MS2 Blog

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

National Traffic Is Back Up and May Exceed Pre-COVID-19 Levels

**Traffic Volume is No Longer at Historical Lows** In the United States, overall national traffic volumes were at their lowest level on April 5, 2020, when total traffic was down 52% versus the prior year. Nation-wide truck traffic was at its lowest level on April 10, with truck traffic down 20%. On May 29, overall traffic volumes in the US were only down 19.1% versus last year, with national truck volumes only down 4.2%. According to ... [Read More]

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Lev Wood retires from MS2

Lev Wood, one of the longest serving staff members at MS2, is retiring from the firm effective May 1, 2020. He will be replaced as Director of Business Development by Kimberly McDonald Baker. Lev was known to his clients as the organizer of MS2’s productive bi-annual DOT User Conferences and social events including the firm’s NaTMEC client dinner receptions. Over his 16-years of service, Lev attended popular industry trade shows where he i... [Read More]

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

MS2’s New Traffic Dashboard Draws National Media Attention

Major media outlets and state Departments of Transportation from around the country have picked up on MS2’s new Traffic Dashboard application. Developed in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the application illustrates the daily traffic volume change as compared to the same day of the week in the same month for the most recent year data available on many state road networks. The MS2 Traffic Dashboard has proved valuable to state DOTs and l... [Read More]

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

MS2 welcomes Kimberly Baker

MS2 is pleased to announce that Kimberly McDonald Baker has joined MS2 as Director of Business Development, reporting to founder Ben Chen. In this capacity, Kimberly leads the sales and marketing team and is a member of the MS2 executive committee. Kimberly brings to MS2 over 20 years of relevant leadership experience at established and startup software technology companies, including 12 years at software consulting firm Project Partners in... [Read More]

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

MS2 New Modules: Sneak Peak

MS2 has been developed several exciting new software applications to support our current clients. This post provides an overview of these new applications. Permitted Lane Closure System (PLCS) was originally developed for Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). PLCS will support ODOT’s efforts to manage traffic flow in work zones during construction or repair. The system will use algorithms to determine the best outcomes for traffic flow and w... [Read More]

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

3 Billion and Counting

When you think of a billion, what does that mean to you? How long would it take to accumulate a billion dollars, a billion travel miles, or a billion medical records? Since MS2 deals with traffic data, we value volume, speed, class, WIM and other counts. MS2 accomplished another robust data management achievement late last month: 3 billion individual WIM vehicle records stored in our database. This milestone continues to demonstrate our lea... [Read More]

Thursday, January 2, 2020

MS2 at the TRB Annual Meeting

MS2 will be attending the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 99th Annual Meeting to be held January 12–16, 2020, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, in Washington, D.C. The information-packed program is expected to attract more than 13,000 transportation professionals from around the world. The meeting program will cover all transportation modes, with more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops, addressing to... [Read More]

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Is My MS2 Application Being Used?

Many agencies using MS2’s software open the application to the public. This benefits the public since they no longer have to contact the agencies for local traffic count data. And public access means agency staff can use their time more efficiently instead of having to answer traffic count data questions from the public. But is your MS2 application actually being used? Is your manager asking you if MS2 is popular? An objective answer is ju... [Read More]

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

MS2 DOT User Conference a Big Success

Users of MS2’s Transportation Data Management System (TDMS) at the state Department of Transportation level gathered September 16-17 in Helena, Montana for our biennial DOT User Conference. Twenty-five people from MS2, FHWA and ten DOTs were in attendance for the day and a half event which was hosted by the Montana Department of Transportation. The event also featured a fascinating presentation from Montana State University civil engineering pro... [Read More]

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

MS2 Adds New Clients and New Staff

It’s been a successful summer for Midwestern Software Solutions. We added four more new state Department of Transportation clients within a span of five months. After receiving the go ahead from the Washington State DOT in June, MS2 will begin doing business with Florida, Tennessee and Puerto Rico. All of these new clients will be using our cloud-based Transportation Data Management System (TDMS) to improve the way they map, manage, report and... [Read More]