SE Michigan Regional Transportation Operations Planning Committee – June 2013

MEETING MINUTES
SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION OPERATIONS
PLANNING SUBCOMMITTEE

Date: June 20, 2013
Time: 9:00 AM
Meeting Held: Carrier & Gable, Farmington Hills, MI

Review of Meeting Agenda for the Southeast Michigan Regional Transportation Operations Coordinating Committee Meeting
The July 12, 2013 Regional Transportation Operations Coordinating Committee meeting will be held at the new Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center (SEMTOC), 1060 West Fort Street, , Detroit, Michigan 48226. Potential topics include a presentation on 2014 ITS World Congress in Detroit, best practices for towing and recovery traffic, planning for the Detroit Auto Show, Lifesavers Conference Highlights, and a review of statewide traffic incident management activities. It will also include a demonstration of RITIS software used to measure user delay.

Arterial Traffic Management
We should encourage this group to meet regularly, and MDOT’s Eric Mueller could lead this group. Washtenaw County’s Brent Schlack could be a Co-Chair. They should start with a high level brain storming session and then prioritize the list of ideas and develop a plan and schedule for addressing them. The initial charge to this group was to program traffic signal retiming projects and to establish priority corridors for operational improvements including communication technology. Some things to consider are connectivity of the Traffic Operations Centers, integrated corridor management, data collection, software, hardware, timing across systems (MDOT and locals, cycle lengths), priority corridors (congestion, freight, volumes, transit), policies (signal priority, pre-emption, EMS, buses). Eric Mueller has records of traffic signal retiming activities that may be helpful, and he will attempt to establish an acceptable date for the brainstorming session. This group may be interested in the Connected Vehicle training available from ITS America to be offered at SEMTOC on September 18.

Plans for Partnering Workshop in March 2014
The desired location for the 2014 Regional Transportation Operations Partnering Workshop in March 2014 is the Macomb Emergency Operations Center/Traffic Operations Center/Sheriff Dispatch housed adjacent to the Macomb County Department of Roads in Mt. Clemens. We would hope that both County Executive Mark Hackel and Emergency Operations Manager Vicki Wolber would be available to explain the planning and operation of the new center.

Hold Harmless Legislation
MDOT has drafted a bill to be considered by the legislature, and is circulating the draft for comments. The draft bill will be reviewed by the Towing Association. MDOT is identifying a sponsor for the legislation, and it is anticipated that the bill will be introduced in September.

Next Planning Subcommittee Meeting
The next meeting for the Planning Subcommittee has been scheduled for 10:30 AM on July 12, 2013 following the Coordinating Committee meeting at SEMTOC. It will focus on the Federal Highway Administration Traffic Incident Management Self Assessment for 2013. These minutes are intended to be a summary of those items discussed. Any corrections and/or comments should be noted to the writer as soon as possible.

Respectfully submitted,

BEAUBIEN ENGINEERING

Richard F. Beaubien, P.E., PTOE
Chair-Southeast Michigan Regional Transportation Operations Coordinating Committee