Talking Michigan Transportation

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a discussion about why distracted driving initially trended down in Michigan after the state's hands-free law took effect and why those numbers are not dropping as rapidly now. Ryan McMahon, senior vice president of strategy for Cambridge Mobile Telematics , a Massachusetts-based company with a stated mission to make the w...

 This week, the Michigan Senate’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee heard testimony on legislation that would allow for the use of safety cameras to monitor the speeds of vehicles driving through road construction projects. Pam Shadel Fischer, senior director of External Engagement at the Governors Highway Safety Association, returns to the podcast to tout the effectiveness of the techno...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations with two people seeking to better understand the reasons for an uptick in wrong-way driving and to mitigate the risks. First, Gary Bubar, a traffic safety specialist for AAA Michigan, talks about the trend and his organization’s awareness and education efforts. He explains that elderly drivers and those who are in...

Understanding the intricacies of a state's transportation funding can be a daunting task. On this week’s episode of the Talking Michigan Transportation, Bill Hamilton, a policy analyst in the Michigan House Fiscal Agency and transportation luminary, talks about his work. The discussion also includes an overview of Michigan's Transportation Fund (MTF) and the Comprehensive Transportation...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Shane Peck, communications and public involvement director and vice president at WSP, talks about a major study he co-authored examining the most effective way to explain the benefits of transportation. The research identified and tested a broad range of evidence-based themes and presented five key themes: “Transportation that works for every...

On Tuesday, Oct. 10, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation enabling Michigan’s first high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on a segment of I-75 in Oakland County. This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features conversations with the project manager and an official with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), who offer s...

Ryan Mitchell, recently named director of the newly established Office of Major Projects at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), joins the podcast. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) categorizes major projects as those with a price tag of $500 million or more. Mitchell helped establish and refine the alternative delivery and critical project delivery programs of numerous U.S. t...

Early in 2022, the Detroit News reported that criminals had taken to the city's freeways to settle arguments with guns and avoid the city's network of high-definition surveillance cameras at gas stations and other locations. Michigan State Police reports show at least two shootings happened every month on Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county freeways in 2021. And that is despite increased po...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with John Peracchio, a veteran strategic consultant in the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) sector and automotive industry.  Topics include:  How concerns about what electric vehicles (EVs) mean to the future of work in the industry. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1199260328/how-concerns-over-evs-are-driving-the-uaw-tow...

Last week, before tornadoes devastated communities across Michigan, record rainfall overwhelmed drainage systems and tributaries in Wayne County. The highest total was nearly 7.4 inches reported at a station in Belleville, a 24-hour total nearly all of which fell during this event. The deluge also flooded the tunnels at Detroit Metro Airport and closed the McNamara Terminal for several hours. The...

Jason Gutting joins the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast this week to talk about his new role as director of MDOT’s Bureau of Field Services. He talks about standards and specifications for paving materials and how MDOT engineers confer with counterparts from across the country; innovations in road building, winter maintenance and operations; and ongoing challenges because of inflation and...

On this week’s podcast, Michael J. Coren, the Washington Post’s climate advice columnist, talks about his recent reporting (subscription) on the cost of filling a vehicle’s fuel tank versus charging an electric vehicle (EV) battery.  The answer, he explains, is less straightforward than it seems.  He writes, “Just calculating the cost of gasoline versus electricity is misleading. Prices vary by ch...

This week on the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations with two people committed to equity in transportation and access for all. First, Valerie Lefler, founder and executive director of Feonix - Mobility Rising (pronounced like "Phoenix"), talks about what inspires her work and this week’s launch of the Mobility Wallet Pilot Program for veterans. Later, David Bulkowski,...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a reflection on 10 years of success in MDOT’s Transportation Diversity Recruitment Program (TDRP) .  The 10-week program allows students to work alongside other on-the-job training program participants, internal staff and external professionals who provide engineering, technical, inspection, and project management services for state road and...

Regular Talking Michigan Transportation podcast contributor Lloyd Brown joins this week’s conversation to talk about a number of topics in the news. Brown is formerly the director of communications for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and now a Phoenix-based senior strategic communications consultant for HDR, Inc.  Among topics discussed:  ·       Roa...

Bridge Michigan reported this week that fatal crash numbers remain high in post-pandemic Michigan, with safety advocates again citing risky driving behavior as the reason. On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Bridge Michigan reporter Mike Wilkinson talks about his analysis of the data and what he found. In a second segment, Pamela Shadel Fischer, senior director of external enga...

This week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features a discussion about legislation, House Bill 4353 , to allow for a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) component on newly built freeway lanes. This will be a first for Michigan.   Mark Dubay is a senior project manager for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) working on modernization of I-75 in Oakland County, which features several b...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a topic that provokes strong feelings among everyone who drives: when to merge when a freeway lane is closed for construction.   Tom Vanderbilt explained in his 2008 book, Traffic , there are two schools of thought: The first camp - let us name it after the bumper sticker that says practice random acts of kindness - viewed earl...

Last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation that bans the use of hand-held electronic devices while driving. The legislation had a number of advocates, none more so than the League of Michigan Bicyclists. On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Matt Penniman,  communications and advocacy director for the League, explains why this was so important to his members. In...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and research for AAA, talks about the disturbing rise in crash fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic. Since pandemic stay-at-home advisories went into effect in 2020, traffic fatalities have risen. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that 42,915 people...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Jeff Farrah , executive director of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA).  As discussed in previous installments, U.S. traffic deaths jumped 10.5 percent in 2021 to 42,915, marking the highest number killed on American roads in a single year since 2005. Farrah talks about the safety benefits of autonomous veh...

Michigan is poised to become the 26th state to implement a ban on the use of hand-held phones while driving. The new laws, passed as House bills 4250 , 4251 and 4252 , are headed to Gov. Whitmer’s desk for her signature and are expected to take effect on June 30.  This follows adoption of similar legislation in Ohio in April. An early analysis of data tracking the use of hand-held mobile devices i...

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released their infrastructure report card for Michigan at a May 8 news conference and gave the state a cumulative grade of C-, which counts as improvement since the previous grade was D+.  On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, two people who participated in the news conference talk about the roads component of the report card.  First...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about how grants from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), will help the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) rebuild or shore up major roads and bridges over the next few years. First, Beckie Curtis, director of MDOT’s Bureau of Bridges and Str...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the success of efforts by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to attract pollinators with roadside sunflowers and other vegetation. Amanda Novak, a resource specialist in MDOT’s Bay Region, talks about the origins and successes of MDOT’s pollinator program and how the experience of other state departments of...