Who knew naming snowplows would be so popular?

A year into the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) initiative to engage the public in naming snowplows across the state, an update on progress. 

Shortly after MDOT launched the project in 2021, inspired by a plow-naming venture by Transport Scotland, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist visited an elementary school in Benton Harbor where a class of fifth graders named a plow Tiger in honor of their school mascot. Gilchrist visited the school and spoke to the students shortly afterward.  

On this week’s podcast, Nick Schirripa, MDOT’s Southwest Region media relations representative, talks about the project, the eye-popping numbers of submissions it inspired and why it has been a fun but important endeavor. He and Courtney Bates, a department analyst and web site administrator, worked together to create the naming contest, sort through the names and even put the names of plows on the Mi Drive site so they can be tracked in real time. 

As the Detroit Free Press reported in December, ”One year and more than 15,000 possible plow monikers later, and a handful of Michigan Department of Transportation staffers say they see a light at the end of the tunnel. But the project isn't quite over.” 

Schirripa talks about the interest this has generated and why it helps with education about what’s involved in clearing snow from roads in Michigan winters and how the plow-naming project helps in education efforts about safety.