Presentation on traffic safety efforts in Brazos County are shared at the chamber economic outlook conference

This podcast contains comments from Dan Rudge of the Bryan/College Station metropolitan planning organization at the B/CS chamber of commerce economic outlook conference on January 28, 2026.Click HERE to read and download MPO presentation materials from the January 28, 2026 economic outlook conference.Reducing the number crashes resulting in deaths and serious injuries was among the subjects presented to those attending last week's Bryan/College Station chamber of commerce economic outlook conference.Dan Rudge of the B/CS metropolitan planning organization (MPO) said between 2017 and 2022, 11 percent of crashes on Brazos County highways were responsible for 71 percent of crashes resulting in deaths and severe injuries.During that time period, Rudge said there were more than 20,000 crashes in Brazos County. 101 of the crashes resulted in deaths and 524 resulted in severe injuries.Additional statistics about crashes in Brazos County shows:52% of fatal crashes occur in dark or underlit conditions.30% of crashes are attributed to speedingPedestrians are involved in 1% of crashes, but make up 13% of fatal crashes61% of fatal, severe, and minor injury crashes occur at intersections or driveways.49% of fatal crashes are the result of lane or roadway departure.Rudge says what drivers don't want...roundabouts and diverging diamond interchanges...is part of the effort to reduce the number of crashes resulting in deaths and serious injuries.Rudge says an obstacle is money. That's because the state is spending one billion dollars between the Big six project that just started and the new Bush/Wellborn interchange that will start construction next year.Rudge also said he learned a new illustration just before the conference, that if an employer lost an employee earning $100,000 dollars to a traffic death, the employer will spend $150,000 dollars to replace that person.Rudge says those who design highways are changing philosophies.Instead of preventing crashes, the philosophy is changing to preventing deaths and serious injuries.Instead of improving human behavior, the philosophy is changing to design for human mistakes and limitations.Instead of controlling vehicle speed the philosophy is changing to reduce kinetic energy created by crashes.Instead of individual responsibility for crashes the philosophy is changing to shared responsibility.Instead of transportation planners reacting to crash history, the philosophy is changing to proactively identify and address risks.