Talking Michigan Transportation

In recognition of Earth Day, this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features a conversation with Margaret Barondess, who manages the environmental section at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).More than 50 years ago, Congress adopted the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Barondess reflects and explains how the act informs planning for transportation projects in Michigan and MDOT’s efforts to at once protect our air, waterways, wildlife, and plants and minimize inconvenience to travelers.  While critics of NEPA have argued for scaling back the need for environmental impact statements, supporters tout NEPA’s role in saving money, time, lives, historical sites, endangered species, and public lands while encouraging compromise and cultivating better projects with more public support. Barondess also talks about the challenges and rewards she and her team have experienced in recent years from listening to community members who would be affected by a project like the I-94 modernization project in Detroit and the I-75 Corridor Conservation Action Plan in Monroe County. Among specific endangered species in Michigan is the eastern massasauga rattlesnake.Other references:The Detroit Free Press this week ranked invasive species in Michigan. (Subscription)The Natural Resources Defense Council on the imperative of maintaining NEPA.Creative MDOT efforts to support Michigan’s critical bee population with sun flowers along freeways. Some creative solutions to protect wildlife and political theater.  

On this week's Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Doug Hecox, acting director of public affairs at the Federal Highway Administration, shares his insights on the origins of interstate highways and wrestles with unanswerable questions about the future.  Hecox likes to remind people that the Interstate Highway System is "the largest human-built thing in the world."The discussion ranges from the debate about President Biden's proposed infrastructure plan to why it has always been difficult for policymakers to agree on how to fund transportation systems, to what the ongoing development of connected and automated vehicles will mean to highway capacity. This includes a discussion about the president and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's emphasis on racial, social and environmental justice. We cannot right the wrongs but the history needs to inform future decisions.Hecox explains why he's a champion of the decision to invest in the Interstate Highway System. He also underscores why it is important for future planning that the highways accommodate the people they are supposed to serve.The conversation also touches on the history of the Good Roads movement and how cyclists, not drivers, advocated to pave roads. Such was the case in Michigan and the work of Horatio S. Earle, Michigan's first state transportation director.Other references:—     President Lincoln's patent (the only U.S. president to obtain one) and how it benefitted transportation.—     Companies continue to experiment with driverless delivery vehicles, including Michigan-based Domino's Pizza.This year marks the 65th anniversary of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and work to create the Interstate Highway System. 

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation, a conversation with Andy Doctoroff about his op-ed published in the Detroit Free Press examining President Biden’s American Jobs Plan in the context of historic investments in U.S. infrastructure.  Doctoroff, who has made previous appearances on the podcast in his capacity as the governor’s office’s point person on work to build the Gordie Howe International Bridge, teaches a class he developed on infrastructure at the University of Michigan Law School. He talks about how his research for the class informed his column, which recounts the early resistance in our nation’s capitol to central government investments in “internal improvements” and explains the evolution over time in thinking.Acknowledging the challenges President Biden faces, Doctoroff writes: “Never has a Congress as closely divided as this one is, in a country so polarized, passed a major piece of infrastructure legislation. … Congressional enactment of the Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan would, in one unprecedented stroke, reverse the United States’ centuries-long and rarely interrupted history of underfunding public works.”Other references:—     The 2021 “report card” issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers.—     Forbes commentary on President Lincoln’s inspiration for President Biden on an infrastructure plan. —     A 2019 report from the U.S. House Committee on the Budget was based on hearings with several experts concluding the U.S. spends far too little on infrastructure.

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, analysis and speculation about what President Biden is likely to include in his much-anticipated proposal to address the nation’s inadequate and crumbling infrastructure.  Lloyd Brown, director of communications for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), returns to the podcast to talk about what he’s hearing.  Will “Infrastructure Week” move from punchline to serious discussion with results? The Biden administration signaled an intention to roll out tangible ideas, indicating with Monday’s announcement to expand offshore wind turbines that infrastructure means more than roads and bridges.  We know U.S. Department of Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg has been working a lot of rooms, speaking with Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike. That plays to his strength as a collegial broker and strong communicator. And as a policy wonk, there is no doubt he’s quickly getting up to speed on the issues. Is this too much pressure?  In an interview with CNBC, Sec. Pete talked about why infrastructure offers a solid return on investment.   Other links and references from this week’s show:  Forbes on what we know now about the president’s plan. Roll Call on a discussion about restoring earmarks.  The Wall Street Journal (subscription) on the president’s push for offshore wind projects. 

On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a followup to previous conversations about why fatal crashes have increased despite traffic volumes declining substantially during the pandemic.  Following up on previous episodes featuring a number of Michigan experts on the topic, this week’s conversation features a perspective from a neighboring state. Michael Hanson, director of Minnesota’s Office of Traffic Safety, joins the podcast after an interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday. (Kudos to Hanson for emphasizing driver responsibility and why these are crashes and not “accidents.”) Preliminary numbers indicate 1,032 people died from crashes on Michigan roads in 2020, while the number was 985 in 2019. This, despite traffic volumes being down as much as 60 percent in the weeks immediately following stay-home advisories from the outbreak and remaining down around 20 percent through the rest of the year. With many fewer vehicles on the roads and reduced congestion, Hanson echoes the analysis of other experts about eye-popping speeds. Hanson also talks about what law enforcement officers are seeing in Minnesota, which mirrors observations from law enforcement officers in Michigan.  In Minnesota, Hanson talks about the axiom that speed kills and says authorities are tackling the problem with some creative initiatives.

On Thursday, just a day after final passage in the House of a historic pandemic relief and stimulus bill, President Joe Biden signed it into law.  The bill includes billions for airlines, transit agencies and Amtrak to help with some deep losses suffered the past year. On this week's edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Susan Howard, program director for transportation finance at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), talks about the transportation components of the bill. Later, she offers her take on negotiations as the president stakes his presidency on adopting an ambitious infrastructure plan. The stimulus bill will extend payroll support to airlines, helping to prevent layoffs of more than 27,000 workers when the current program expires at the end of March. It also would provide $8 billion in support to U.S. airports. Transit agencies across the country will see $30.5 billion in grants to help make up for dramatic losses in ridership. Amtrak would receive about $2 billion. In a January report, the American Public Transit Association (APTA) said public transit ridership dropped by nearly 80 percent in April 2020 and remained more than 60 percent below 2019 levels through the rest of the year. And these are essential workers who often cannot work remotely and rely on transit to get to their jobs. Howard explains why the parameters of the stimulus bill confined the transportation funding to air, rail and transit services. Now, attention turns to President Biden's hopes for what has eluded his predecessors in recent history: a truly comprehensive infrastructure bill. Howard echoes the analysis of others about how the fuel tax offers diminishing returns, especially as General Motors, Ford and other automakers stake their companies’ futures on electric vehicles. Despite the cliché about how infrastructure enjoys bipartisan support, that ends when talk turns to funding and revenue. Will this time be different? And can the president and his USDOT Sec. Pete Buttigieg come up with something that pleases labor leaders and environmentalists?   Writing in the Atlantic, Robinson Meyer argues that "in little-noticed ways, the rescue bill is going to reshape several areas of American climate policy."

While the nation’s roads continue to decline, improvements in rail and some other categories raised the nation’s overall infrastructure grade to C-, a very modest improvement from the D+ grade in the 2017 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Andy Herrmann, a professional engineer, past president of ASCE and a member of the report card committee since 2001, says he is optimistic that Congress can agree on an infrastructure package. He echoed U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who told the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) last week, "I'm looking forward to a day when infrastructure week is no longer a groundhog's day joke but something that delivers investments to the American People."In 11 of the report card's 17 categories, the grade was in the ‘D’ range: aviation, dams, hazardous waste, inland waterways, levees, public parks, roads, schools, stormwater, transit, and wastewater.The study concluded that, overall, the long-term investment gap continues to grow as we lose value in our infrastructure. That gap grew from $2.1 trillion over 10 years in the last report to $2.6 trillion, meaning the need now is $259 billion per year.In terms of funding solutions, Herrmann explained why he thinks a shift away from the fuel tax and to vehicle miles traveled (VMT) makes the most sense. In his remarks to AASHTO, Secretary Buttigieg suggested a usage levy is necessary.A Tax Foundation report in August 2020 thoroughly explores the VMT option, observing that only three states raise enough dedicated transportation revenue to fund transportation spending. The last Michigan-specific report card, in 2018, assigned a D- grade to roads and gave the state a D overall for infrastructure. That report concluded, simply, that "Michigan's infrastructure is old and outdated. We're now faced with pothole-ridden roads, bridges propped with temporary supports, sinkholes destroying homes, and closed beaches." The report highlighted Michigan's 21st Century Infrastructure Commission conclusion that an additional $4 billion annually is needed to maintain our infrastructure."Michigan must support innovative policies leading to cleaner water, smoother highways, and a safe environment that will attract business and improve our quality of life," the report said. View a nationwide map of Dedicated Transportation Tax Revenue, fiscal year 2017.

In observance and reflection on Black History Month, this week’s podcast features conversations with two people who served the State of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) for four decades.First, Myron Frierson, who retired as MDOT director of the Bureau of Finance in 2019, talks about what he learned during his career in transportation, working on the administration of contracts. He later worked on property acquisitions in MDOT’s Real Estate division and eventually returned to Finance.He talks about ascending to head an MDOT division when he was only in his early 30s. He oversaw financial operations, including accounting, budget planning, distributing federal funds to local road agencies, and other policies. He recalls many days early on when he was the only minority in a meeting. But he says the state and MDOT helped advance women and minorities in management and launch careers elsewhere.Being a good listener was a key to his success, he says, and something he encouraged as a mentor.“Try to understand a person’s rationale for making a particular decision.”Later, Rita Screws relates her nearly 40 years of experiences in transportation, coming to MDOT as a youth employee, thinking she would pursue other careers. As she wrote in an essay about her experience:"My first co-op season started in May 1982… almost 39 years ago! When I accepted the offer for the general engineer position in June 1984, my thoughts were, 'I might as well work for MDOT now and take my time exploring other career options.' That was my plan. Oh, well; there are plans we have for ourselves, and there are plans the Giver of Life has for us. They often are not the same!"Proud of being born and raised in Detroit, she talks about spending her professional career in the city. Working on projects in construction and ascending to be the manager of the Detroit Transportation Service Center, Rita felt an obligation to knock down the myths and perceptions about Detroit.She counts her ability to connect with others and work with people from a variety of backgrounds and interests, regardless of status, as a superpower, helping her mediate and find resolutions to disputes. 

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Matt Chynoweth, chief bridge engineer at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), breaks down a proposal to repair or replace crumbling local bridges across the state.Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is seeking $300 million in a Fiscal Year 2021 supplemental budget request to repair or replace hundreds of local bridges that are closed or in critical condition. Chynoweth explains how MDOT is offering contract and bridge engineering expertise to create economies of scale and how leveraging the design build process will stretch the funding.As the Detroit Free Press observed in extensive reporting, the state has under-funded transportation infrastructure for decades. That is especially apparent in the condition of bridges.Chynoweth also explains jurisdiction and the Federal Highway Administration’s designation of state departments of transportation to ensure inspection protocols are followed by counties, cities and villages in managing their bridges.

Have you heard the names:For Your Ice Only?Gangsta Granny Gritter?Gritallica?Gritty Gritty Bang Bang?Ice Buster? These are not the names of films or rock bands. These are monikers for Gritters, which is what our friends in Scotland call snowplows. On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation, recorded Jan. 26, Iain McDonald joins the conversation from Perth, Scotland. McDonald works with ice 24/7/365, at Transport Scotland by day and, when off duty, as a producer of gin at The Perth Distillery Co. Transport Scotland’s initiative to name the snow fleet generated worldwide attention, especially on Twitter. McDonald explains that the idea to name the vehicles came from frequent questions about when there would be a snowstorm and people would say, “We never see a gritter on the road.” So, the “Trunk Road Gritter Tracker" was born. Naming the plows makes it easy for people to follow their location and progress and make decisions about what roads are clear and salted before embarking on a journey. McDonald talks about how his team prepares for snow events, especially the all-hands-on-deck Beast from the East.  The popularity of labeling the plows in Scotland inspired others, including the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). In the second segment, MDOT’s Nick Schirripa and Courtney Bates join the podcast to talk about the launch here. Bates tells us that as of late January members of the public have submitted nearly 12,000 ideas for plow names. As a website administrator working to keep the Mi Drive site up to date, she sees the naming initiative as a way to highlight all the features, including tracking the plows but also viewing real-time information about crashes, road work or other slowdowns, as well as camera images. Schirripa tells Fox 2 in Detroit that Plowy McPlowface and Sir Saltsalot were among the top nominations here. He also emphasizes there are not only educational and safety benefits from the project, but this also pays tribute to the people who brave the storms and clear the roads day and night.