PROSPER®

ROAD COMMISSION
FOR OAKLAND COUNTY
ENABLING AND SUPPORTING COMMERCE IN SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN
In the 1960s and 1970s, Oakland County
had a fatality rate higher than the rest of
the state and the nation as a whole. In an
effort to change this situation, in 1978,
RCOC officially made safety its No. 1
priority.
Above: The reconstruction of the 14 Mile/Orchard Lake/Northwestern Highway triangle, including
the roundabout at the 14 Mile/Orchard Lake intersection, was completed in 2015 and is
expected to improve traffic flow and safety in this area. Right: The RCOC Traffic Operations
Center is the “nerve center” for the agency’s FAST-TRAC “smart” traffic-signal system that has
helped to reduce crashes and improve traffic flow at nearly 700 signalized intersections across
the country.
The Road Commission for Oakland County ❯ Deployment of the second-largest “smart”
(RCOC) maintains the largest county
traffic-signal system in the country
road system in Michigan. And, at 2,700 ❯ The highest concentration of modern
miles, the RCOC system is also one of the roundabouts in the state
most advanced local road systems in the ❯ Data-driven road-improvement project
country, helping to support the businesses selection and design
that make Oakland County the economic
engine for Michigan.
OAKLAND COUNTY: AMONG THE SAFEST
ROADS IN THE WORLD
In fact, it is RCOC’s road system that
Part of ensuring first-rate mobility is
provides the transportation backbone that ensuring motorists get to their destinations
connects Oakland County to the region safely and with minimal delays. One of
and to regional transportation routes.
the ways RCOC achieves these goals is by
Major corridors such as Big Beaver Road, providing a road system that is the safest
Southfield Road, Orchard Lake Road
in Michigan and one of the safest
and many others are critical to ensuring in the country for a community of its size
Oakland County businesses can move their and population.
products to market and that customers and
employees can get to those businesses. Today, the traffic fatality rate in Oakland
County is the lowest in the state and far
How does RCOC ensure these corridors lower than the national average. That wasn’t
move as efficiently as possible?
always the case, though.
That has driven project and design decisions
and led to many innovations. As a result,
Oakland County now has a traffic fatality rate
less than half that of the state or nation.
LOCAL ROADS MATTER
Local roads — those maintained by the
Road Commission and cities and villages —
are the backbone of our communities.
We use them to get to school, work or our
other daily destinations.
RCOC and the County Road Association of
Michigan (CRA) are promoting the value of
these roads through the “Local Roads Matter”
campaign. We want to ensure that Michigan
devotes adequate resources to local roads to
ensure they are an asset for our communities
and businesses, not a detriment. More
information: www.milocalroads.com.
FAST FACTS
To learn more about
RCOC, visit RCOC at
rcocweb.org or follow us
on Twitter (@oaklandroads)
or Facebook.
54 OAKLANDCOUNTYPROSPER.COM 2016