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Study shows trust in self-driving cars eroding

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We’re likely still decades from flying cars in the style of the Jetsons and other futuristic worlds depicted in science fiction and a new survey finds we’re growing less enamored even with self-driving cars.

Rose White, spokeswoman for AAA-Iowa, says a motor club poll found our trust is eroding in autonomous automobiles.

“Today, three-quarters or about 73% of the American drivers report they would be too afraid to ride in a fully self-driving vehicle,” White says. “That’s up significantly from 63% that was reported in late 2017.” There was another surprise in the survey. White says Millennials, who are usually the first to embrace new technology, are backing away from trusting autonomous vehicles.

“The percentage of Millennial drivers too afraid to ride in a fully self-driving vehicle jumped from 49% to 64% since late 2017,” White says, “representing the largest increase of any generation surveyed.” The report also found almost two-thirds (63%) of adults polled said they would actually feel less safe sharing the road with a self-driving vehicle while walking or riding a bicycle. It’s common for such public opinions to be swayed by current events, and a few recent events involving these vehicles have been far from positive.

White says, “Earlier this year, in March, there were two high-profile crashes that occurred, both resulting in fatalities, that involved autonomous vehicles.” One of those crashes involved an SUV owned by the ride-sharing service Uber that hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

Self-driving cars were being tested earlier this year in Iowa — on Interstate 380 between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. It’s a research project through the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driving Simulator.

 

Southeast Iowa will be the focus of DOT car counts this summer

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The Iowa Department of Transportation is launching an annual summertime count of cars, trucks, and other vehicles traveling on the state’s roadways.

Mark Hansen helps oversee the effort for the DOT. He says the work is critical for the future of the state’s transportation system.

“We look at the city streets, the county roads, and the primary roads to get a feel for the type of vehicles that are on the roadways, the number of vehicles that are on the roadways, and we look at turning movements to see what the vehicles are doing at a particular intersection as well,” Hansen said.

This year’s count is concentrated primarily on southeast Iowa. “We do a quadrant of the state annually, so every four years we return to the place that we’ve been and we can gauge growth trends over the last time that we’ve been there,” Hansen said. Motorists in southeast Iowa will likely see DOT employees at various intersections entering information in hand-held computers.

“In addition to that, we have the black tubes across the roadway,” Hansen said. “You’ll hear the ‘thump’ when you drive across them…those are actually machine counters that we have there for 24 or 48 hours that are counting and, in some cases, classifying those vehicles.”

According to Hansen, the information that’s gathered allows transportation officials to better predict traffic volume and weight trends, allowing them to plan improvements that will give Iowans the most benefit for each tax dollar spent.

 

Higher gas prices not expected to impact Memorial Day travel

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Near-record travel numbers are predicted in Iowa and nationwide for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, kicking off the summer vacation season.

Rose White, spokeswoman for AAA-Iowa, says the motor club is forecasting more than 41-million Americans will be taking trips during the holiday, a five-percent increase from last year and the largest number in a dozen years.

White says, “Of those traveling, about 36.6-million will travel by car, another 3.1-million will fly to their destinations and 1.8-million will travel by other modes, including cruise ship.” Crude oil prices are up and gasoline prices are following suit, though White says higher pump prices won’t deter most motorists from hitting the holiday road.

“For those traveling across Iowa, you can expect to see retail prices about $2.76 a gallon, that’s up about 51-cents compared to what we saw last year,” White says. “Things you can do to save on fuel include: avoid aggressive driving, combine errands when possible and consider using a higher ethanol blend of fuel.”

For example, the E-85 blend is selling for about 50-cents a gallon below regular unleaded. If you’re driving long-distance during the weekend, it might be helpful to look over a few things on your vehicle before leaving. AAA expects to rescue more than 340,000 motorists at the roadside this Memorial Day weekend.

“To avoid being stranded, you may want to have your battery checked,” White says. “Also, have a spare key handy and also check your tires. Those are the top three leading reasons why we see service breakdowns during the holiday period.” The top five travel destinations over Memorial Day are: Orlando, Seattle, Honolulu, Las Vegas and Anchorage, Alaska.

 

AAA survey shows growing interest in electric vehicles

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More drivers are interested in owning electric vehicles, according to a new survey from AAA.

Nick Jarmusz, a spokesman for the auto club in Iowa, says the survey found 1-in-5 Americans plan to go electric with their next vehicle purchase. Worries over climate change and a desire to “go green” are key driving forces behind many motorists turning away from traditional gas-powered vehicles to purchase electric cars.

“The overwhelming majority cite environmental concerns as their number-one reason why they would consider that technology,” Jarmusz said. Potential buyers also like the fact that electric vehicles require less maintenance than gas-powered engines.

“We are beginning to see those vehicles become much more competitive and in many cases, that’s one of the secondary reasons behind environmental concerns, the idea that this is going to be cheaper to own and maintain in the long-term,” Jarmusz said.

As more electric cars appear on the roads, fewer prospective buyers are scared off by “range anxiety,” according to Jarmusz. “That they won’t be able to travel far enough or be able to do their regular commuting between the necessary charging intervals,” he said. While some Iowans may be more eager to buy an electric vehicle, having the right infrastructure will be critical to its widespread adoption. The availability of charging stations had grown to more than 16,000 nationwide.

 

State transportation plan features more interstate work, completion of Highway 20

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DOT interstate traffic camera view of I-35/80.

The draft five-year Transportation Improvement Plan that covers spending on all forms of transportation was presented to the Iowa Transportation Commission at their meeting Tuesday.

Three-point-four billion dollars of the program goes for the state roadways and DOT spokesman Stuart Anderson says that includes a lot of ongoing work on the interstates. “Probably the most significant projects on the interstates right now are what we would call modernization projects — so its totally reconstructing the interstate systems in Council Bluffs and Sioux City to meet modern design standards and to address increased traffic,” Anderson says.

Another interstate project adds a segment to the work on the highway between Ankeny and Ames. “This draft program does include the addition of reconstruction and improving I-35 from the north end of Ankeny up to Iowa 210 as you head towards Ames,” Anderson says.

There are also several projects on non-interstate highway. “We expect to complete the 4 lanes of U.S. 20 in western Iowa by this fall,” according to Anderson. “So that’ll complete the four-lane construction of U.S. 20 across the entire state. That’s been a project that’s been underway for many years.” Other state highway corridors are also in the plan.

“This five-year program continues work on four-lane improvements on U.S. 30 in Tama and Benton County. And also U.S. 61 down in southeast Iowa. So, significant corridor work will be continuing,” Anderson explains. Anderson says part of the funding comes form the gas tax increase.

He says this program includes a little more than $500 million of the fuel tax increase implemented in March of 2015. The Transportation Commission will take a vote on the program next month. He says the plan is available on the DOT website for any comment and the commission will act on final approval during their business meeting on June 12th.

 

Strong demand keeps gas prices higher

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Iowans who are filling up the gas tanks of their cars — and their snowblowers — are paying more lately.

Gail Weinholzer, at AAA-Iowa, says gasoline prices are higher than usual. “We’ve had a strong demand throughout the winter,” Weinholzer says. “We’re exporting a lot of crude oil. Crude oil is trading up above $65 a barrel and all of that formed a confluence of reasons why prices have stayed high through the winter and are a bit higher than they were last year at this time.” The average price for gas in Iowa is $2.58 a gallon. That’s up 20-cents from a year ago.

Last weekend’s U.S.-led strike on Syria likely isn’t to blame, at least not much. “Syria is not an oil exporter, not directly,” she says. “There’s some nervousness within the market about any continuing hostility and that’s keeping crude oil prices high. Crude oil prices have been high throughout the winter so it’s not having that significant of an impact.” While the weather is still wintry, we’re almost a month into spring, which usually means an upturn in gas prices.

“We’re most of the way through the switch-over from the winter to the summer grade of fuel, even though we’re not actually experiencing summer at this point,” Weinholzer says. “The summer grade fuel burns cleaner and costs more to refine so we always see prices rise in the spring, although I wouldn’t expect them to rise any more than a nickel or a dime between now and Memorial Day.”

The daily AAA survey shows Iowa’s most expensive gas is in Dubuque, averaging $2.65 a gallon, while the cheapest gas is in Council Bluffs at $2.49.

(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)

 

Diverging diamond interchange proposed for I-35 in Ankeny

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The proposed interchange for Ankeny.

A major road construction project is getting underway in central Iowa and once completed, motorists in the area will travel through what’s called a diverging diamond interchange (DDI).

It’s happening in Ankeny and Iowa DOT construction engineer Benjamin Hucker says the DDI will be something new for most drivers.

“This will be the second diverging diamond interchange in Iowa,” Hucker said. “The first one is located on the west side of the (Des Moines) metro. That was opened a couple years ago.”

The new design should help ease traffic congestion and reduce the prevalence of severe crashes. Nearly 60,000 vehicles per day travel through the area,

Benjamin Hucker explains the interchange.

which is the interchange at First Street in Ankeny with Interstate 35. It’s one of the biggest road overhauls happening in Iowa.

“It’s certainly a large project, but our corridor work in Council Bluffs and Sioux City and the I-235 corridor work (in Des Moines) about 10 years ago was bigger than this…but it’s certainly one of our larger projects,” Hucker said. The $50 million project is expected to take three years to complete.

The current I-35 interchange at First Street in Ankeny often results in back-ups on the ramps and the interstate. Hucker said any upcoming closures to I-35 in Ankeny for the construction work will be temporary and only during the overnight hours.

 

Eight counties will be first to get license plates with new design

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New license plates are going out to 8 counties.

The new license plate design picked by voters at this year’s Iowa State Fair will start showing up in a handful of counties in the next few weeks.

Iowa Department of Transportation spokesperson, Andrea Henry, says the new plates went into production this week and will go out to the counties which need a new supply.

“We have an automatic inventory reordering system that tracks the number of plates each county treasurer has,” Henry says, “but we do have a list of eight counties who will be receiving them first. Those are: Crawford , Palo Alto, Carroll, Clinton, Emmet, Fayette, Hancock and Muscatine counties.”

The plates will feature the new design that is a reboot of the old plates. They will also be made of a new material.

A new type of material is being used in the license plates.

“We are actually using a new high-definition sheeting which is a new product that our vendor has out that provides better reflectivity for the plates themselves,” Henry says. She says license plates are replaced for each vehicle very ten years.

“So it depends on where you are at in that ten-year cycle. So, say if you just received a brand new plate last year — you will not receive another new plate for another nine years,” she says. Henry says if you don’t want to wait a long time for the new design, you can get it for a small fee.

“If anyone would like the new plate and are really anxious to do that, they can request that from the county treasurers and it just costs five dollars and they can get that new design and the brand new plate,” Henry says. The selection of the new plate design created some controversy in the state.

The DOT created the design in house to save money and the three final designs were criticized as unimaginative, which prompted the DOT designer to speak up to defend the design.

(Photos courtesy of the Iowa DOT)

 

Interstate 80 study provides DOT information for rebuilding

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Traffic on Intestate 80 in eastern Iowa.

The Iowa Department of Transportation is studying Interstate 80 from the Illinois to Nebraska border as it plans for the future.

The DOT’s Brad Hofer says they are looking at the busy highway in segments as they put together what he calls a “vision document.”

“It’s a pretty big animal to think about reconstructing — especially in terms of funding. So, we knew we couldn’t do it all at once. We knew we had to kind of take it as the infrastructure sort of aged,” Hofer says. They have been gathering input in online public forums and from transportation groups as part of an overall study.

“This study was to sort of develop a plan with which all those little pieces, all those sections could be built with that end vision, end goal in mind,” he says. Hofer says one thing stood out as they talked to people.

He says some 5,000 people have given input, and a lot of the feedback has dealt with all the trucks on the highway and the need for more lanes. Hofer says they are looking down the road into the future with this study.

“Something new that we did with this study that we haven’t really done before is look at technology and how technology will play a part in future improvements,” Hofer says. ” I know everybody has been talking about automated vehicles and connected vehicles — and this will be the first time that we have really looked at what those kind of technological improvements would do for capacity gains on the roadways.” People from all across the country travel the east-west route.

“Some parts of western Iowa are pretty low and you get towards the eastern side of the state and it’s significantly higher. Some of the projections were up to 55,000 vehicles a day,” Hofer explains. “So, it’s pretty significant.” Hofer says the process is getting underway as they prepare the overall plan.

Hofer says they’ve already started a more traditional study from Iowa City out to West Branch, kicking off a traditional study with the overall picture in mind. The DOT plans to hold another public meeting to gather more input.

“We’ll also kind of put together that vision document and get it out ahead of that meeting. And then we’ll also kind of augment that in-person meeting with another online meeting to give people the chance to comment on that vision document,” according to Hofer. The details on the public meeting have not yet been set.

You can read more on the I-80 study, go to the Department of Transportation’s webpage.

 

Republican legislators may send more bus money to schools

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A state report indicates the fleet of yellow buses owned by Iowa’s public schools traveled more than 40 million miles last year.

Some geographically large Iowa school districts are spending more than $900 a year for each student who rides the bus to and from school. “Some of the larger school districts in some of the far-flung areas of the state are very expensive,” House Speaker Linda Upmeyer said Thursday during a statehouse news conference.

Upmeyer and other Republican lawmakers are offering to supplement some school transportation budgets, but in varying degrees. Republicans in the House are suggesting a $10 million boost for the coming year.

Republican Representative Walt Rogers of Cedar Falls said the money would go “to the most needy districts across the state who are struggling with transportation, especially in the rural areas.”

A year ago, Senate Republicans signalled they wanted to immediately send twice as much to schools for transporting kids to and from school. That plan eventually would have committed about $150 million a year in state money to supplement the budgets for busing in sprawling districts that primarily cover rural zip codes. Senator Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton, said given current state budget realities, she understands why her GOP colleagues in the House favor spending less on school transportation.

“I prefer fixing problems rather than putting band-aids on them, but absolutely I’ll work with them to see if we can get something done that will at least alleviate that stress and help every child receive a high-quality education,” Sinclair said during an interview.

Sinclair said another bill pending in the legislature could help ease school budgets for busing. The bill would let elementary students ride the bus just as long as high school students — a one-way trip of 75 minutes. One district told legislators with students of any age riding the same bus, two bus routes could be eliminated and save the district $100,000 next year.