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

  • Driver training saves lives, increases profits, reduces costs
    February 6, 2012
    An innovative UK Government initiative on work-related driver training has resulted in astonishing success, not only in terms of government objectives, but also in substantial cost-benefits for companies and public sector authorities participating in the scheme: they save lives and increase profits/reduce costs Here, we present an overview of the initiative and, overleaf, provide a detailed cost-benefit analysis which amply illustrates why it has been enthusiastically embraced by industry and the public sec
  • Xerox Achieves ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification
    March 7, 2014
    Following a multi-location assessment of seven work sites Xerox’s Government and Transportation Sector Technology Delivery Center (GTS TDC) has achieved ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certification. Xerox GTS TDC designs, develops and delivers technology transportation solutions in electronic tolling, parking, photo enforcement, fare collections and management, and computer-aided dispatch/automatic vehicle location (CAD/AVL) systems. The assessment found that Xerox GTS TDC yielded ‘zero nonco
  • Spokane Transit Authority expands public transport system
    January 10, 2013
    Public transport passengers in Spokane, Washington, US, are to get real time transit information both on and off the vehicle. Passenger transport systems provider Trapeze Group is to extend the current Spokane Transit Authority (STA) Trapeze transit enterprise system to include a comprehensive intelligent transportation system to help them better manage their fixed-route bus service and provide passengers with real time transit information. The Trapeze solution for STA includes computer-aided dispatch and
  • Finalists unveiled for the ninth Annual RFID Journal awards
    March 6, 2015
    RFID Journal has announced the finalists for its 2015 RFID Journal Awards. The winners will be revealed at this year's LIVE! event in San Diego, California on 15-17 April. "The scope and complexity of the deployments in this year’s submissions were beyond anything we've seen in the past, which indicates that RFID has matured to the point that some companies are using it on a large scale and in core parts of their operation," said Mark Roberti, RFID Journal's founder and editor. "We're excited to have the fi