Institute and Alliance to Support Public/Private Transportation Initiatives in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest.

MILWAUKEE: March 9, 2010 – An alliance among Milwaukee area universities will support initiatives to improve safety, reliability and jobs creation in the transportation sector, according to Dr. Mike Lovell, Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. On behalf of Marquette University, the Medical College of Wisconsin and UW‐M, he announced the formation of the Milwaukee University Transportation Research & Development Consortium at a workshop of the Great Lakes Transportation Enterprise Institute (GLTEI) last Thursday.

GLTEI is itself a new organization that aims to guide the creation of transportation research and development partnerships in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest across both the public and private sectors.

In making the announcement, Lovell said, “the complementary strengths and focus areas of the three schools are a valuable state resource. With Wisconsin at the crossroads of one of the country’s principal transportation Megaregions identified by the National Committee for America 2050, it makes sense to identify areas of collaboration with each other as well as outreach to the private sector in the upper Midwest.”

In remarks to open the workshop, Ruben Anthony, Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, noted that “In the last eight years, our state has made great progress in improving the safety and reliability of our highways, with fatalities at their lowest level in years, improvements to critical interstate interchanges and enhanced information for drivers. But we must learn to do better with less: better response to emergencies, better materials for construction, better technologies for management of a information.”

GLTEI aims to foster dialog among public and private sector entities to accelerate collaboration on projects that promote transportation innovation, highway safety, green technologies and work force sustainability. Workshop participants identified a number of potential projects. One idea is to establish a technology test bed along the Milwaukee/Madison corridor to evaluate ways to better coordinate traffic signals, provide alternate route guidance and monitor conditions.

Another goal was identified by Dr. Steve Hargarten, the Director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “It’s amazing to realize the country of Sweden, with a population about twice the size as Wisconsin’s, has one third the number of fatalities on their highways,” as he described the “Vision Zero” initiative in the Scandinavian country. “If we can partner with the talent and expertise at visionary companies like Johnson Controls, Harley Davidson and Schneider Trucking, and interface that with our university research facilities, there’s no reason why we can’t help lead the state, region and even the country in highway safety progress.”

Nick Kiernan of Madison based TrafficCast mentioned that their new wireless product, BlueTOAD, which determines travel times from the detection of anonymous Bluetooth signals emanating from passing vehicles, would have benefited from access to the skills and resources represented by GLTEI they had been available during product development. “BlueTOAD is proving to have real value for public agencies, and we’ve added a few jobs to support it. However, I think we might be even farther ahead if we could have tapped into the R&D resources outlined here today.”

“Innovations in transportation can strengthen Wisconsin’s economy and create jobs,” said Rick Bergholz, President of the Board of GLTEI and CEO of Traffic & Parking Control Company, Inc. (TAPCO) in Brown Deer. “We’ve already tapped into the community here to help develop advanced signage and signaling. When you look at the companies and resources in Wisconsin, it’s all about connecting the dots.”

About The Great Lakes Transportation Enterprise Institute - GLTEI is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting safe, efficient, and cost-effective transportation in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region through innovative research and development. GLTEI’s goal is to develop a top tier organization that can successfully collaborate nationally and internationally by leveraging the collective strengths of Wisconsin’s public and private transportation sectors. It aims to create partnerships for innovation, green technology and work force sustainability. For more information: www.GreatLakesTransportation.org