What we're doing / the experiment
We've issued a Request for Ideas & Information (RFI) on a variety of roadway safety topics. The RFI is an Action Item responsive to our 2023 Strategic Highway Safety Plan.
The RFI is broken out into three (3) sections: Speed Safety Cameras; Telematics; and Non-digital tools and ideas. By writing in plain language per the federal plain language guidelines, we hope that a broader set of interested parties — not just established businesses with a product they are pitching — will feel able and compelled to respond and contribute to roadway safety in Massachusetts. Companies interested in sharing about safety cameras and telematics can submit through COMMBUYS. Those wishing to share a non-digital tool or idea with us can use our simplified form.
In response to a set of questions compiled from potential submitters to help clarify the content of the RFI document a set of answers has been supplied.
We may publish excerpts of the results of the RFI on mass.gov so that others may learn from our information-gathering effort.
Why we're doing it
Over 300 people were killed on Massachusetts roadways in 2023. Since the COVID pandemic, speeding-related serious injuries have steadily increased. We know there is no single solution, no silver bullet, no quick fix to achieving roadway safety. We know we don't have all the answers ourselves, and we need to work in collaboration with partners.
We hope this RFI serves as the beginning of a conversation and invites everyone into shared responsibility for safety on our roadways. An RFI allows us to ask questions and learn, without boxing us into trying to write a request for proposals (RFP) for something we aren’t even aware exists.
Through the RFI, we also hope there will be media interest in covering roadway safety in an ongoing fashion: not just the crashes*, but the actions that lead to them and potential ways to address them. There is research to suggest that, for specific safety initiatives such as a hands-free bill becoming law, the increased media coverage of the topic correlates with better driving behavior in the immediate term.
*And even changing behavior on something that might seem simple, like using the word crash not accident.
What we hope to learn
Through the RFI process, we hope to learn more about these three things:
- Are there new (or new to us) tools and technologies that might make sense to pursue as a future project?
We spent time researching, reading, and talking to people in the field but we can't know everything. What tools have worked elsewhere? What ideas are new and novel? Do those technologies address a challenge we have in Massachusetts? - Did we reach "unlikely" partners?
Was this RFI anyone's first substantive interaction with MassDOT? Was it a good interaction? Did we get responses from entities or individuals other than established companies pitching existing products? - Did people find the tone and messaging of the RFI compelling and convincing?
Whether respondents to the RFI, or partners who helped us get the message out about the RFI process, were we able to engage meaningfully with partners who aren’t already — or always — at the table? Do more people now see themselves enmeshed in our collective goal for roadway safety in Massachusetts?
Get in touch
We'd love to hear from you! Submit your idea or information about a roadway safety tool, technology, policy, or practice you have to offer, or have seen used here or elsewhere. You can also email us with any questions about the RFI process at TheLab@dot.state.ma.us.