To whom it may concern,
I wish to convey my support for grant applications to fund low-cost technology solutions that address safety and congestion issues for at-grade rail crossings.
Local communities are facing increasing challenges with less than adequate funds available,
and the need to update our railway crossing security to provide our residents a better and safer system is imperative.
Our region is facing increasing rail traffic which puts a strain on our response times for emergency services. Furthermore, the anticipated growth in SE Wisconsin will exacerbate the situation
leading to more accidents, delays of emergency services, and other potential catastrophes.
We have the opportunity to take a leadership and innovation role to get ahead of these growing challenges. Modern driving behavior includes use of navigation systems by 75% of drivers. Growing use of autonomous vehicle technology and disengaged drivers demonstrates the need for the best technology possible to protect our residents. We support proposals to evaluate and deploy low-cost technology solutions to reduce train/truck collisions, speed emergency response and address congestion frustration by advanced redirection of traffic from occupied rail crossings.
The benefit to emergency response is magnified by the quality of life improvements in SE Wisconsin that could include yearly regional reductions of 20,000 tons of carbon pollution and $8M wasted fuel from idling vehicles, reduction of $78M/yr loss in community productivity and reduction $150M/yr loss in logistics productivity.
Current rail crossing safety solutions were devised over 100 years ago and do not address
behavior, like going around gates and turning in traffic, that spills into the rail crossing as a result of congestion frustration occurring in the blocks/miles leading to the rail crossing.
Thank you for considering this project which can provide one more tool to protect our community.