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Statewide Podcasts

TxDOT produces a weekly Statewide Podcast to keep you updated on the latest transportation news and issues. New podcast episodes are produced every Friday and are posted here and are also available on iTunes.

Note: You may subscribe to the RSS feed for TxDOT Statewide Podcasts.

Date	Description	Format
05/24/13	AAA-Texas: Nearly 3 Million Texans to travel during Memorial Day holiday weekend - With Memorial Day in the offing, AAA-Texas is anticipating nearly three million Texans loading up the family car and hitting the road. For more, I spoke with Doug Shupe of AAA-Texas.
05/17/13	Best of the TxDOT Podcast: CDC Study Focuses on Drowsy Driving - Americans are romantics at heart, and many of our romanticized ideals are captured in our music, everything from the lone cowboy in the Eagles' "Desperado," to the rebel in George Thorogood's anthem "Get A Haircut," to Cyndi Lauper's "I Drove All Night." And while being a cowboy can indeed be a lonely profession, and getting a haircut isn't always a bad thing, driving all night, or more specifically driving while drowsy, is becoming an American epidemic. How much of an epidemic? To find out, I spoke with Dr. Anne Wheaton of the Center For Disease Control and Prevention, better known as the CDC. To read the summary of the report, follow this link: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6151a1.htm. This episode originally posted in January 2013.
05/10/13	Sen. Deuell on funding transportation: "We need to face reality" - Few in the Texas Legislature have a district as diverse as Senator Dr. Robert Deuell of the Second District. Spanning east from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to all or part of Delta, Fannin, Hopkins and Van Zandt counties, Sen. Deuell has made his career on striking balances between big city and small town politics on the three major political hot buttons; education, transportation and water. I spoke with the six-term Senator recently about how transportation funding has changed since he took office and where he sees it going next.
05/03/13	NHTSA Survey: Distracted Driving Awareness High, Behavior Unchanged - There may not be a clear beginning of distracted driving as a phenomenon in the United States, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is working to find the end. A recent survey by NHTSA showed that while a majority of Americans know distracted driving is dangerous, that hasn't stopped them from driving while distracted. For more on this dichotomy, I spoke with NHTSA Administrator David Strickland.
04/26/13	Best of the TxDOT Podcast: Dutch innovator Roosegaarde's Smart Highway Project - They say necessity is the mother of invention, but it's also the mother of innovation. Faced with an energy crunch on top of budget cuts, municipal governments in the Netherlands have begun saving tax dollars by cutting back on measures like keeping street lights lit at night. And while the street lights might have been switched off, Daan Roosegaarde, a Dutch artist and innovator, and owner of Studio Roosegaarde, switched his creativity on and began work on his "Smart Highway Project." For more, and in a TxDOT Podcast first, I put in an international call to Daan at his office in the Netherlands. Find out more about the Studio Roosegaarde "Smart Highway Project" here: http://www.studioroosegaarde.net/project/smart-highway/photo/#smart-highway This episode originally posted in January 2013.
04/19/13	Teaching your teen how to drive? There's an App for that... - So, your baby just turned 15 and is thinking about what kind of car they're going to get for their next birthday. Chances are you've thought about what they're going to drive, but the better question is "how will they drive?" If you or your spouse decide to provide the required training, how can you be sure you've covered all of the basics with your student driver before you turn them loose? As it turns out, there's an App for that. To find out more about it, I spoke with its creator, Arthur Goodwin, a senior research associated at the University of North Carolina's Highway Research Center. Download the App, 'Time to Drive' for $3.99 from Apple's iTunes Store.
04/12/13	National Work Zone Awareness Week - This week is National Work Zone Awareness Week, not just in Texas, but across the country. With distracted driving on the rise, adding to the myriad of bad things that can happen to workers and motorists alike in a work zone, the message is as timely as it is relevant. For more, I spoke with TxDOT Deputy Executive Director John Barton.
04/05/13	Heath: 'Drivewyze' Technology Born From Frustration - How many times have you heard the rhetorical statement, "we can put a man on the moon, but we can't..." do something that seems simple? When it comes to technology and transportation, that question - and the urgency it represents - is becoming more and more common. Enter Brian Heath, the President and CEO of Drivewyze, a Canadian firm that may not have put a man on the moon, but may be on the path to solving some of today's most pressing - and perplexing - transportation issues. For more information about Drivewyze, log on to its website, http://drivewyze.com/.
03/28/13	U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood: Looking Back, Looking Ahead - As the Obama Presidency transitioned into a second term in January, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced his resignation. In a little over four years as SecTrans, LaHood oversaw the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which poured billions of dollars into all modes of transportation across the country, as well as helping lead the way toward the adoption of unprecedented driver safety laws, including laws against distracted driving in 39 states. I spoke with the Secretary recently on his time in office and what work he feels still needs to be done.
03/22/13	Rep. Armando Martinez: Let's Keep TxDOT Workers Safe - As a firefighter and paramedic, Armando Martinez has seen first-hand how a "Safe-Passage" or "Move-Over" law affects the security of law enforcement and emergency-response personnel called to work on the highway. As a state legislator and vice chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Martinez is looking to not only expand the Safe Passage law to include TxDOT personnel, but to address a variety of other transportation issues across the state.