Talking Michigan Transportation

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, State Transportation Director Bradley C. Wieferich talks about the Fiscal Year 2027 budget agreement reached last week between Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and legislative leaders. The budget negotiations also produced an agreement to advance Senate Bill 71 to the governor’s desk.  The bill ensures that unauthorized individuals who il...

Just as crews began repairing sections of M-119, also known as The Tunnel of Trees, damaged by April flooding, heavy rains wreaked havoc on more sections of the popular tourist route in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features conversations with State Sen. John Damoose (Harbor Springs), who represents the area, and Bill W...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Michael Townley, engineer of research at the Michigan Department of Transportation. (MDOT). Townley explains the safety and economic benefits of partnering with Michigan universities on research and why it’s important to MDOT. One specific project discussed examined the value of financing infrastructure impr...

By now, you may have seen a photo taken high above the Detroit River of two iron workers, one from Canada and one from the United States, shaking hands to mark the completion of the deck on the Gordie Howe International Bridge. On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with those iron workers, Jason Huggett of Canada and Casey Whitson of Michigan.    Bot...

The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA) convenes its annual conference in Detroit next week, so John Peracchio, a member of the Michigan Transportation Commission and a long-time participant in the ITSA, returns to the podcast to talk about what to expect. In its mission statement , the organization “is a leading nonprofit uniting government, industry and academia to champion poli...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Susan Howard, director of government relations and policy for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), talks about the highlights of the latest federal surface transportation bill making its way through the legislative process.  Leaders of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this...

This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation highlights proposed legislation to include driving through work zones as a focus of driver’s training curriculums. House Bill 5767 would amend the Driver Education Provider and Instructor Act to provide, beginning Jan. 1, 2027, that all participants in a driver education course must complete a work zone safety education course, developed i...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, an update from Ryan McMahon of Cambridge Mobile Telematics , a Massachusetts firm that tracks data from drivers(participating voluntarily with their insurance carriers) to analyze statistics and driver behavior.  McMahon spoke on the podcast previously, including a few months after Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the law...

This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features conversations with two key participants in a panel discussion convened to discuss the need for a Michigan maritime strategy and sustainable funding. First, Elisha Wulff, a freight policy specialist at the Michigan Department of Transportation who has been leading maritime efforts , talks about the potential benefits from i...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Amanda Novak returns to talk about progress on a federal grant to implement a pilot program for analyzing wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) in the hope of designing safer crossings. Novak, a resource specialist in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Bay Region, previously spoke about the grant on the podcast in Septemb...

As rains continue and in some areas of Michigan, rivers and tributaries continue to rise, crews from across state government and local agencies are working to protect and monitor the condition of dams, roads and bridges. Bill Wahl, associate region engineer for the Michigan Department’ of Transportation's North Region, is keeping a close eye on the damage to roads and bridges across all of th...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a follow-up conversation on numbers recently released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) showing a decline in highway fatalities in 2025. Gregg Brunner, chief operations officer at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), talks about measures that can help reduce crashes, which saw a 7 percent declin...

Annual numbers are out from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the rate of fatal crashes on our nation’s roads continued to trend in the right direction in 2025.  That was true in Michigan as well following 2020 and 2021 when the number of fatal crashes spiked during the earliest months of the pandemic as law enforcement agencies observed people driving at much higher speeds an...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, questions and explanations about the increasing frequency of melting ice falling from the Mackinac Bridge cables, creating hazards for motorists and the need to close the bridge for many hours at a time. This video illustrates the danger.  First, Joe Shampine, maintenance supervisor for the Mackinac Bridge Authority, talks about the dangers t...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Ben Stupka , executive director of the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) of Southeast Michigan. After nearly four decades of on-again, off-again discussions, Public Act 387 of 2012 established the RTA. Stupka talks about leading the funding, planning and coordination for all public transit systems across the...

Michigan’s State Transportation Commission (STC) approved a fifth amending bonding resolution under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Rebuilding Michigan Program , focused on rebuilding state highways and bridges that are critical to the state’s economy and carry the most traffic. On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Patrick McCarthy, director of finance at the Michigan Department of Tran...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation, conversations about automaker efforts to bring down the cost of electric vehicles (EVs), the impact of the EV pullback on the South and trends in safety. Joann Muller, the transportation correspondent at Axios and author of their weekly Future of Mobility newsletter, joined the podcast to talk about those issues and more. Some key topics: ·       For...

As road agencies across the state prepare for the 2026 road and bridge construction season, this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast is a reprise of an August 2025 episode that focused on jobs tied to road and bridge building. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sent a letter Aug. 7, 2025, to the directors of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Michigan Department of Labor and Ec...

On this week’s episode of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about Michigan’s study and eventual pilot of a road user charge (RUC) system of funding roads and bridges and what is going on in other states and countries. First, Barbara Rohde, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Mileage-Based User Fee Alliance (MBUFA) , talks about her organization’s history and t...

By now, you may have seen a photo taken high above the Detroit River of two iron workers, one from Canada and one from the United States, shaking hands to mark the completion of the deck on the Gordie Howe International Bridge. On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with those iron workers, Jason Huggett of Canada and Casey Whitson of Michigan. Both a...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Mike Hayes, a former Midland lawmaker who is stepping down from the State Transportation Commission (STC) after 14 years of service, the past two as chairman. Hayes was a business executive who has been active in community affairs for many years and served in the Michigan House of Representatives. He talks about how his ba...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with the new chief administrative officer at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) about his role and his first big challenge, overseeing a legislatively mandated study and pilot of a road user charge (RUC) program. Paul McDonald joined the department in November, coming from the Michigan Department of Environment, G...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about the vital message to drive to the conditions , especially during winter storms. First, Michigan State Police 1st Lt. Michael Shaw offers his insights on the causes of multi-vehicle crashes like the one that occurred between Hudsonville and Zeeland in Ottawa County on I-196 Monday, Jan. 19. Later, Bruce Smith...

Surface transportation reauthorization is the regular federal legislative process to renew and fund U.S. transportation programs for highways, transit, rail and safety, setting policies and priorities for billions in spending, with the current major authorization (part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ) set to expire Sept. 30, 2026, prompting ongoing discussions for the next bill.  On...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Peter Anastor, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Office of Rail, about where things stand for passenger rail service at Michigan Central in Detroit.  Anastor also offers an update on plans to link passenger rail service in Michigan with service in Canada and create a link between C...