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Editor’s Note

Special thanks to Colorado DOT’s Stacey Stegman, Colorado E-470’s Jo Snell, Florida DOT’s Romona Burke, THEA’s Susan Chrzan, Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority’s Steve Pustelnyk, and the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s Kaki Cheung for their participation in our feature article and for sharing the structure of their current SSP program.

Editor’s Note

This quarter Safe Highway Matters’ team got to thinking about the various regions across the country and how just like each region is unique in its economy and governance so are Safety Service Patrols’ funding and operations within those regions. Some SSPs are managed, operated and funded by larger transportation agencies covering hundreds of miles of busy interstates, while others cover only one toll road and are managed, operated and funded by a single toll road authority, and even still, other patrols operate through the coordination of multiple entities in various jurisdictions.

Our team decided to research these models and identify their similarities and differences to share best practices with our readers. Our research found that while different, each model represents either a centralized or decentralized approach to SSP funding and operations and each has proven effective and successful in its implementation. Safe Highway Matters’ team defined these models as centralized when operations and funding were controlled by the state agency, either the department of transportation or toll road authority, or as decentralized when a state agency relied on collaboration with one or multiple other state entities to either fund and/or operate the SSP.

We would like to thank our feature article’s author Mindy Long for working with us to research this topic and for putting together an article that clearly explains these models to our readers. Special thanks to Colorado DOT’s Stacey Stegman, Colorado E-470’s Jo Snell, Florida DOT’s Romona Burke, THEA’s Susan Chrzan, Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority’s Steve Pustelnyk, and the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s Kaki Cheung for their participation in our feature article and for sharing the structure of their current SSP program.

Safe Highway Matters additionally spoke with Ira Promisel of the New York State Police to learn more about New York State DOT’s HELP Program structure and their coordination with the state police to make the program more effective, particularly in the Hudson Valley region, in this quarter’s profile piece. And Scott Yinger shared a more in-depth look at a centralized approach used by Maryland SHA that recently added a private operator to its patrol and how adding a private operator can still work within a centralized model.

We continue to update our Twitter and Facebook pages throughout the quarter so you can stay in the know with all of the latest developments happening around the country with Safety Service Patrols. Our forum also offers SSP professionals a place to share their thoughts and ask questions for feedback from other professionals. We encourage you to utilize these forums for sharing of best practices and general communications with our readers.

As always, we welcome your thoughts and feedback and look forward to hearing from you.

Wishing you safe travels,

Rita Gallagher

Editor in Chief

Back to Safe Highway Matters: Spring 2012

 

 

 

 

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