AAA urges Trump Administration to focus on deteriorating roadways

Key roadway improvements have the potential to save 63,700 lives and prevent 353,560 serious injuries in the US over a 20-year period, according to a new report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. With the US ranked nearly last among high-income nations in annual traffic fatalities, which continue to rise, AAA urges the Trump Administration to make repairing and maintaining America's roadways a top priority. With an investment of US$146 billion, the report recommends six cost-effective roadway impro
May 3, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Key roadway improvements have the potential to save 63,700 lives and prevent 353,560 serious injuries in the US over a 20-year period, according to a new report from the 477 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. With the US ranked nearly last among high-income nations in annual traffic fatalities, which continue to rise, AAA urges the Trump Administration to make repairing and maintaining America's roadways a top priority.


With an investment of US$146 billion, the report recommends six cost-effective roadway improvements which it says have the greatest potential to reduce both the likelihood and consequences of crashes.

These include converting key intersections into roundabouts; installing roadside barriers and clearing roadside objects; and adding sidewalks and signalised pedestrian crossing on majority of roads. Other measures include installation of median barriers on divided highways, shoulder and centre-line rumble strips and paving and widening shoulders.

The AAA claims current investments in highway infrastructure improvements in the US are substantially lower than what is necessary to fix the nation's aging roads and bridges. While it says the US$146B investment outlined in the report will have a significant national-level impact, it also claims increased investment is required at all levels of government to prevent an infrastructure crisis.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • US Wi-Fi Innovation Act could hamper V2V
    March 27, 2015
    The US government is looking into opening up wi-fi space for the public, but it could impact on vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2V) technology developed to prevent up to 80 per cent of car crashes, according to a discussion on CBS News. After more than a decade in development and more than a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money spent, the technology aimed at making roads safer and saving an estimated 1,083 lives every year may now be sidelined to make room for wi-fi. Dr Peter Sweatman, director
    Read More
  • Tecsidel’s Pan-American Highway tunnel eases Lima’s traffic woes
    December 4, 2018
    The Pan-American Highway connects the US and Canada with Latin America, running for thousands of miles from Alaska in the north to Argentina in the south. Mauro Nogarin finds that one tunnel built underneath it is now providing relief for thousands of travellers each day On the Pan-American Highway, the lengthy series of roads which spans both American continents - from the US state of Alaska to the Latin American country of Argentina - ITS solutions are many and varied. One of these, in Peru’s capital
    Read More
  • Wider uses for weigh in motion data
    March 18, 2014
    Colin Sowman talks to Terry Bergan of International Road Dynamics about the latest uses of weigh-in-motion systems. Raising allowable truck weight limits improve transport efficiency but leaves an ever-increasing number of bridges vulnerable to being overloaded and damaged by vehicles heavier, and in some cases far heavier, than they were designed to carry. The simplistic solution is to impose weight restrictions and erect appropriate signs - but this could have severe knock-on effect on trucking operations
    Read More
  • ACE report: private sector and user-pay for English roads
    May 16, 2018
    It’s one minute to midnight for funding England’s roads, according to a timely new report - and the clock’s big hand is pointing to some form of user-pay solution, reports David Arminas. Is there any way out of future user-pay funding for England’s highway infrastructure? The answer is a resounding ‘no’, according to the recently-published report Funding Roads for the Future. The 25-page document by the London-based Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) calls for a radical rethink about how to
    Read More

Highlighted Content