MARYSVILLE, Ohio — Mark Dilsaver is the Mobility and Construction Manager of the city of Marysville. 

He’s the lead for the city’s smart mobility initiatives and works directly with partners at Drive Ohio and Honda. 

What You Need To Know

  • Smart technology of the future is currently being tested in Marysville and Dublin 

  • Marysville is looking for 300 residents to test their smart mobility onboard units designed for driver and pedestrian safety 

  • Marysville city officials, police, fire and school buses are using the technology 

Marysville is unique since every traffic light is outfitted with roadside radio signals that communicate with connected vehicles, sending alerts to drivers’ onboard units about possible hazards. 

“Where an impending collision may happen with a pedestrian, or you may possibly be running a red light and those alerts just pop up on the heads-up display on the dash and they go away when that warning is no longer valid,” said Dilsaver. 

Since last fall, more than 100 residents have volunteered to use the technology alongside dozens of Marysville’s city vehicles, police cars, and school buses. 

Dilsaver says it’s not about collecting data on bad drivers, but seeing if the technology works and how it can be implemented on a wider scale. 

“We want people who work here, live here, even drive up and down the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor. So that we can gather that data and see how it affects driver behavior,” said Dilsaver. 

Nick Hegemier is the Managing Director of Infrastructure for Drive Ohio, a partner of Connected Marysville. 

He said there are multiple goals with the ongoing project, to have a testing ground for the state where various vendors can come and interact with the technology.

“We want to be that testing grounds for the nation. We want to have interaction with the OEMs. We want to be part of that discussion with some of the national standards bodies,” said Hegemier. 

Dilsaver said the next move is to convert dedicated short-range communications or DSRC to cutting-edge technology like 5G. 

He said he’s proud to be part of innovating Ohio and beyond. 

“Marysville and the beta district have set ourselves up, and we’ve deployed technology. We’ve deployed the infrastructure along the corridor within our cities. We like to call ourselves an open playground for smart mobility initiatives,” said Dilsaver.