EPI Update, August 19, 2011

Weekly newsletter for Center For Acute Disease Epidemiology of Iowa Department of Public Health.

EPI Update, August 26, 2011

Weekly newsletter for Center For Acute Disease Epidemiology of Iowa Department of Public Health.

EPI Update, September 2, 2011

Weekly newsletter for Center For Acute Disease Epidemiology of Iowa Department of Public Health.

Emergency Letting Message of September 2, 2011

September 7, 2011 Emergency Letting for Flood Repairs to Highways.

Emergency Letting Message of September 2, 2011

September 7, 2011 Emergency Letting for Flood Repairs to Highways.

Iowa Department of Transportation Major Items - Preliminary Quantity Report, October 18, 2011; With Addendums

Weekly letting report.

Local Letting Information, September 8, 2011

Local letting information

Cigarette and Tobacco Receipts Report, August 2011

This is a report for the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance about the receipts on cigarettes and tobacco for each month of the year. This receipt is the tax of each sale of cigarettes and tobacco.

Vendor Ranking, September 7, 2011

Vendor Ranking for letting reports from the Iowa Department of Transportation.

A Transportation Safety Planning Tool for the City of Ames, August 2011

The historically-reactive approach to identifying safety problems and mitigating them involves selecting black spots or hot spots by ranking locations based on crash frequency and severity. The approach focuses mainly on the corridor level without taking the exposure rate (vehicle miles traveled) and socio-demographics information of the study area, which are very important in the transportation planning process, into consideration. A larger study analysis unit at the Transportation Analysis Zone (TAZ) level or the network planning level should be used to address the needs of development of the community in the future and incorporate safety into the long-range transportation planning process. In this study, existing planning tools (such as the PLANSAFE models presented in NCHRP Report 546) were evaluated for forecasting safety in small and medium-sized communities, particularly as related to changes in socio-demographics characteristics, traffic demand, road network, and countermeasures. The research also evaluated the applicability of the Empirical Bayes (EB) method to network-level analysis. In addition, application of the United States Road Assessment Program (usRAP) protocols at the local urban road network level was investigated. This research evaluated the applicability of these three methods for the City of Ames, Iowa. The outcome of this research is a systematic process and framework for considering road safety issues explicitly in the small and medium-sized community transportation planning process and for quantifying the safety impacts of new developments and policy programs. More specifically, quantitative safety may be incorporated into the planning process, through effective visualization and increased awareness of safety issues (usRAP), the identification of high-risk locations with potential for improvement, (usRAP maps and EB), countermeasures for high-risk locations (EB before and after study and PLANSAFE), and socio-economic and demographic induced changes at the planning-level (PLANSAFE).

Iowa Workforce Bi-Monthly, August-September 2011, Issue 23

Iowa Workforce Development's bi-monthly newsletter.

Iowa Innovators, June 2011

The “Iowa Innovators” series is a joint project of the Iowa Newspaper Association and the Iowa Department of Economic Development (IDED). The series is an outgrowth of an idea from member INA publishers. “Iowa Innovators” articles describe initiatives that Iowa communities have used to improve their ability to attract business and industry and demonstrate community innovation. The articles also describe Iowa companies on the leading edge of technology, business expansion, workforce development and recycling.

Evaluation of Electronic Speed Limit Signs on US 30, September, 2011

This study documents the speed reduction impacts of two dynamic, electronic school zone speed limit signs at United Community Schools between Ames and Boone, Iowa. The school facility is situated along US Highway 30, a rural four-lane divided expressway. Due to concerns about high speeds in the area, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) decided to replace the original static school zone speed limit signs, which had flashing beacons during school start and dismissal times (Figure 1), with electronic speed signs that only display the reduced school speed limit of 55 mph during school arrival and dismissal times (Figure 2). The Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) at Iowa State University (ISU) conducted a speed evaluation study one week before and 1 month, 7 months, and 14 or 15 months after the new signs were installed. Overall, the new dynamic school zone speed limit signs were more effective in reducing speeds than the original static signs with flashing beacons in the 1 month after period. During the 7 and 14 month after period, speeds increased slightly for the eastbound direction of traffic. However, the increases were consistent with overall speed increases that occurred independent of the signs. The dynamic, electronic signs were effective for the westbound direction of traffic for all time periods and for both start and dismissal times. Even though only modest changes in mean and 85th percentile speeds occurred, with the speed decreases, the number of vehicles exceeding the school speed limit decreased significantly, indicating the signs had a significant impact on high-end speeders.

Secure and Prepared Newsletter, September 9, 2011, Vol. 7, no. 14

A bi-weekly newsletter for those involved in the fields of homeland security and/or emergency management

Iowa Health Focus, September-October 2011

Monthly newsletter for the Iowa Department of Public Health