Q: Who determines when freeway shoulders get cleaned? I see debris including broken bikes, mattresses and tires, not to mention lots of small litter and detritus along my commute each day.
A: Maybe the best place to start is by acknowledging the magnitude of the problem. Every year the Department of Transportation (DOT) spends over four million dollars cleaning up over 3000 tons of debris and litter on state highways. Now add on more than 2000 tons and additional cost for all the work done on county and city roads. That’s over 10 million pounds of garbage picked up from our roadways in just one year. Highways don’t litter themselves. This is a human behavior problem that we spend millions of our own dollars on every year.
You didn’t ask where the money comes from to pay for roadside litter cleanup, but I’ll tell you because it’s kind of poetic. Washington’s litter programs are funded by a tax on retail sales of items typically found in roadside litter.
Once it’s on the road, who is responsible for picking it up? Washington has an “If you made a mess, you clean it up” law on the books. More precisely, it states, “Any person who drops, or permits to be dropped or thrown, upon any highway any material shall immediately remove the same or cause it to be removed.” Sure, that works for the person who didn’t intend for their brand new improperly secured mattress to fly off their roof, but what about the people who are oblivious about losing their load or even intentional about tossing out trash? There’s a law for that too, but too often removing the junk falls on transportation and public works agencies, the Department of Ecology, prison and jail work crews, and the many volunteers who adopt stretches of roadways in our state.
Yes, road debris is ugly. Yes, it’s bad for the environment. But this is a traffic safety column, and we’re talking about it because it’s also a traffic hazard. A study by AAA found that road debris is a factor in over 50,000 police-reported crashes a year in the US. Those crashes kill 125 people each year and injure about 10,000 more. Over a third of all deaths in debris-related crashes involve a driver swerving to avoid hitting an object. By the time the debris has made it to the shoulders of the roadways it’s less of a hazard for drivers, but still a concern for cyclists and pedestrians. There’s also a risk for the folks working on the roadside to clean up the litter as cars whiz past.
Cleanup frequency hinges on several factors. If a section of highway has been adopted by volunteers, it’ll typically get cleaned two to four times a year, depending on if it’s a state highway (four times a year) or a local road (frequency determined locally). DOT primarily does their shoulder sweeping in spring and summer; in fall and winter they shift to snow and ice control. DOT will also try to coordinate the sweeping of highway shoulders in advance of special events, like runs or bike rides, that take place within the highway right-of-way.
We could fix this mess by securing our loads and putting trash where it belongs. Until we get everyone on board with that, you can increase the safety of your next drive by leaving plenty of room between you and the car in front of you, and scanning well ahead of your intended route to spot any debris hazards. Actually, that’s good advice even when the roads are clean.
With new infrastructure money coming in, wouldn’t it be wise to put some of it toward clean up of roadway trash? The freeways and frontage roads are deplorable and embarrassing. When will cleanup seriously resume. (BTY I clean up the trash is my neighborhood almost weekly. Rain or shine. So, DOT, please step up too.