The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "traffic planning" ...
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Route 22 Widening Going Nowhere
Despite the best efforts from many fronts, plans to widen Pennsylvania's Route 22 are unlikely to be fulfilled. Traffic has continued to get worse on what is the main highway through Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, but "a lack of money, a large number of eminent domain cases, other needs across the state and a changing view of transportation strategies make even partial completion of the widening project unlikely."
Tags: Roads; road expansion; Route 22; traffic; road congestion
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Collision Course
The number airborne incidents in Canadian air space are occuring at an alarmingly increasing rate while the Canadian government agency that oversees air safety plans to decrease industry oversight and increase self-regulation.
Tags: air safety; airplane; flight; air traffic; regulation; Canada
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Danger Zone
The Gazette investigation found that nearly half the fatal accidents on Interstate 80 in Iowa from 1994-2001 involved semi-trailer trucks. No other interstate in Iowa had a rate that high. Traffic counts are growing on a 60-70 mile stretch of I-80 in Eastern Iowa, where many of the semi-trailer trucks are concentrated. Despite the growth in traffic, state officials have no plans to improve safety by widening the highway because traffic counts are just shy of the threshold for widening the road.
Tags: fatal accidents; Interstate 80; semi-trailer trucks; traffic accidents; Fatality Analysis Reporting System; stopping distance; Iowa Department of Transportation; Iowa Office of Driver Services; Iowa Office of Motor Vehicle Enforcement; Iowa Office of Design; University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute; Cedar County; Iowa State Patrol; FARS
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Sticky Subject. Industry finds devil in the details of plan for border SUV labels. New warnings highlighting risk of rollovers inspire exercise in deconstruction. The fate of the dangling man.
This article talks about SUV rollovers, and the increasing number of rollovers that are happening. The federal government is considering requiring SUV manufacturers to place labels on the vehicles which warn of the "high risk of rollover."
Tags: SUV; Sport Utility Vehicles; SUVs; government; labels; rollover; seat belts; federal government; driver safety; roads; highways; speeding; traffic
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City at risk: Traffic jam from hell
Creative Loafing probes the feasibility of Mecklenburg County's evacuation plan. The story finds that if a terrorist attack or a nuclear accident at one of the county's two nuclear plants occurred, the evacuation plan would not prevent a "large-scale loss of life." There are potentially deadly flaws not only in Mecklenburg county's evacuation plan, Servatius writes, but "ultimately in federally approved evacuation plans across the country."
Tags: public safety; disasters; emergency; terrorism; Sept. 11
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Railroaded
The American Press sheds light on how railroads in Southwest Louisiana have become a threat to public safety, and have raised concerns about devaluation of local residents' properties. Union Pacific has planned on building a storage-in-transit station in spite of the objections of the homeowners in the vicinity. "Public officials on the state and local level ... have battled for years to toughen regulations governing the rail industry," the Press reports.
Tags: Federal Railroad Administration; zoning; hazardous waste; roads; transportation; highways; Southern Pacific Railroad; traffic; legislation; FOI request; noise pollution
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RUN, Don't Walk
The New Times reports on pedestrian safety -- the lack of it -- in Los Angeles. Los Angeles is second only to New York in pedestrian fatalities, and has far fewer pedestrians. Portland has six city employees that deal with pedestrian safety and planning, Los Angeles has none. Other problems include confusion over right-of-way at unmarked crosswalks, a shrinking number of traffic enforcement officers, clogged freeways that push extra traffic into arterial roads and road rage. Due to legal quirks, Los Angeles even had to raise the speed limit on one of the streets it wanted to slow down in order to be legally able to use radar detectors to catch speeders.
Tags: pedestrian deaths; Surface Transportation Policy Project; crosswalks
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Collision Course
Fatalities and car accidents are up dramatically in the Denver metro area. This article details the circumstances surrounding the death of a young girl who, with her family, was killed at a crosswalk on Colfax Avenue. A car ran a red light -- and struck the family of four. A local radio station raised $30,000 for the family to help bury daughter Alexis and to be set aside for the family. The mother spent most of the money on a car and set aside just $2,000 apiece for her other children. The family remains angry about the incident and considered suing the perpetrator, Shelia Towns, but decided against it because she has no wealth. Towns claims she split because she'd had a few drinks before the incident and was worried about going to jail. As it is, she will spend 18 months in jail, followed by rehab and a 12-year suspended sentence.
Tags: Wellington Webb; traffic fatalities; radio stations; charity drives; traffic planning; traffic light timing; the grid system; Denver Police Department; Mother's Day; Douglas County; violations; ticket prices; Colorado Department of Transportation; point system
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Gateway to Gridlock
In a four-part series, "The Tribune set out on a journey to find out why air travel has gotten so bad, dispatching reporters to seven airports and five air traffic control towers across the country on September 11, 2000, a day chosen by the airlines and federal aviation officials. The dramatic events of that storm-tossed Monday show how quickly a fragile system can be brought to its knees" in part one. "Parts two through four examine how bad planning and petty politics have allowed U.S. air travel to choke on its own growth."
Tags: airplanes; consumers; pilots; flight attendants; airlines; air traffic; O'Hare International Airport; American Airlines; United Airlines
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Re-Engineering: Amtrak Boss Struggles to Get Train Service on Track in the U.S.
The Journal takes a look at the continuous struggle faced by Amtrak to compete with increased airline traffic and highway travel. New Amtrak president and chief executive George Warrington has large plans for the renovation and revitalization of Amtrak such as faster trains, better customer service, and remodeled stations. But because of past financial problems, Congress has said that Amtrak must operate without federal operating subsidies by 2003 "or face restructuring or liquidation." Unfortunately for Amtrak, in 2000 federal subsidies were close to $184 million. Machalaba finds out how Amtrak is collaborating with Continental Airlines and the U.S. Conference of Mayors to build support for a new passenger rail system in the U.S., one that George Warrington believes can be as commercially viable as the rail system that runs through Europe.
Tags: Railroads; transportation; Amtrak