kansas City area, but as advocates, we realized that we could help MoDOT staff gain a better perspective of how our built environment works for cyclists.”  

This was the inaugural run for “Understanding a Cyclist's Perspective” but the workshop borrows elements from a program offered to the public called Traffic Skills 101. MoBikeFed hopes in the future to offer this workshop as a continuing education credit option for planners and engineers.

While most of the class was held in classroom session, the team did enjoy an hour-long bike ride through Lee’s Summit, Mo.’s urban streets.

I have always considered myself to be an experienced cyclist.  I have ridden my bike in urban, suburban and rural settings on roads, trails and even sidewalks,” said MoDOT Construction and Materials Engineer Perry Allen. “The training provided me what I need to know to ride safely and legally, especially in an urban and suburban setting. I found the class to be very informative and beneficial increasing both my interest, as well as my confidence as a cyclist.” 

The workshop is open to other groups and organizations. Contact Eric at 573.701.2492 or Eric.Bunch@mobikefed.org for details. 

Talk to Us!

MoDOT wants to be accessible to the citizens we serve. We want your input, we want your opinion, we want you to talk to us.

To make this happen, we try to remove as many communication barriers as possible. We want it to be easy for you to reach the right person in the department.

That’s why you can go to our main website and send us a comment from any page. At the bottom of every web page of www.modot.org you’ll see a little word balloon that says “Give Us Your Feedback on this Page.” Originally we had launched the feature so folks could comment on specific topics or web pages. We quickly learned it served a broader purpose.

People started clicking on the link to ask questions about projects, road conditions, public meetings and anything else that was on their mind.
As the person who oversees the website, I saw that as a huge success! Web visitors didn’t have to navigate to a comment form or hunt down a phone number. Now they were talking to us whenever they felt like it. My comments from the site tripled in a matter of weeks. While we didn’t actually receive a lot of comments about the site, we did get to hear from citizens on about every other topic.

We still have more detailed comment forms on the site, and we still want you to call 1-888 Ask MoDOT whenever you feel like it. But if you’re surfing our site, and something crosses your mind, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the word balloon. We’ll make sure your comment makes it to the right person.