Detroit Regional Transportation Operations

MEETING MINUTES

SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION OPERATIONS

COORDINATING COMMITTEE

Date: October 21, 2016

Time: 2:00 PM

Meeting Held: Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center (SEMTOC), Detroit, Michigan

Freeway Operations Report

Sarah Gill reported on freeway operations activities. Although the Freeway Operations Committee has not met, MDOT has been working to improve operations with its contractors. A new Operations Manager has been retained (Paul McCormick).  A new three year Freeway Courtesy Patrol contract has been awarded to the existing contractor.  One of the changes in the operation will be that the closest vehicle will be dispatched to a motorist, regardless of the route. The Detroit Free Press Marathon was held over the past weekend, and the Emergency Operations Center at SEMTOC was used to coordinate the activities. Cameras from MDOT at SEMTOC, City of Detroit, and Detroit security cameras were used to follow the participants. Because of a series of rain events has affected freeway operations, MDOT has been exploring how roads are closed in the event of flooding. One of the after action results has been to appreciate the importance of clearing debris from storm drains. New plans are being made for handling traffic for the Detroit International Auto Show. These plans will be discussed at the January 6 meeting of the Coordinating Committee.

Review of TIM Self-Assessment Comments and Recommended Blueprint for Action

Tom Bruff reported that SEMCOG has drafted a plan for updating the regional concept for transportation operations (RCTO). The Transportation Operations Coordinating Committee will provide oversight of this update. Several stakeholder outreach meetings are being proposed in order to verify the RCTO vision/mission and goals, as well as identify new objectives. Other resources that will aid in this effort are the TIM self assessment (areas where we scored low) and the capability maturity model assessments (MDOT Lansing Operations and MDOT SEMTOC). Once the update plan is finalized it will be presented to the Coordinating Committee. 

Arterial Traffic Management Report

Eric Mueller reported that the arterial traffic management group met April 20 and October 4. The first meeting brainstormed numerous topics to focus on. The second meeting narrowed to focus to two primary goals – managing incident traffic (primarily when they occur on freeways and how arterials are managed) and potential TZD goals.

Regarding the incident management topic, the discussion points included:

• Traveler information
• TOC operations
• Bad exits (exits we do not want to detour traffic to)
• Goal to develop incident management plans (at a minimum maps) for I-696 from M-53 to I-75, I-696  from US-24 to I-275, and I-94 from I-96 to US-12.

Regarding the TZD goal, some discussion points included:

• Use of social media
• Partner agencies for TZD – commitment involved
• MDOT Region TZD plans
• Revisit actual goal next meeting

The meeting also discussed coordinated construction mobility:

• Last minute projects impact on mobility
• Existing coordination efforts
• Signal operations preparedness prior to construction

Statewide Traffic Incident Management Report

Angie Kremer from MDOT reported on statewide traffic incident management. She reported on the Traffic Incident Management Assessment Workshops held in Michigan between September 13 and October 24. The workshops were intended to capture what works and what we need to improve.  Grand Rapids and Detroit conducted self-assessments of their TIM programs, and this helped the discussions in those areas of the state.  A review of the statewide findings was scheduled for October 26. An updated public survey on knowledge of traffic incident management will be scheduled. The Mi-TIME training to train first responders on traffic incident management has a goal of training 20% of all responders in the state.  A five state conference on traffic incident management was held in Ohio, and Michigan attended to share information on TIM programs.