Skip to main content

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

  • IBT goes roundabout in Bradenton, Florida
    May 10, 2019
    Yet another roundabout is being built in the US. The public remains sceptical but agencies and contractors are on board, writes David Arminas Global construction company IBT, based in Miami, has won a contract to install a traffic circle – or roundabout - on State Road 64 near Bradenton, Florida. The deal is part of a road improvement project with the Florida Department of Transportation (DoT). The 13-month project started in November. Worth only $5 million, it is not a big infrastructure contract. But
  • Cisco’s 5 steps to cyber-resilient roadways
    September 12, 2024
    As the ITS world becomes ever more connected, cybersecurity risks are increasing. Cisco experts Pete Kavanagh and Angela Murphy explain how to overcome key challenges
  • Remote remedies help US authorities identify bridge deficiencies
    September 6, 2017
    Every day 185 million vehicles – cars, trucks, school buses, emergency response units - cross one or more of America’s 55,710 'structurally compromised' steel and concrete road bridges, the highest concentration of which are in Iowa (nearly 5,000), Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Nearly 2,000 of these crossings are located on interstate highways, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association's recent analysis of the US Department of Transportation's 2016 National Bridge Inventory.
  • GHSA warns of racism in traffic enforcement
    September 28, 2020
    'No highway safety programme can survive without public trust,' it says