Skip to main content

MDOT recognised for ITS technology leadership

Two high-tech projects championed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) have been recognised by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) with ITS America's Best of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Awards. MDOT earned an award in the Best New Innovative Practice-Partnership Deployment category for its automatic vehicle location (AVL) and maintenance decision support system (MDSS) project and was a finalist in another category, Best New Innovative Practice-Susta
September 18, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Two high-tech projects championed by the 1688 Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) have been recognised by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (560 ITS America) with ITS America's Best of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Awards.

MDOT earned an award in the Best New Innovative Practice-Partnership Deployment category for its automatic vehicle location (AVL) and maintenance decision support system (MDSS) project and was a finalist in another category, Best New Innovative Practice-Sustainability in Transportation, for its I-94 truck parking information and management system (TPIMS) project. In addition, the department won a Best Technical Paper award for a white paper it submitted on the TPIMS project. The recognition was bestowed upon MDOT at the 6456 ITS World Congress held in Detroit Sept. 7-11.

"I'm thrilled that MDOT employees, long national leaders in innovation, are being recognized for finding efficiencies through leveraging technology," said State Transportation director Kirk T. Steudle. "I'm confident MDOT employees' passion for doing things safer, smarter, faster and cheaper will lead to even more breakthroughs in intelligent transportation."

AVL uses GPS (Global Positioning System) to enable MDOT to remotely track the location of its vehicle fleet through a web interface and allows MDOT to efficiently and effectively deploy snowploughs and track winter maintenance activities. MDSS is an automated decision-support tool for road maintenance supervisors. It is a multi-layered, information system that provides forecasts, predictions, reports on observed weather and road conditions, serves as a training tool, and serves as a management support system that MDOT uses year-round.

MDOT's TPIMS project was unveiled earlier this month to assess truck parking availability along the I-94 corridor in southwest Michigan and deliver real-time parking availability information to truck drivers. MDOT is using a number of high-tech methods to share parking availability information, including dynamic roadside truck parking signs, website and smartphone applications, and a fleet of pilot trucks equipped with on-board connected vehicle equipment.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IRD debuts next generation snowplough fleet management
    March 19, 2013
    International Road Dynamics (IRD) will take advantage of the 2013 APWA North American Snow Conference to demonstrate FleetSphere telematics, its web-based GPS telematics system with additional features specifically designed for snowplough fleet management. The solution enables fleet managers to manage the spreading and ploughing work being done on an entire road network. FleetSphere will interface with all available components installed on a snowplough, including plough blades, spreader, blast, pre-wet, and
  • Four finalists for Detroit's Sustainable Cities Challenge
    June 25, 2025
    Ideas seek to improve efficiency of freight operations in Eastern Market area
  • Australia and Michigan to develop safer roads and vehicle technology
    October 10, 2018
    The Australian government and the US state of Michigan have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop vehicle and road systems to help improve road safety. Michael McCormack, deputy prime minister and minister for infrastructure, transport and regional development, says the agreement is part of a strategy to position Australia for safer roads through automated and connected vehicles. “This is just one way the government is promoting safer vehicles on safer roads, including for our region
  • Modernising India's bus travel
    August 29, 2012
    Award-winning ITS initiatives are promising modernisation of bus travel as a key part of development plans for cities of the Indian state of Karnataka. The Indian state of Karnataka is poised to launch the next stage of a major rollout of ITS technology on its bus network following the August 2012 go-live of an award-winning passenger information system. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), which is owned by the state government