Talking Michigan Transportation

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 National Weather Service reported that a record 3.5 inches of rain fell during that period at the airport, the most ever recorded on Aug. 24.On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Hugh McDiarmid Jr., communications director at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, talks about how the combination climate change of more frequent extreme weather events and a loss of wetlands has disrupted the watersheds.Some references:Definition of wetlandshttps://www.epa.gov/wetlands/what-wetlandSoutheast Michigan watershedhttps://therouge.org/about-us/our-watershed/Examining the link between wetland loss and flood damagehttps://www.wisconsinwetlands.org/updates/making-a-case-for-wetlands/Freeways and flooding elsewhere in the countryhttps://fox59.com/news/hundreds-of-drivers-stranded-on-houston-highways-due-to-flooding/ 

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 supply chain pressures since the pandemic began.Gutting was previously the administrator of the Construction Field Services (CFS) division. He also worked in operations and was the construction contracts engineer for CFS as well as the construction engineer and an assistant construction engineer at the MDOT Lansing Transportation Service Center (TSC).Other references in the podcast:Iowa State University’s National Concrete Pavement Technology Centerhttps://cptechcenter.org/Inflation in road buildinghttps://enotrans.org/article/highway-construction-costs-have-risen-50-in-two-years/ MDOT winter road maintenance https://www.Michigan.gov/MDOT/Travel/Safety/Road-Users/Winter-Safety 

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 charger (and state). Everyone charges differently. Road taxes, rebates and battery efficiency all affect the final calculation.” Other references and links: Finding on tailpipe emissions and EVshttps://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/08/07/new_epa_tailpipe_standards_call_electric_vehicle_promises_into_question_970708.html Pew research on Americans’ perceptions of EVshttps://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/13/how-americans-view-electric-vehicles/ Energy Innovation study of the cost to fill uphttps://energyinnovation.org/publication/how-much-does-it-cost-to-fill-up-an-electric-vehicle-vs-a-gas-powered-car/  The early adopter era is over for EVshttps://www.axios.com/2023/08/09/electric-cars-adoption-rates 

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, executive director of Disability Advocates of Kent County (DAKC), talks about his long career working on the same goals and DAKC’s partnership in the program. Some references in this week's show: News release announcing the Mobility Wallet Pilot Programhttps://www.michigan.gov/mdot/news-outreach/pressreleases/2023/08/03/michigan-mobility-wallet-pilot-program-for-veterans-launches-on-purple-heart-dayDisability Advocates of Kent Countyhttps://www.dakc.us/Feonix - Mobility Risinghttps://feonix.org/team/ 

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 bridge projects.   First, James Jackson, strategy director for MDOT’s TDRP, talks about the satisfaction he gains from working with students and the more than 50 who participated this year. The department released a video Aug. 1 featuring some of the students, highlighting the success of the program.  Later, we hear from Zaya Wright, who graduated in the spring from Southern and A&M College and is finishing her second year in the TDRP program. Zaya talks about her goals to work in civil engineering and transportation and the satisfaction she draws from the process of designing and building safe roads and bridges.

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: ·       Road user charges.  A simulation in the state of Washington featured 70 percent of 1,000 drivers participating saying they were satisfied with the process. Not surprisingly, some drivers expressed privacy concerns.·       E-bikes.  As they grow in popularity, there are increasingly unnerving reports of electric bike battery fires. Are cheaper batteries to blame? Could higher production quality bikes be the answer? A TechCrunch story explains the issue and some of the root causes. Brown talks about a future where electric vehicle repair and battery replacement become commonplace. ·       Slower driving in Chicago. A recent report from Streetlight Data ranked large U.S. cities by speeds driven on major pedestrian roadways. More than 60 percent of Chicago’s major pedestrian roadways have average vehicle speeds under 25 mph. The national average is 36 percent. Also discussed, an inspiring story from Alaska where students in the community of Angoon built and launched a dugout canoe to honor their forebearers, recalling the havoc wreaked on the Tlingit peoples by the U.S. Navy in 1882; and an Axios story about how AI grabbed the South Park director’s chair.

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 engagement at the Washington, D.C.-based Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), offers her organization’s perspective on the problem and how automated traffic enforcement could stem the tide. Wilkinson collected data that supports these troubling findings. He discovered that despite a decrease in overall driving during the pandemic, fatal crash rates have increased by 30 percent over that time frame, particularly in the northern half of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. The discussion begins with an exploration of worrying trends: an alarming rise in reckless driving and crashes, particularly in rural areas. This is due to several factors, including higher speeds, more risky behavior on the roads, and a concerning disparity in seatbelt usage between rural and urban areas. Shadel Fischer is among advocates who say policy makers should promote measures that take advantage of automated technology to detect speeding. She also cites provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to allow for the use of the technology, what she terms "safety cameras."

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 benefits to commuters and others driving on the busy corridor. In addition to the HOV lane, other benefits include the addition of a tunnel to drain and store water and prevent freeway flooding during heavy rain events. The project also includes another diverging diamond interchange (DDI).   Later, Patrick McCarthy, director of MDOT’s Bureau of Finance, joins the podcast to talk about the transportation provisions in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget adopted by the Legislature this week. 

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 early mergers as virtuous souls doing the right thing and late mergers as arrogant louts. "Unfortunately, people suck," wrote one Random Acts poster. "They'll try whatever they can to pass you, to better enjoy the traffic jam from a few car lengths ahead of you… People who feel that they have more pressing concerns and are generally more important than you will keep going, and some weak-spined schmuck will let them in further down, slowing your progress even more. This sucks; I'm afraid it's the way of the world." Another camp, the minority camp - let's call them Live Free or Die, after the license plate motto of the state of New Hampshire - argued that the late mergers were quite rationally utilizing the highway's maximum capacity, thus making life better for everyone. In their view, the other group's attempts toward politeness and fairness were actually detrimental to all. Gregg Brunner, acting chief operations officer and director of the Bureau of Field Services at the Michigan Department of Transportation, talks about the advantages of the so-called “zipper merge” for commuter routes. He also shares insights on the importance of driver education and public awareness for a successful implementation, as well as why the zipper merge isn't suitable for every project. Michigan is among several states encouraging drivers to use the zipper merge technique in specific circumstances and working on creative ways to educate drivers on how it works. This Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) video features adults in cardboard cars as a learning exercise on how to take turns.

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.Investigators face challenges identifying distracted driving as a cause of crashes. Some statistics from 2021, the most recent year with updated data:Bicycle·   1,248 crashes, 37 cited as involving distracted driving.·   29 fatal, two cited as involving distracted driving.·   126 serious, three cited as involving distracted driving.Pedestrian·   1790 crashes, 92 cited as involving distracted driving.·   182 fatal, 14 cited as involving distracted driving.·   343 serious, 22 cited as involving distracted driving.Penniman also talks about the continuing rise in popularity of electric bicycles (e-bikes), with industry officials anticipating the market growing to nearly $92 billion by 2029.Other topics include Michigan’s Complete Streets policy and whether it’s time for some updates.