Talking Michigan Transportation

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.

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 died in motor vehicle traffic in 2021, a 10.5 percent increase from 38,824 fatalities in 2020.A new report found unsafe driving behaviors, including speeding, red-light running, drowsy driving, and driving impaired rose from 2020 to 2021. Nelson explains that the most alarming increase was among drivers admitting to getting behind the wheel after drinking enough that they felt they were over the legal limit, an increase of nearly 24 percent. According to survey data from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, that represents a reversal in the steady declines of dangerous driving behaviors in the three years from 2018 through 2020.The problem illustrates how we should think about technology, whether it is GPS navigation or sophisticated driver assistance. As Nelson observes, the technology can enhance safety but not entirely shift the responsibility from the driver.Nelson also talks about crashes and fatalities caused by drivers traveling the wrong way on freeways. They studied the wrong-way crashes between 2015 and 2018 and found a 34 percent increase over the years between 2010 and 2014. They found that six in 10 of those crashes involved impaired drivers.

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 vehicles, both in terms of passenger vehicles and commercial trucks. He observes that many vehicles on the road today have driver assistance technologies, which help to save lives. The evolution of the technology will only enhance those safety benefits. On next week’s edition, the focus on safety continues as Jake Nelson, director of traffic safety advocacy and research for AAA, joins the podcast to talk about the troubling crash data and what can be done.

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 in vehicles indicates distracted driving may have dropped as much as 9 percent during the first weeks of implementation there. On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Ryan McMahon, senior vice president for strategy at Cambridge Mobile Telematics, explains how his firm gathers the data and why it’s important. McMahon said the media coverage and attention to the legislation in Ohio and other states with similar laws contributes to the reduction in distracted driving crashes, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says accounted for more than 3,500 crash deaths in 2021.

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, Ron Brenke, executive director of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Michigan and the Michigan section of ASCE, talks about how decades of underinvestment in transportation infrastructure put Michigan where it is. Later, Amy O’Leary, executive director of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), explains the vital transportation needs of the communities served by her organization. Michigan’s grade for roads showed slight improvement, largely because of investments in state trunklines, the heaviest-traveled roads, from the MDOT’s Rebuilding Michigan program. From the report:  Traffic volumes have returned from pandemic-era lows. Vehicle miles traveled in 2021 were 97 billion, 95 percent of the 2019 number. Fortunately, the condition of roads Michiganders are driving on are improving, thanks in part to a 2017 funding package. Of Michigan’s 120,000 miles of paved federal aid-eligible roads, 25 percent are in good condition, up from 20 percent good in 2017. Forty-two percent of the roads are rated as fair, and 33 percent are in poor condition. Gov. Whitmer’s 2020 “Rebuilding Michigan Program” included $3.5 billion of one-time bond financing, accelerating major highway projects on state trunklines. To erase decades of underinvestment and meet future needs, decision-makers should increase dedicated funding for roads, re-tool fee models, prioritize traffic safety, and improve resilience to worsening environmental threats.

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 Structures, talks about the big news that MDOT received a $73 million federal grant to replace the 85-year-old Lafayette Avenue Bridge in Bay City. It is MDOT’s second-oldest movable bridge.Curtis also explains where the bridge fits with priorities and efforts to rebuild or replace other aging bridges on the state network.Later, Niles Annelin, policy section manager at MDOT, explains the broader grant process and the work involved in applying for and winning IIJA grants.These include a $105 million grant for the I-375 Reconnecting Communities project in Detroit, which involves replacing the depressed freeway with an at-grade urban boulevard, accommodating multi-modal users. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to announce the grant in September 2022.