Gray
Notebook
Lite

Bicyclist and Pedestrian Safety

• The share of Washington traffic fatalities involving people walking and biking grew 2% from 2015 to 2016
• Washington saw a 19% increase in K-8 children walking and biking to school in 2016 compared to 2014

People walking and biking accounted for 20% of statewide traffic fatalities in 2016, up from 18% in 2015. Total annual deaths of people biking and walking on Washington state roads totaled 106 in 2016, up from 100 in the previous calendar year (six more fatalities).

Workforce Development

• WSDOT's workforce is at 6,586 permanent full-time employees, 96 more than the same quarter in 2016
• WSDOT's workforce development initiatives strive to make the agency an employer of choice to recruit and retain employees

Agency-wide, 44% (2,870) of employees have the "possibility" of retiring by 2021 and 20% (1,277) are considered "probable" to retire. Retirement forecasts are as of September 2016, when there were 6,472 employees with retirement benefits. Given significant retirement probabilities, WSDOT is implementing strategies to support a stable and skilled workforce including increased outreach and referral programs.

Traveler Information

Social media resonates with WSDOT's Agency Emphasis Area of Inclusion as it provides information to customers from various and diverse communities. More and more people are accessing real-time travel information on-the-go from the agency's smartphone apps. During the 2017 reporting period, downloads of WSDOT's mobile apps increased by 35% from 562,759 to 760,025.

• WSDOT's Facebook page "likes" increased 77% from 34,832 in April 2016 to 61,688 in March 2017
• The number of @wsdot_traffic Twitter followers increased 130% from 143,194 in April 2016 to 329,381 in March 2017

Noise Quality

WSDOT WORKING TO REDUCE TRAFFIC NOISE STATEWIDE

• WSDOT conducted 23 traffic noise studies for upcoming transportation projects between April 2016 and March 2017
• Approximately 91 miles of noise walls have been constructed since 1963, with 1.4 miles built between April 2016 and March 2017

Wetlands Protection

WSDOT began monitoring 16 new wetland and stream mitigation sites on 99 acres in 2016, bringing the all-time total to 279 wetland and stream mitigation sites on 1,573 acres. WSDOT started issuing monitoring reports on mitigation sites in 1988 and has since transferred 166 sites to long-term stewardship with WSDOT partners.

Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks

CVISN SAVING COMMERCIAL TRUCKERS TIME AND MONEY

WSDOT gave commercial trucks equipped with Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN) transponders the green light to bypass open weigh stations 1.33 million times in 2016. This is 5% more than the 1.27 million given in 2015. Weigh station bypasses (green lights) created roughly $12.8 million in economic benefit in 2016 by helping the trucking industry avoid an estimated 110,695 hours of travel time and saving an estimated 531,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

Incident Response

WSDOT INCIDENT RESPONSE KEEPS VEHICLES MOVING

• WSDOT responded to 15,387 incidents during the quarter, providing an estimated $23.3 million in economic benefits
• WSDOT cleared incidents in 12 minutes and 6 seconds on average, reducing traffic delay and the risk of secondary incidents

The Incident Response (IR) program aligns with WSDOT's Agency Emphasis Area, Practical Solutions, by improving the performance of the multimodal transportation system at the least cost. Based on WSDOT's budget for IR every $1 spent on the program during the quarter provided drivers roughly $15.53 in economic benefit.

Safety Rest Areas

An estimated 24 million visitors used WSDOT safety rest areas in calendar year 2016, which is about 615,000 or 3% more than the 23.1 million estimated visitors in 2015, and the highest number in the past decade.