Traffic Calming

[Tim Athan]

I find it curious that while Ann Arbor has seen a fair amount of push-back against neighborhood traffic calming, I see it deployed in so many other places, including places I regard as much less progressive than Ann Arbor.

Probably many of you have seen the planters built in the intersections in the neighborhood north of the Toledo art museum, for example.  They slow the cut-through neighborhood traffic.

My hunch is that there is push-back here because Ann Arbor's traffic congestion is so high, causing drivers to rely on their neighborhood short-cuts.

As an example of push-back here:  When traffic calming was instituted on Brooks Street, a residential street with a grade school, it set off a roar of outrage.  I remember a posted comment “I honk my horn every time I drive over a speed hump, to make the neighborhood pay for this delay!”

Here’s traffic calming in a neighborhood near downtown Jackson.  (How long would that vulnerable little tree last in an Ann Arbor intersection!):

[John Milo Beranek]

I jokingly refer to Michigan as a “Right to Drive” state. The automotive culture pervades the mindset of everyone, creating the idea that roads are only for cars.  I had to laugh at the recent early ending of some of the Healthy Streets studies in the name of “pedestrian safety.”  If they really were worried about pedestrian safety, they’d propose more traffic cones and barriers and paint on the road. Not ending the study. 

JB

On Oct 18, 2020, at 10:46 AM, Tim Athan <tim....@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

I find it curious that while Ann Arbor has seen a fair amount of push-back against neighborhood traffic calming, I see it deployed in so many other places, including places I regard as much less progressive than Ann Arbor.

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[Sam Firke]

Here's a lovely neighborhood roundabout in East Lansing, MI at Orchard St & Beech St: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.7381334,-84.4730929,3a,75y,122.4h,88.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4rWQNjjHj93xuLCqe5pXVw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I like the cute roundabouts at neighborhood intersections, that one has been planted with flowers by neighbors.

The only one like that I know in Ann Arbor is at Easy St & Carmel St:

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.247635,-83.7084223,3a,75y,161.5h,88.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s6wmBCMytmb5JsLOFpQ68KQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

On a related note, I once asked MDOT (or WCRC, I don't remember) about replacing the grass on the roundabouts at N Maple & M-14 with some kind of low-growing perennial groundcover.  It would save them on mowing costs and be safer - when that grass gets super high it impedes visibility.  They cited a policy of, anything besides grass could attract attention and become a hazard if someone tries to visit it.

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[Bruce Geffen]

There's also this one on Pittsfield Blvd in the middle of The Village that is kept up with amazing plantings every year. 

Bruce Geffen 

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[Ken Clark]

A little over a week ago I was on the Zoom call for the Lowertown Mobility study.  The most interesting point the study team made, in their presentation section, was that 55% of traffic in our area is coming from places outside Ann Arbor.  It was something like 20% that was other Ann Arbor locations headed to Lowertown, and 20% or so from the Lowertown area headed to somewhere. 

There's pushback against traffic calming mostly because non-resident commuters, having long commutes to their houses elsewhere, want to go as fast as they can without getting a ticket.  Our neighborhoods are just an inconvenience to their commute.

Interestingly, that was the biggest comment from the residents who were on the call.  The speeding is horrible and dangerous, and the only thing that seems to slow the speeders down is congestion.  But, if you live around here and do the speed limit, you *will* be passed from time-to-time.  All of our roads are no-passing zones, but people get irate about having to actually stay at or below the speed limit, so they ignore the double yellow and pass anyway.

BTW, the next meeting of the Lowertown Mobility study, this coming Friday at noon, is about walking and biking in the Lowertown area.  City page about the study here: https://www.a2gov.org/departments/engineering/traffic/Pages/Lower-Town-Traffic-Study.aspx

Ken

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