Talk:Michigan Department of Transportation

Road to GA

I would like to see this article nominated for GA sometime next year. As the moment, there are now just 10 articles related to Michigan's highway system that are not rated as FAs or GAs. Unlike those articles on individual roads, we don't have a formula for a state DOT, or a state department in general. So I guess I have a few questions for others to help sort through.

1. What additional information can be added, and more importantly cited, to get this article ready for a GA nomination?
2. What items may be out of date that need to be corrected?
3. Is there anything that should be removed from the article?

I welcome all suggestions anyone has. Imzadi 1979 → 10:37, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

Some thoughts, which may or may not all be good ideas:

• Better listing of department responsibilities and organization (example, rail is mentioned only briefly, and others even less so)
• Have there been any other MDOT logos?
• Photo of headquarters? Have they had any other HQ locations?
• More on budget and funding?
• Projects?
• Relationship with county road commissions and United States Department of Transportation?

I took a brief look, and I can't find any government agency (state, federal, other country) that has a well developed article, so I don't know if any exist. Though, the Ohio Department of Transportation at least looks decent. Chris857 (talk) 16:20, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

Thoughts from me:

• I like what Chris says above, especially info on budgets/funding and relationships with higher/lower levels of road management.
• History past 1978? Has nothing happened in the past 35 years?
• Rail info could use some expansion. What about freight rail? Who maintains tracks? See MDOT on Rail.
• Who monitors ferries? There seem to be quite a lot of them.

Overall, I think it's a good start - there just needs to be some expansion here and there. I definitely understand the frustration/confusion/whatever of writing the first decent article in an area; things are a lot harder when you don't have any sort of template to work from. Good luck! Dana boomer (talk) 14:32, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Anyone have sources or ideas on sources for these proposed additions. Imzadi 1979 → 16:17, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Potential sources

Listing things here as I find them...don't know how many more MDOT sources you want to use, but they'd make good starting places...

• MDOT History Timeline for last 35 years of history
• Archaeology and MDOT - maybe an interesting mention
• 2005 as "Transportation Centennial Year" in Michigan
• MDOT source that mentions two Michigan History articles that might be useful
• Does the Kulsea ref have anything on more recent history?
• Funding Info
• 2013-2014 Executive Budget Some information in the Overview section and more in the departmental section for transportation
• Roads and Road Funding from County Road Association of Michigan

Just some thoughts for now...plus see the links in the section above. Dana boomer (talk) 17:36, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Kulsea was published in 1980 for the 75th anniversary of the deparment, so no. The post 1980-stuff on Michigan State Trunkline Highway System was cobbled together from the research into specific state highway articles on the major projects of the last 30 years, which is fine for that article. However, for this article, the book pretty much ends at the start of the period where the department was expanded into its modern pan-transportation responsibilities. That means anything mass transit-, rail-, air-, or water-related is missing other than the initial years in the 1970s when the department gained those functions. Imzadi 1979 → 00:27, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Also, we're going to probably want background into the other agencies whose functions were merged into what is now MDOT. This department historically only handled highways as the State Highway Department/Department of State Highways. Were there analogous agencies for rail? ships? air? mass transit? I honestly don't know, but if so, those histories need to be summarized and added here. Imzadi 1979 → 00:30, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Huh, for some reason I thought the Kulsea book was published in the mid-90s. No idea why. Struck that idea. More thoughts/sources:

• This would probably be a good starting point for Chris's question on projects above.
• This would seem to suggest that there were previously other agencies for non-motor vehicle transport: "consolidating all transportation programs into a single agency". I wonder if any of this is covered in those two Michigan History articles I mentioned above?
• Journal of Transportation Engineering article on cost analysis practices of MDOT
• History of railroads in Michigan has some sources at the end that might be useful for the history of rail transport
• Department of Aeronautics was created in 1945, see Act here. May have been preceded by a Board of Aeronautics? See last paragraph.

Unless the other agencies have their own articles, I think we do need at least a brief history of them in this article. Hopefully some of the sources I've provided will help!?!? The article is still at less than 2000 words, so there is plenty of room for expansion without running into WP:SIZE concerns. It's awesome that you are taking on this challenge...it's been fun to see all of the Michigan highways being brought up to speed. Dana boomer (talk) 16:53, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! It has been fun to get through the various articles, and the 2014 projects, aside from more FAs on specific highways (can't have enough!) is to get started on FLCs for the 4 major lists. That plus these last GANs will be all that's needed to make the entire state highway system a Good Topic. Imzadi 1979 → 19:51, 24 November 2013 (UTC)