Baltimore region gets tough on traffic safety

So much so that the Baltimore Metropolitan Council has hired a public affairs and marketing firm to come up with a plan.

The goal is to improve safety but also the more quantifiable result of reducing vehicle-related fatalities and injuries.

The campaign will involve Annapolis and Baltimore cities as well as several counties, including Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard.

Each local government will work with and, I would imagine, within the program so the campaign has a regional look and feel.

These types of programs can be great, but they also can be a bust and a huge waste of money if the goals are not clearly spelled out and if the company hired fails to understand the unique nature of the market into which it is trying to effect changes.

The companies whose programs fail are those who try to force-feed a region on a campaign that worked somewhere else, because it is easier and more profitable for them to do it that way.

I don’t know the particular company that’s been hired here, but I have confidence they will listen to the local officials and residents and develop a program that works for us.

Feds want seat belts in buses

The federal Department of Transportation has a proposal that would require all school buses

to be equipped with seat belts and, in some cases, with higher seat backs.

Far too many injuries occur on school buses, as young people fall against seats or into aisles when a bus has to stop suddenly or if it is involved in a crash.

But the Governors Highway Safety Association said the grants from which states would draw this funding to retrofit school buses might take away from other safety programs.

I have to disagree.

The money spent on drunken driving and speed education, among others, while worthwhile in the long run, is not very efficient.

Getting school children buckled up can have an immediate and measurable impact and needs to be done sooner than later.

With all of the safety laws that try to protect us as we drive around, it is amazing to me that school children in many school districts are not required to be buckled up in school buses.

Tune-ups, tire checks save gas

I know a lot of people are spending hundreds of dollars to get tuneups for their cars in hopes of improving gas mileage.

That’s generally a good idea, as is changing some of our driving behaviors and using alternative forms of transportation when possible.

There is something else that will have a bigger-than-expected impact, costs nothing or very little, and can be done quickly.

Drivers can save up to 9 cents per gallon of gasoline by having enough air in their tires, according to the Rubber Manufacturers Association.

Properly inflated tires also are safer and will extend the life of the tire, the association said.

Questions, comments, random musings? Write to Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com.