Talking Michigan Transportation

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...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a look at transportation-related legislation being debated. Aarne Frobom, senior policy analyst at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and Troy Hagon, MDOT director of government affairs, break down the proposals. Among those discussed: House bills 4132 and 4133. These bills, resurrected after very nearly making it to the govern...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, some good news for innovative projects aimed at enhancing mobility. On March 21, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced winners of Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) grants . Michele Mueller, MDOT senior project manager for connected, automated, and electrification, joins the podcast to talk abo...

With the introduction of a new bill in the Michigan Legislature to enable the use of automated technology to enforce speeding laws on segments of road under construction, this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast reprises an episode from Aug. 30, 2022, after a similar bill was introduced last legislative session.   House Bill 4132 has bipartisan sponsorship that has generated a great dea...

As Black History Month 2023 winds down, this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast highlights the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program and some of the success stories. First, Lisa Thompson, administrator of MDOT’s Office of Business Development, which includes the DBE program, explains why the federal government requires state DOTs t...

On part II of special Black History Month editions of the Talking Michigan Transportation, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist talks about the importance of the project to convert the I-375 depressed freeway to an at-grade boulevard, reconnecting neighborhoods. As a child growing up near those neighborhoods, and hearing the stories of relatives who recalled the razing of black-owned homes and busin...

On special Black History Month editions of the Talking Michigan Transportation, conversations about the Michigan Department of Transportation’s project to transform the I-375 freeway into an at-grade urban boulevard, reconnecting neighborhoods to the east with downtown Detroit.  In this episode, retired Detroit Free Press reporter and editor Bill McGraw talks about what he learned in his reporting...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Trevor Pawl, who recently moved on from his pioneering role as the state’s chief mobility officer, reflects on all the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) accomplished during his tenure and why he thinks more good things are ahead. Pawl talks about why it made sense of him and his family to move on now and what they have plan...

On this episode of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about how supplemental appropriations legislation will boost a long-sought rebuilding of a freeway interchange that is vital to the regional flow of commuters, commerce and quality of life.  First, Michigan Department of Transportation Grand Region Engineer Erick Kind talks about how the interchange at I-96 and Fruit Rid...

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Eric Morris, Michigan office lead for HNTB, the transportation consultant selected to complete a tolling study .  Some 35 states have at least one facility with tolling. But that number is a little deceiving because Michigan would be counted in that total since there is tolling on big bridges and/or international crossings...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with Heather Grondin, vice president of corporate affairs and external relations at the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority (WDBA), which is overseeing the building of the Gordie Howe International Bridge (GHIB) . She talks about the progress made on the bridge in 2022, the busiest so far for construction. A WDBA vi...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Brad Wieferich, MDOT chief operations officer and chief engineer, talks about major road and bridge projects completed on state trunklines in the past year, featured in MDOT’s year-end video .  Among the projects discussed:  I-69/I-475 in Flint, rebuilding bridges and 2 miles of highway. I-75/US-23 in Mackinaw City, repaving an...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a recap of transportation-related state legislation signed into law in 2022.  Guests include Aarne Frobom, a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) senior policy analyst, and Troy Hagon, director of the department’s Office of Governmental Affairs.  Both agreed that two bills aimed at streamlining the funding process for l...

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Trevor Pawl, Michigan’s chief mobility officer, talks about recommendations in a report from the Michigan Council on Future Mobility and Electrification.  Among the highlights, or pillars, Pawl outlines: Transition and grow our mobility industry and workforce. Invest in bus rapid transit and spend $10 million to revive the stat...