Update on Lansing One-Way to Two-Way Street Conversion
Philip Wells
On August 12, I attended a City of Lansing open house on conversion of several downtown Lansing streets from one-way to two-way. Tom Hardenbergh also attended. There wasn’t much new information (“new” meaning since Andy Kilpatrick last participated in an Advocacy Committee meeting on Zoom). At the open house, Andy did say that the city is considering not making any formal changes to improve cycling (striping, signage, etc.) for a year or two. The rationale is that it would be best to wait and see how the conversions function (traffic counts, backups, etc.) and then decide what cycling-specific actions should be implemented and where. Also, MDOT has asked that the Kalamazoo-to-496 segments of the north-south streets (Pine, Walnut, Capitol, Grand) not be converted until after the 2023 completion of repairs/improvements to I-496.
I think it makes sense to decide the what, when and where of cycling improvements after observing how the two-way conversions function. Other committee members may disagree, so we need to discuss whether we need to take an official position on this, and if so, what it should be. Dale, please put this on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.
The four north-south streets (north of Kalamazoo) are still scheduled to be converted this fall. The two east-west streets (Ottawa and Allegan) are still under MDOT jurisdiction and will (the city hopes) be converted next year.
Andy mentioned one other possibility that was new to me and which I like: putting bus routes and designated bike routes on alternate streets where possible.
Narrative and maps on the project are online at lansingmi.gov/twoway.
