IOWA – Getting stuck behind a tractor that’s moving slowly on the highway isn’t just frustrating—it can also result in a crash, if drivers aren’t paying attention. Those crashes result in more than 200 accidents a year in Iowa.
Iowa Department of Transportation’s (I-DOT) Director of New and Emerging Transportation Technologies Matthew Miller says this has been a problem on the Iowa 5/U.S. 65 bypass, east and south of Des Moines. That’s why I-DOT set up slow-moving traffic detection and messaging systems in the area.
If a vehicle—like farming equipment, which might travel at 15 or 20 miles per hour—is going slower than the speed limit, roadside sensors send that information to signs along the highway, warning about a slow vehicle up ahead. Miller says the goal is to help prevent crashes by giving drivers a chance to reduce their speed and switch lanes before catching up to those slower vehicles…