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© 2025 Talking Michigan Transportation
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The Talking Michigan Transportation podcast features conversations with transportation experts inside and outside MDOT and will touch on anything and everything related to mobility, including rail, transit and the development of connected and automated vehicles.
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On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about key road, bridge and rail projects completed across the state. Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Director Bradley C. Wieferich joined the conversation to talk about details of projects highlighted in MDOT's year-end video. Many were made possible by Gov. Whitmer’s Rebuilding Michigan program while others received help from lawmakers working in bipartisan fashion to improve travel in their communities. ...
Laura Mester, who has served as the chief administrative officer at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) since 2011, is retiring from state government in January. She joined the podcast to reflect on her career in state government, including the past 15 years at MDOT. Mester talks about her perceptions of the department before she joined, and what she learned about the need for a multimodal focus to serve all users. She also discusses the challenges facing the department wit...
On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about a new study that confirms that flashing LED lights, used strategically, can improve safety on curves. The study is part of a larger project looking for effective speed warning technologies, said Timothy Gates, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan State University, who talked about the findings on the podcast. The research is funded by the Michigan Department of Transport...
In the second installment of podcasts focusing on significant road and bridge project completions by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), conversations about a new roundabout on busy routes near Traverse City and a new bridge over I-96 in Walker. First, Jeff Shaw, supervisor of Elmwood Township in Leelanau County, talks about what the roundabout means for traffic flow in the area, safety benefits and the connections for pedestrians and cyclists. “Now we're able to take a look at ...
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about celebrations of major road and bridge projects completed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) in communities across the state. This week, a focus on the expansion of the U.S. 131 interchange with the U.S. 131 Business Route that links the freeway with downtown Kalamazoo. Jill Bland, executive vice president at Southwest Michigan First, talks about her decades of advocacy for the project and what it will...
Public transportation advocates in Michigan are especially excited about components in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget that provide additional funding to transit agencies across the state. State Rep. Jason Morgan, D-Ann Arbor, a co-chairman of the Legislature’s transit caucus, touted it as an unprecedented investment. "This is the largest increase in public transit funding in Michigan's history, as far as I'm aware," Morgan said. "This is a truly transformational investment." On this week's Talki...
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has proposed administrative rules to provide guidance on the use of properties it maintains throughout the state. The proposed rules would improve safety and maintenance, and apply to all of Michigan's 61 rest areas, 82 roadside parks, 267 carpool lots, 23 scenic turnouts and 14 Welcome Centers. Greg Losch, head engineer for MDOT's University Region, has coordinated the drafting of the rules in collaboration with other state agencies. He spoke ...
Michigan Central, opened in Detroit in 1913 and designed by the same architects as New York's Grand Central Terminal, was a towering landmark and the tallest train station in the world at the time. It was a symbol of the city’s industrial might and later, sadly, became a symbol of blight instead. Now, through the vision of Ford Motor Co. officials and others, it is a symbol again, this time of a great city’s rebirth. This week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined others in announcing a memoran...
With Michigan’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget agreement now signed into law, this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast focuses on a long-discussed pilot project for a road usage charge (RUC) system, which received funding. First, State Sen. Veronica Klinefelt of Eastpointe, who chairs the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee and has been a strong advocate for studying alternative ways to fund transportation, explains why she advocated for the RUC pilot. Later, ...
As lawmakers complete a Fiscal Year 2026 budget agreement, one component involves removing the sales tax on fuel and adding a commensurate amount to the fuel tax and putting it toward transportation. This week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast revisits a 2024 conversation with a veteran Michigan pollster about his survey then showing an overwhelming number of voters want the taxes they pay at the pump to fix roads and bridges. Michigan is among states with a sales tax on motor fuels. ...
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, news that a federal grant will allow for the study of wildlife crossings to protect motorists and animals alike. Amanda Novak, a resource specialist at the Michigan Department of Transportation who helped lead the effort to secure the grant, returns to explain the benefits. The grant award comes at a good time as State Farm released an annual report this week that shows Michigan ranked fourth among states for vehicle collisions with anim...
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation about the Michigan State Police (MSP) deploying added enforcement in freeway work zones. MC Lt. Jason Zylstra of MSP’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division (CVED) explains why they launched special enforcement in segments with major work like the heavily traveled I-96 in Ionia County. MSP observes that 97 percent of at-fault crashes involving large trucks and buses are caused by driver behavior. Zylstra also discusses: ...
As unscrupulous actors continue to impersonate government agencies and target unknowing people with texts about unpaid tolls, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel this week reissued a consumer alert. With that in mind, this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast is a reprise of a conversation in June with J. Michael Skiba, also known as “Dr. Fraud,” a national expert on scams, like those proliferating in Michigan and other states, where text messages tell people they h...
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation recapping a Sept. 4 panel discussion in Lansing featuring a thoughtful discussion among experts from various fields on the need for sustainable transportation infrastructure funding and why it’s such a challenge. John Peracchio, who helped organize the event and moderated the discussion, says he was pleased with the comments of the panelists but hoped for a more robust question-and-answer session that followed. Some key th...
On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with a trunkline pavement strategy specialist about how the work in his area helps inform investment decisions. Tim Lemon, who works in the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Bureau of Transportation Planning, talks about how pavement condition is measured and how the data is used. He explains that remaining service life (RSL) is MDOT’s primary pavement condition performance measure, w...
On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a focus on jobs tied to road and bridge building. Gov. Whitmer sent a letter Aug. 7 to the directors of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO), calling on them to compile and publicly release data on the impact of the state’s road funding cliff and federal funding rollbacks and policies on Michigan’s economy and employment. First, Heath Sal...
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, analysis and takeaways on two major announcements related to the future of electric vehicles (EVs) and charging infrastructure. Joann Muller, who writes the Axios Future of Mobility newsletter, discusses her coverage of an announcement from Ford Motor Co. on Monday, Aug. 11, billed ahead of time as the next "Model T moment." As she wrote in her coverage, "The headline is that Ford will introduce a new family of EVs priced under $40...
On this week’s edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with the state’s chief bridge engineer about the dire forecast for bridges without additional funding. Beckie Curtis, director of the Bureau of Bridges and Structures at the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), explains the stark reality. Bridges must maintain a minimum condition to keep the transportation system open.Bridges are expensive investments in the highway network.Bridges are long-lived as...
On this week’s edition of the Michigan Department of Transportation podcast, Scott Bowen, director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), addresses concerns about access to the beach for campers at the highly popular Traverse City State Park, which is divided by US-31. Bowen explains that the MDNR is investing in major improvements at the park, including changes that require removing the 60-year-old pedestrian bridge over US-31 (Munson Avenue). The bridge pre-dates laws that ...
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Garrett Dawe, engineer of traffic and safety for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), talks about a pilot project to study the use of safety cameras for automated enforcement in school zones. An appropriation in the Fiscal Year 2025 state budget called for MDOT to conduct a pilot project on automated speed enforcement in school zones. Dawe explains that his team has been studying proposals and will make an announcement...
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