Zero traffic death campaigns (VMSs showing "### Traffic Deaths in [year]")

[SSOWorld]

What is the purpose of this.  Is there a reason for me to care?

These days - states are pushing this zero-traffic-death campaign by any means necessary.  Don't get me wrong, I would rather not have any traffic deaths occur myself but I believe certain methods of this are overkill.  I speak for no one state, but Illinois has polluted its VMSs with this.  Iowa has done it as well, but not as bad.

[hotdogPi]

If there have already been ### deaths, you can't get 0 deaths.

[Brandon]

These DOTs fantasize that one can actually have zero highway deaths.  It's a load of bullshit.

[hbelkins]

These DOTs fantasize that one can actually have zero highway deaths.  It's a load of bullshit.

Kentucky has a phrase, "Toward Zero Deaths."

[ET21]

Ignore the signs lol. I just pay attention to my travel times.

[Revive 755]

I've seen it once on a MoDOT VMS around St. Louis.

Ignore the signs lol. I just pay attention to my travel times.

Problem is the 'X highway deaths this year' message takes away from the display time from the travel times and makes it easier to miss the travel times if one is already in heavy traffic.

[SidS1045]

These DOTs fantasize that one can actually have zero highway deaths.  It's a load of bullshit.

This.

As long as human beings drive cars, instead of robots, zero highway deaths is a pipe dream.  Mayor deBlasio:  Are you listening?

[Scott5114]

I've seen it once on a MoDOT VMS around St. Louis.

Ignore the signs lol. I just pay attention to my travel times.

Problem is the 'X highway deaths this year' message takes away from the display time from the travel times and makes it easier to miss the travel times if one is already in heavy traffic.

Leading to the ironic possibility that someone could cause a traffic death by watching the highway death count, trying to find out travel times...

[myosh_tino]

A rather morbid, eye-opening (and thankfully fictional) CMS...

[SSOWorld]

A rather morbid, eye-opening (and thankfully fictional) CMS...

How'd you make that? 

[myosh_tino]

A rather morbid, eye-opening (and thankfully fictional) CMS...

How'd you make that? 

A lot of pixel manipulations!

This CMS design is based on the ones Caltrans uses (the model number and manufacturer are listed on their website).  Once I had the size and dimensions of the LED display, I went into Photoshop and created the main display field where a 2x2 pixel square represented one LED with the LEDs being spaced one pixel apart.  The letters, numbers and symbols were all hand-drawn pixel-by-pixel and saved into a template.

To create the above CMS, using the characters from my library, I built both messages and used an online animated GIF maker to create the sign you see above.

Note: Hwy 152 in California between US 101 and I-5 was, at one time, a very dangerous road where fatal head-on collisions occurred at an alarmingly high rate.  As a result portions of the 2-lane highway were upgraded to a 4-lane expressway with other safety improvements made on the remaining 2-lane sections.

[jeffandnicole]

This is kinda like the jokes that go "The Cubs take the mound.  Here's the first pitch of the season, and the Cubs are eliminated from the playoffs..."