Leadership Agenda and Strategic Progress Report, 2007-2008

Early Childhood Iowa (ECI) is an alliance of stakeholders in early care, health, and education that affect children age zero to five in the State of Iowa. Its purpose is to support a comprehensive, integrated early care, health and education system for Iowa. All activities of the system are aligned around a common vision for Iowa: Every child, beginning at birth, will be healthy and successful.Membership is voluntary and open to anyone self-identifying as a “stakeholder” in Iowa’s early care, health, and education system. The process for membership will be with as few barriers or constraints as possible. Individuals seeking membership should agree to the vision for an early care, health, and education system in Iowa and to the principles and core beliefs of the ECI Stakeholders. The structure of ECI includes six system component groups that describe the necessary elements of an effective and comprehensive early care, health, and education system, as well as a State Agency Liaison group and a Co-chairs group. Membership in each component group is open to anyone with an interest in the unique responsibilities of a implementing an early care, health and education system.

Evaluation of the SHRP Modified Georgia Digital Faultmeter, MLR-93-01, 1993

The SHRP Modified Georgia Digital Faultmeter was loaned to the Iowa Department of Transportation in January 1993 for evaluation. A study was undertaken comparing the faultmeter to Iowa's current method of fault measurement. The following conclusions were made after comparing the faultmeter to Iowa's gauge: The faultmeter was lighter and easier to maneuver and position. The faultmeter's direct readout was quicker to read. The faultmeter has increased precision. The faultmeter gave consistently lower fault readings than the Iowa gauge.

Using Digital Video Analysis to Monitor Driver Behavior at Intersections

Commercially available instruments for road-side data collection take highly limited measurements, require extensive manual input, or are too expensive for widespread use. However, inexpensive computer vision techniques for digital video analysis can be applied to automate the monitoring of driver, vehicle, and pedestrian behaviors. These techniques can measure safety-related variables that cannot be easily measured using existing sensors. The use of these techniques will lead to an improved understanding of the decisions made by drivers at intersections. These automated techniques allow the collection of large amounts of safety-related data in a relatively short amount of time. There is a need to develop an easily deployable system to utilize these new techniques. This project implemented and tested a digital video analysis system for use at intersections. A prototype video recording system was developed for field deployment. A computer interface was implemented and served to simplify and automate the data analysis and the data review process. Driver behavior was measured at urban and rural non-signalized intersections. Recorded digital video was analyzed and used to test the system.