AASHTO Journal - State DOT Podcasts Cover Many Transportation Topics

Recent podcast episodes produced by state departments of transportation across the country covered a wide range of issues, from emergency preparedness drills to highway landscaping, work zone safety, and road user charges or RUCs.

[Above photo by the Mississippi DOT]

The New York State Department of Transportation recently issued two podcast episodes related to highway operations. The first examined in detail the state’s new Strategic Highway Safety Plan, which is aimed at drastically cutting down on serious crashes and fatalities – with the goal being zero deaths.

In this episode, Rob Limoges, NYSDOT’s office of traffic safety and mobility director, and Mary Harding, NYSDOT’s highway safety bureau director, help break each part of the plan down as to how it can help reduce crash-related injuries and deaths.

A separate episode explored a critical part of emergency preparedness at NYSDOT: yearly staging area drills. Those drills aren’t just routine exercises, the agency said; they’re basically huge rehearsals for real events, ranging from hurricanes and floods to snowstorms and other emergencies.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi Department of Transportation recently featured an episode of its award-winning “The Extra Mile” podcast regarding hurricanes.

That episode featured Scott Simmons, director of external affairs for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, to discuss hurricane preparedness strategies.

On a different topic, the Arizona Department of Transportation’s “On the Road with ADOT” podcast recently delved into the highway clean-up and landscaping demands faced by the agency’s road crews.

Alexis Zaring, environmental program coordinator for Arizona DOT’s Central District, joined the podcast to discuss that and other environmental work undertaken by the agency.

Finally, recent episodes of the “Talking Michigan Transportation” podcast produced by the Michigan Department of Transportation talked about the recent spate of deadly crashes in or near highway work zones and some of the efforts being taken to reduce if not eliminate such incidents, as well as road user charges or RUCs to help pay for roadway infrastructure needs.

Gregg Brunner, chief operations officer at Michigan DOT – who touched on the issue of highway worker safety on a previous podcast episode and as part of a knowledge session at the 2024 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Annual Meeting regarding mental health in the workplace – stressed during the “Talking Michigan Transportation” episode about those deadly crashes that “safety is a mindset, not a checklist. It’s about being present, engaged and always looking out for one another.”

Meanwhile, the RUC episode examined a pilot program included in proposed budgets for the state that would gather feedback from residents on the viability of such road charges and examine possible implementation strategies for them.