Delaware’s Department of Transportation (DelDOT) Secretary heads to Los Angeles later this year to discuss “The New Age of Mobility.”
DelDOT Secretary Jennifer Cohan has been elected to serve as chair of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America).
“It’s an organization that represents auto manufacturers, infrastructure owners, academia," said Cohan. "I’m pretty excited about the honor and being elected by my peers - as always.”
Cohen says when she’s at the October’s ITS World Congress in LA, she’ll highlight DelDOT’s work to prepare the First State’s transportation system for the future.
“We are already doing infrastructure improvements throughout the state,” said Cohan. "But one of the things that people do not necessarily see is that - as we are doing these infrastructure improvements, we’re also upgrading the technology; for example, we’re running fiber lines everywhere we’re running projects and putting asphalt.”
Cohan believes Delaware is at the forefront of innovation when it comes to transportation services, pointing to this month’s deployment of its first two autonomous DART shuttles in areas without high-speed traffic,
“We partnered with a company called Easy Mile; they have the best product on the market right now. And we’re in the process of mapping out some routes for them (the shuttles)," said Cohan. "And we are planning on mapping out a route in each county.”
Cohan says the first two autonomous shuttles are running in Dover and in Wilmington. A third is planned for Lewes.
Cohan notes changes and advances in transportation happen regularly, noting that ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft and micro-mobility with scooters were not around seven to 10 years ago.
She argues that we are on the verge of a major metamorphosis in transportation delivery in this country.
Cohan will serve as Intelligent Transportation Society of America chair for one year.
