Talking Michigan Transportation

On this week’s 200th edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Bill Milliken Jr., vice chairman of the Mackinac Bridge Authority and son of the state’s longest-serving governor. Milliken talks about the honor and responsibility of serving on the Authority, including his role as chairman of the finance committee as they look to future needs and ensure appropriate r...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a return visit by Brian Travis, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) project manager on the I-96 Flex Route in western Oakland County, which is wrapping up soon.  The innovative project, allowing for the use of shoulders as travel lanes during peak travel times, is MDOT’s second use of Flex Route concept. In 2016 and 2017, contractors...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Ryan Mitchell, marking the one-year anniversary of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Office of Major Projects.    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 crit...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the extraordinary efforts that culminated with the opening of a new and improved bridge near Edenville. Jack Hofweber, manager of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Mt. Pleasant Transportation Service Center, reflects on the heavy rains and floods that breached dams and ravaged roads and bri...

This week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast picks up on themes in a Detroit Free Press story detailing creative efforts by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to stem the proliferation of deer in the state’s southern regions. Ed Golder, public information officer at MDNR, explains the challenges and how wildlife officials are tackling them. This includes some important chan...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a follow-up to the previous episode highlighting efforts to protect people and animals with creative wildlife crossings on roads. Amanda Novak, a resource specialist in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Bay Region, helped spearhead the grant application and explains the importance. As laid out in the project abstract...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, the first installment of two focusing on ways to enhance the safety of animals, and human drivers, with wildlife crossings. In Part I this week, a conversation with Tim Johnson, a landscape connectivity specialist with the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Conservation Initiative . Going back some three decades, Canadian transportatio...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Detroit News editor and columnist Chad Livengood about his reporting on misperceptions and contradictions surrounding the development of electric vehicle battery production facilities. As his Aug. 31 column observed: All of this transition to electrification is backed by huge government subsidies — just like...

This week’s edition of Talking Michigan Transportation is a reprise of a 2020 conversation with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer about her Rebuilding Michigan plan. Now four years into the program, the Michigan Department of Transportation continues to improve many of the state’s busiest roads and bridges. Key links:  http://michigan.gov/RebuildingMI   https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/State-of-the-State...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Joann Muller, a Detroit-based reporter for Axios covering all things mobility, talks about electric vehicle (EV) sales, progress on developing charging networks, consumers buying smaller vehicles, and her experience with a new device that converts a conventional bicycle to an e-bike. According to a new report , sales of battery...

Despite Michigan’s hands-free driving law being in place for more than a year now, police are still seeing drivers holding their phones or other devices in vehicles. The practice is especially troublesome where road work is going on. On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations with a construction engineer facing the challenge of working with contractors to...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Troy Hagon. For 16 years, Troy has worked in the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) Office of Government Affairs, the past six as director. Troy will be leaving MDOT soon to become the deputy director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Michigan (ACEC). During the conversation, Tr...

Bridge Michigan reported this week on some troubling statistics in Michigan that show that police are not making as many arrests for drunk driving and crashes caused by impaired driving are on the rise. Among key findings: Drunk driving arrests in Michigan have dropped 28 percent since 2014, while fatal alcohol- and drug-related crashes have risen 40 percent. Experts attribute the rise in crashes...

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...

As road work continues across Michigan, police are on high alert for speeding and distracted drivers causing crashes during backups.  On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about efforts engineers take to balance mobility and safety during active road work.  Lindsey Renner, division administrator for Construction Field Services at the Michigan Department of Transpor...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Mohammed Alghurabi, a long-time MDOT senior project manager being honored this week by the Engineering Society of Detroit. Alghurabi is best known in recent years for his work in southwest Detroit communities to prepare for building the Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Michigan and Canada. However, he’s also manage...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Ryan McMahon of Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a Massachusetts-based firm that tracks data from drivers, participating voluntarily, to analyze statistics and driver behavior. McMahon last spoke on the podcast in November , a few months after Michigan Gov. Whitmer signed the law making it illegal to use a hand-...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about legislation that would appropriate economic development funds for community-based programs, including public transportation. This week’s guest, Jared Fleisher, who leads government affairs and economic development for Rock (Dan Gilbert’s family of companies), explains why he’s passionate about the proposed...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about the past, present and future of 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 stat...

As lawmakers in the Legislature continue negotiations for the state’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, one addition specific to transportation involves a $5 million appropriation for a pilot program to assess replacing traditional fuel taxes with a mileage-based road usage fee. This week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features another conversation with Baruch Feigenbaum, senior managing directo...

Note: This episode originally posted on Aug. 14, 2023. 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 gasol...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Julie Clark, chief executive officer at the Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails. Clark talks about how she and her family made their way from North Carolina to Traverse City and embraced the northern Michigan outdoors. TART is among many organizations around the state with leaders working with local,...

Late last month, a Michigan Senate committee advanced legislation to enable the use of automated technology to enforce speeding laws on segments of roads under construction. Pennsylvania became the latest to join dozens of other states employing the technology, with positive results. This week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast revisits the issue with conversations with two advocates for sa...

This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast focuses on National Work Zone Awareness Week . An event in Midland on Monday, April 15, will kick off the week with officials from the Michigan Department of Transportation, the Michigan State Police and several industry advocates and others. First, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, who will deliver keynote remarks at the event,...

This week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features explanations about how Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) officials prioritize road projects. MDOT Chief Operations Officer Gregg Brunner talks about the factors that go into selection and how planners and engineers strictly adhere to asset management principles. With National Work Zone Awareness Week approaching...