Discerning a Pattern [Databasing accident-prone spots to increase safety at intersections ]

Winston-Salem Journal ^ | March 30, 2004 | Jim Sparks

[TaxRelief]

Winston-Salem, however, is one of the few places where city traffic engineers keep studying trouble spots after improvements are made, state transportation-safety officials said.

The documentation is at the core of a long-running but little-known effort by city officials in Winston-Salem to make the streets safer.

Over the past 17 years, the Winston-Salem Department of Transportation's Safety Improvement Program has tried to reduce wrecks at 469 intersections.

Studies completed this year show that at 58 spots, the number of wrecks dropped by more than 25 percent - from 1,064 to 786, over a study period of about four years.

The impact of the program is also reflected in the lower number of wrecks and fatal wrecks in Forsyth County compared with other counties in the state.

Forsyth has the fourth-highest population, number of registered vehicles and annual miles driven, but it ranks 12th in the number of accidents, 25th in the number of car accidents with injury, and 88th in fatal wrecks.

[TaxRelief]

Forsyth has the fourth-highest population, number of registered vehicles and annual miles driven, but it ranks 12th in the number of accidents, 25th in the number of car accidents with injury, and 88th in fatal wrecks.

And the taxes in W-S are HALF what I pay in the 10th most dangerous city in the country in which I now live.

[TaxRelief]

If Winston-Salem can run a great cost-effective, results oriented Traffic Engineering Department, then we can all use this information to demand the same results within our own communities. FWIW.

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