[0:06] All right. Well, it looks like most people uh have joined us at this point.

[0:11] It is approximately 6 PM, so we will get started. Uh my name is Dan Opsmer. I'm

[0:16] the deputy township manager and director of public works and engineering at

[0:20] Midian Township. Um uh brief way of introduction, we'll go down the panel.

[0:25] Jim, you want to start? >> Yeah. I'm Jim Padden. and I'm the

[0:28] managing director of the road department.

[0:31] » And Mark Troder, I'm the interim engineer with the road department.

[0:35] » Hi everybody. Rick Grill. I'm the chief of police.

[0:38] » Okay. Uh so for our agenda this evening, we are going to have kind of four main

[0:44] segments of the public meeting. Uh the first will be a presentation that I will

[0:48] walk you through. Uh Mark and Jim with the Ingam County Road Department have

[0:53] very preliminary uh outlines of what the lane configuration on Hazlet Road could

[0:59] look like. They will walk you through that. Then we will do Q&A. And if

[1:04] there's time at the end, what we will do is we will invite folks to come up and

[1:08] we'll do more of a one-on-one interface, kind of a Sharet style. And you can

[1:12] actually leave post-it notes on these boards of things you don't like, things

[1:16] you do like, uh, comments that you want to make. Um, other housekeeping items,

[1:22] the meeting tonight is being recorded. Uh, we have two recording devices

[1:26] running to make sure that one of them works. Uh, the meeting will be published

[1:30] on the township's website and the county's website. Uh, so the meeting

[1:34] will be available for all of you to look back on. Um, but also if there are folks

[1:39] that could not attend tonight, uh, they will be able to tune in and watch. Uh, I

[1:43] also just wanted wanted to recognize some of the elected officials in the

[1:47] room. Uh, from the county, we have county commissioner Tanya Pratt in the

[1:51] back.

[1:55] » Uh, Supervisor Scott Hendrickson with the township.

[1:58] » Treasurer Linda Burghart. >> Trustee Pete Tris. Hello.

[2:04] » We have our township manager Tim Dempsey.

[2:08] And I'm scanning the room and I'm not seeing Oh, Angela Deeus, our township

[2:12] clerk up front. Apologies. All right. And with that, we're going to

[2:16] get into it. Um, I'm actually going to turn it over to Chief Gillow to speak

[2:20] briefly about uh the very first slide. All right. Thank you, Dan. Um, just a

[2:27] couple quick things. Uh, a little bit of history. Many of you probably live on

[2:31] Hasllett Road or have uh been members of these this community for a

[2:37] long time and you you know some of the history that we've had on HAL Road when

[2:41] it comes to traffic issues. Um specifically, I I'll talk to two

[2:46] incidents that occurred um since I've been promoted to chief. Um, I I was uh

[2:51] chosen for the position in September [clears throat] of 2023.

[2:55] And the pretty much right after I got promoted to the position, I was out to

[3:01] dinner celebrating with my family when I got a phone call that a a young uh girl

[3:06] my daughter's age had been struck by a car on Hazard Road riding her bicycle.

[3:11] Um, and it was horrible. Honestly, it was horrible news for me. Honestly, one

[3:15] of the worst my worst days in law enforcement that I've ever had hearing

[3:18] that news. um kind of went from a joyous occasion for me to a very sorrowful one.

[3:23] And I've had the opportunity to sit down with the father of the young lady who

[3:29] was struck and discuss some of his concerns with the way that the road is

[3:35] engineered there and how unfriendly it is to pedestrians um especially to um

[3:40] young children who don't have any way to cross from the south side of the road to

[3:44] the north side of the road in a safe manner.

[3:47] Um, second incident I'd like to hit on real quick is the um, crash that we had

[3:52] in 2025 in August. A young lady got off the bus at the bus stop on the south

[3:58] side of the road across from the uh, YMCA and um, uh, crossed right there.

[4:05] Again, there is no crosswalk to cross there and was also struck. These are two

[4:11] very serious injuries. as we all know the speeds that can occur on Hazel Road,

[4:15] it really doesn't take very high speeds to um cause some pretty significant

[4:20] damage to pedestrians. And uh I think those two incidents are worth

[4:23] highlighting as we go through the night tonight.

[4:28] » So and then before I walk through the presentation, I just want to give a very

[4:31] brief overview. Nothing has been designed at this stage. Where we are at

[4:36] with this project is conceptual. Uh a grant was secured. We did secure a

[4:41] federal safety grant that would help fund this project and we'll talk about

[4:44] that in greater depth. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to gather public

[4:49] input that would help inform design of a future project.

[4:54] So with that, um, so as Chief Gerillo noted, uh, speeding on Hlet Road is an

[5:02] issue and we've had near fatal uh, accidents involving pedestrians,

[5:07] multiple. But aside from the accidents, uh, speeding in general and pedestrian

[5:16] safety are the two most common complaints that we get at the township.

[5:20] uh the township board uh starting in 2022 began hosting listening sessions. I

[5:25] would say all but one of those listening sessions which the senior and community

[5:29] center mill kind of was the the main topic of discussion at one. But aside

[5:34] from that one, all of them the singular most common trend or comment from the

[5:40] public is calming traffic, reducing speeding, improving pedestrian safety.

[5:46] So that's the lens through which we've kind of pursued this project to this

[5:50] point. Um and of course the public's

[5:56] uh input on speeding and pedestrian safety has been uh even more fervent

[6:02] near schools or in school zones.

[6:10] Uh, one of the other things prompting this project is the township's

[6:14] long-standing policy as it relates to pathways and trails.

[6:19] Um, so our pathway millillage was established in 1974. I think it's the uh

[6:25] oldest most long-standing millillage in the township um outside of the

[6:30] township's general operating mill. And so since 1974, we have had a pathway

[6:36] master plan. So it's a map of the township and it denotes where pathways

[6:41] and trails uh are constructed and are currently there for use. It also denotes

[6:47] where town or where the township intends to construct future pathways and trails.

[6:54] Um I know this map is pretty hard to read. I do on the next slide. I'm gonna

[6:58] blow it up, but just for purposes of giving you some reference points.

[7:04] I can't really walk away from it, but if you look at the bottom lefthand corner,

[7:08] that's MSU campus at Hagedorn Road. That's where the MSU to Lake Lancing

[7:12] Trail begins. And then if you see the Stephen, take over the cursor. This

[7:18] green, this is uh right where the American House development was

[7:24] constructed. So that new fourstory mixed juice building that's been up for around

[7:29] four years now, that's where that building is for context. So this is Hlet

[7:35] Road and Marsh Road right here. So all the yellow comprises uh legs of andor

[7:41] the main route of the MSU to Lake Lancing Trail, which are existing trails

[7:46] today. The green trail that I was just highlighting near American House

[7:51] actually just opened LA uh last Friday. And then the purple phase is a trail

[7:58] that's been on the township's pathway master plan for quite some time and the

[8:04] objective there is to build a trail through Hillrook Park to Lake Lancing

[8:08] Road in the future. However, one of the most common

[8:13] uh comments that we get on the trail projects

[8:17] uh a classic example would be uh MSU to Lake Lancing Trail between phases one

[8:22] and two um is that the road crossings could be a lot safer for pedestrians and

[8:28] bicyclists. So, that's one of the reasons for the project that we're

[8:33] discussing this evening. The other thing that I would note is

[8:37] this stretch of Hlet Road right here, which falls between Park Lake right here

[8:44] and Okamus Road right here. On the south side of Hlett Road, uh where the

[8:49] vehicular accidents occurred with pedestrians, there is no pathway today.

[8:54] Uh the township secured a second grant prior to the current grant that we're

[9:00] talking about tonight with Hlet Road to build that pathway. Um we have just

[9:05] submitted all of our final documents to MDOT and anticipate that that will be

[9:09] bid this winter with construction next year. So at that point we will have

[9:14] contiguous pathway on the north side and south side of Hlett for pedestrian

[9:19] safety. However, what remains are the gaps to cross the road. It's

[9:26] approximately one mile between Park Lake and Okamus Road and it's approximately

[9:31] one mile from Okamus Road to Marsh Road. So, if you're looking to cross at an

[9:37] established ADA crosswalk, you have to walk, let's say you live halfway between

[9:42] and you want to get to the other side of the road legally, you have to walk one

[9:46] mile, a half mile to Marsh, cross Hlet Road at Marsh, half mile back. That's

[9:52] what the infrastructure is telling pedestrians from a legal standpoint.

[9:57] However, we know that pedestrians are going to cross where it's convenient,

[10:01] right? I think the best analogy for that in this entire region is actually next

[10:06] door in the city of East Lancing. Um, obviously the city had traffic calming

[10:11] features through the downtown on Grand River Avenue for many years. However,

[10:15] they had there were crossing locations or there are crossing locations today

[10:21] where there didn't used to be. The guide that the city used was looking at where

[10:25] the grass was constantly dead because people were walking it so frequently

[10:29] that the grass could not establish. Right. So, we're kind of trying to

[10:34] follow that guiding principle, right, on where should crosswalks go. YMCA is a

[10:40] destination, right? The neighborhoods themselves that stub at or off of Hazlet

[10:46] Road are off often a destination, right, where you're trying to get from or to.

[10:51] So, the orange lines that are shown there are crosswalks that could be

[10:56] constructed. uh those could come with refuge islands. One of the requirements

[11:02] for those to have a refuge island is that there has to be a center turn lane.

[11:07] So there would have to be a road diet and we'll get into what a road diet

[11:11] means for those who are unfamiliar with that term, but there has to be a center

[11:15] turn lane, right? So that requires uh changing the lane configuration of the

[11:20] road to achieve that feature. Uh the other safety uh item that we would look

[11:25] at are the RRFBs or the flashing light systems that you see at crosswalks

[11:31] across the community. Um if you drive Okamus Road, there's quite a few.

[11:44] So these this is the existing condition of Hlet Road. just to get into kind of

[11:48] what a diet looks like. This is right in front of the Parkwood YMCA.

[11:55] And then this is Haslett Road in the city of East Lancing just west of Park

[12:00] Lake Road. So this is an example of one of the crosswalks that they just

[12:04] constructed with the flashing light system and a refuge island.

[12:10] This is also uh this is facing the opposite direction towards one of the

[12:14] city's new crosswalks that is identical but does not have a refuge island.

[12:25] So, just to give an example, if you wanted to go from Bayon, well, let's say

[12:31] a home that is about five doors west of Bayon Avenue on Hlett Road and you

[12:38] wanted to get to Bayon Avenue to go into the Hillberg Park neighborhood, you

[12:42] would have to walk just over a mile today legally.

[12:48] To give an example, between Okamus and Marsh,

[12:52] if you lived essentially across the street from the Parkwood YMCA, you're

[12:57] going to have to walk about 6 to 7 miles to legally get across the street to the

[13:03] Parkwood Y.

[13:07] Uh so now just getting into the basics of what a road diet is. It's pretty

[13:12] straightforward. It is what you see on the screen. However, uh we in the

[13:19] township historically the road department has not had this lane

[13:23] configuration at the intersections and that's critical because at the

[13:27] intersections you do need capacity. So, what we've historically done and if

[13:32] you look at any of the dieted portions, um, like if you take a look at the lane

[13:38] configuration on Mount Hope Road immediately west of Okamus Road, you'll

[13:43] notice that there's still two left turn lanes. There's a right-hand turn lane

[13:47] and a through lane. So, we never reduce the capacity at the intersections. So,

[13:51] that prevents traffic from queuing up further than it would today, or at least

[13:56] not much in addition to what it would. This would only be the configuration

[14:01] generally speaking between intersections, right? Um not on the

[14:05] approach to the intersections, but basically we would convert it to two

[14:10] through lanes in each direction to one through lane. The dedicated right hand

[14:14] or left-hand turn lane. Um and then the balance of the existing pavement width

[14:20] would be dedicated for bike lanes. The other thing that I'll note as it relates

[14:24] to federal funding, which the projects that we're discussing tonight, there are

[14:29] two federal grants involved. When the township's pathway system began

[14:34] in 1974, uh a shared use facility or basically a

[14:40] wider sidewalk that could be shared by multiple uses in multiple directions.

[14:47] uh 7 ft used to meet that and that's what our pathway system is

[14:51] predominantly. All the existing pathways on Hazlet Road are 7 foot wide. However,

[14:57] that standard has changed. It's now 10 ft. So, by having the bike lanes, what

[15:02] that does is it allows us to still have a shared use facility at 7 foot width

[15:08] for the pathway, the concrete sidewalk, uh without having to go to 10. Because

[15:13] what I can tell you is most property owners don't love a 10- foot wide

[15:18] concrete sidewalk in their front yard. The scale gets disproportionate,

[15:23] especially if you have a relatively small front yard setback, right? If your

[15:28] home's not set back really far off the road in question, 10-ft wide concrete

[15:33] sidewalks are going to feel disproportionately large in your front

[15:37] yard. So the bike lanes h help us secure federal funding which does very you know

[15:45] very basic things like provide funding to resurface the road um but also to get

[15:51] federal grants to build in gaps in the pathway or sidewalk system.

[15:58] Uh so just briefly touching on some of the ways that road diets improve safety.

[16:02] Uh they do calm traffic. uh they calm traffic by putting traffic in one Q-ine,

[16:08] right? So, it only takes one responsible motorist that's following and adhering

[16:12] to the speed limit or at least reasonably following and adhering to the

[16:17] speed limit to set the pace of traffic. It eliminates the ability to weave in

[16:22] and out of traffic. But perhaps the most important thing in today's day and age

[16:28] where people are driving around while they operate this

[16:33] is that it reduces rear end collisions. So if you're today, if you're driving on

[16:38] Hazlet Road and you need to make a left-hand turn, you stop in a through

[16:41] lane. If someone's texting behind you, they may not see that you're breaking.

[16:47] So that's a major benefit in today's day and age with distracted driving being so

[16:52] prevalent.

[16:58] Uh the other thing that we would note is this is the only portion of Hazlet Road

[17:02] now that has not been dieted. Right? The portion east of Marsh Road has been

[17:06] dieted. The portion west of Park Lake has been dieted. So the road design is

[17:12] kind of telling motorists, this is your two-mile stretch

[17:16] to weave and bob through traffic. and that's creating a less than ideal

[17:22] environment for pedestrians and bicyclists. Um, which is kind of noted

[17:27] by Chief Gillow's uh overview of some of the severe accidents that we've

[17:31] witnessed. Uh, I'm actually going to turn it back

[17:36] to Chief Gillow to touch on the next two slides here.

[17:40] » Thanks, Dan. just to kind of expound on what he said with the rear end crashes.

[17:43] Um in 2026 so far we've had 10 crashes between U Park Lake and Bayon on HLlett.

[17:50] Um more than half of those have been rear end crashes where somebody is

[17:54] turning left and the people behind aren't paying attention and end up rear

[17:57] ending them. Um additionally, we did have a bicyclist earlier this month who

[18:03] was riding legally in the roadway uh get hit by a vehicle uh coming up behind

[18:08] him. So, um, more than just anecdotal evidence, I guess, to show that we've

[18:13] we've got some some concerns with, uh, with traffic crashes on Hazard Road.

[18:20] Now, there are certain things that I'm able to do through enforcement. Um, and

[18:23] I've always taken the stance that we're we're going to we're going to use three

[18:26] tools to um, I guess solve some of the traffic issues that we have. Um,

[18:31] education, enforcement, and engineering. So, I'll talk to you a little bit about

[18:35] enforcement and what we have right now. Um I'm fully I will be fully staffed by

[18:39] the end of the year. Right now I've got 41 officers. I've got one officer that's

[18:43] in the academy. Um and uh that that's what we have for our road patrol. Now 22

[18:48] of those 42 officers are assigned to road patrol between four different

[18:54] platoon. Um two day shift platoon, two night shift platoon, and then I've got

[18:58] one jump uh one jump officer on either side. So, um, with that being said,

[19:03] generally speaking, I have five officers working road patrol at a time. Um,

[19:09] what what that means is, um, and then we've also got supervisors that on the

[19:14] road, but they're responsible not just for, uh, proactive enforcement of

[19:18] traffic. They're responding to calls for service. Um, they're doing school

[19:21] checks. Uh, they're doing a lot of different things. Uh, running reports,

[19:25] they have training. And that's best case scenario of what I have on the road at

[19:28] any given time. And currently we are responsible for 210 road miles um in

[19:35] Meridian Township. So when you think about that when I've got an officer on

[19:40] the road, they're generally responsible for over 40 road miles. Um so to do

[19:46] proactive enforcement, but to also take calls for service, write reports, do the

[19:51] other things that we're obligated to do. Um, last year we take we took over

[19:55] 20,000 calls for service and uh that resulted in over 6,000 uh written

[20:00] reports as well. So, what I'm saying is my people are are busy. Now, I do have

[20:05] two officers that are assigned just to traffic enforcement and they're doing a

[20:09] great job of that. And when people have concerns about specific issues where uh

[20:15] regarding traffic, if they submit a traffic concern form to us through our

[20:20] website, my officers go out there and they they hit those areas very hard. Um

[20:25] I guess I'll give you a good example of that. Earlier this year, there was

[20:29] issues with um people drag racing on Hlet Road. Uh earlier this spring, I was

[20:34] holding my officers over on overtime. I was changing their schedules so that we

[20:39] could go out and be proactive and and enforce some of these issues. And we did

[20:43] see some success from that. Um, but I will say just traffic enforcement, this

[20:48] isn't going to solve the issue. It's usually like whack-a-ole for me when we

[20:52] have traffic concerns, right? I send my officers out to Hazel Road to take care

[20:56] of the drag racing and then I've got issues down in Okamus with speeding

[21:00] somewhere else and we're just kind of chasing our tail all the time. We need

[21:03] more than just traffic enforcement. Um, we need some engineering and some

[21:08] education to assist us in what we're trying to do.

[21:12] » Thank you, Chief. Um, road diets are not new to Meridian

[21:17] Township. We've had quite a few as well as some in our neighboring jurisdiction.

[21:21] Uh, some of which I didn't even list, but uh, the ones in on the left hand

[21:25] side there are the ones that have been successfully performed here in the

[21:29] township. And then I, uh, noted two most recent ones actually.

[21:34] Um yeah, two recent ones from the city of East Lancing, but also uh Harrison uh

[21:40] road was dieted. Uh Collingwood was dieted in East Lancing. So there are

[21:46] many road diets that have been performed across

[21:49] uh the township and the city of East Lancing.

[21:53] Um I would also note uh so as part of the uh grant application the township

[21:59] conducted a study of the entire corridor not just from Park Lake to Marsh but

[22:04] actually from uh the township's western boundary to the township's eastern

[22:08] boundary. Uh the traffic showed that Hlet Road is a good candidate for a road

[22:13] diet. And just to quantify that for everyone, uh the two segments of Hlet

[22:19] Road that we're discussing this evening are highlighted there. So, Okamus to

[22:23] Park Lake and Marsh to Okamus and then the remainder there are various uh

[22:29] segments of dieted road and the most recent traffic counts for those roads

[22:35] and uh the average daily traffic volume or number of trips [clears throat] uh is

[22:41] noted in the fourth column and it's from the highest ADT which would be Hagorn

[22:47] Road from Grand River to Burchham all the way down to the lowest ADT which

[22:52] would the Central Park Drive uh right out here in front of the municipal

[22:57] complex. So, Hazlet Road falls uh slightly under or right at the average

[23:03] overall for those roads. Uh general rule of thumb is if the ADT falls under

[23:11] 15,000, it's a pretty clear candidate for a road

[23:15] diet. If the ADT is between 15 and 20, uh more study is needed. And once you

[23:22] eclipse 20, it becomes uh precarious to pursue the road diet.

[23:30] Um so just going through some of the questions that we anticipated this

[23:36] evening. So what happens if a road diet is not implemented? Um

[23:41] one of the uh outcomes would be that we would not have funding at least in the

[23:46] immediate to resurface Hazlet Road. Um we the safety grant that was secured uh

[23:54] requires that we make certain safety improvements to the roadway. Basically

[23:57] at the federal level they set aside a pot of funding. Um and that pot of

[24:02] funding can only be accessed by making certain safety improvements with the

[24:06] road diet being one of the being one of the essential improvements that we make.

[24:12] Um it is a 7525 grant. So 75% federal funding, 25% local match.

[24:23] Um, and it's unknown, you know, perhaps I know the leadership of the road

[24:28] department has changed uh recently, but um, you know, they might be able to give

[24:33] us some examples of uh when or some idea of when we might expect it. But the only

[24:40] project that we've had in the past 2 years also came with a safety grant.

[24:45] Mount Hope had a safety grant that funded the resurfacing of Mount Hope

[24:48] Road. Uh notably though, Mount Hope did not have many of the other safety

[24:54] improvements that we're talking about this evening. There are no new

[24:57] crosswalks. There are no RRFBs. Um, one of the things that you're seeing

[25:02] tonight is, I think, a new effort to better coordinate projects between the

[25:07] new leadership at the road department and the township. [clears throat]

[25:13] Um, so if a road diet is not implemented,

[25:18] obviously there would be no left turn lane and so refuge islands would not be

[25:23] feasible.

[25:27] we would lose the funding to implement midblock crosswalks. However, it's

[25:32] possible if the county permitted it that we could possibly build them without uh

[25:40] refuge islands. So, it would just be the flashing beacons. However, uh RFBs or

[25:47] the flashing light systems, 45 miles per hour is is the threshold.

[25:53] like they it's the gray area. They work a lot better in a 35 mph zone. Uh a

[26:00] speed study has not been conducted on Mount Hope Road postroad diet, but I

[26:05] suspect that if if and when it is conducted that the speed limit may be

[26:09] lowered. RFBs function far better when you can get under 40 miles hour because

[26:15] the stopping distance for the vehicles is greatly reduced. So, a lot of

[26:21] conversations, I'll phrase it this way, a lot of conversations would have to

[26:26] occur about if and how any midblock crossings are installed to alleviate

[26:32] that one mile distance between these two segments, right? Parkway to Okamus and

[26:38] Okchamus to Marsh Road. Um, and of course the pathway millillage, the

[26:43] township's pathway millage would have to fund 100% of that work rather than 25,

[26:48] which means there's some other pathway work that doesn't get achieved, right?

[26:52] There's a new trail that has to wait a little bit longer or a gap in a pathway

[26:57] system um that would have to wait. Um

[27:05] so I have seen this comment um not uh on past road diets but also some of the uh

[27:12] social media dialogue that was occurring prior to this meeting. Um why are there

[27:17] so many road diets? So part of this is attributable to

[27:23] planners decades ago right in the 60s7s and 80s people anticipated that Meridian

[27:29] Township would grow by a lot more than we have. Um, it's actually my latter

[27:33] slide, but I'm going to lead leave lead leave lead with it. The Elmswell Water

[27:37] Plant when it was designed was designed so that it could be a mere image of

[27:42] itself. It could be doubled in size and capacity to serve a population of

[27:48] 200,000 people in Midian Township alone. We are obviously never going to achieve

[27:53] that. Nothing even remotely close to that. So in part what we are doing is

[27:59] right sizing the lane configuration for the population we do have and getting

[28:05] rid of the lane configuration that was conceived of for an anticipated

[28:10] population that never occurred and was never realized. Um other contributing

[28:15] factors to why our population didn't achieve what some estimated a half

[28:21] century ago. We have a thousand acres of parkland. We have a thousand acres of

[28:27] land preserves. And we also have the most stringent I believe it's probably

[28:32] the most I'd have to double check that stringent wetland ordinance in the

[28:37] state. We regulate wetlands at 0.5 acre. The state regulates wetlands that are

[28:43] five acres or greater. So factor of 10. So all of those circumstances in fact

[28:53] have circumstances in facts have limited our population growth and we never

[28:57] realized what many planners in the past had planned for in terms of population.

[29:06] Um, I kind of touched on this at the very beginning, but just to reiterate,

[29:11] um, there has been no RFP issued yet to retain an engineering firm for designing

[29:17] the project. Uh, this meeting is to get public input to help inform the future

[29:23] design. And this is by no means a hard and fast

[29:28] schedule, but this is what a schedule might look like. An RFP is issued this

[29:33] fall. A contract is awarded to an engineering firm. Design occurs through

[29:38] 27. Construction in 28, which segus nicely to uh what the road

[29:44] department is going to discuss with you, which is kind of what to expect during

[29:48] construction of a project like this. Um, and uh go through some of the lane

[29:54] configuration documents they put together. Stephen, could you pull up

[29:58] their PDFs?

[30:23] Okay. So, Dan did a pretty good job of explaining the kind of background of the

[30:27] project from the road commission side, road department when we actually get

[30:32] into building this project. Um, so I guess stepping back, we did do a little

[30:37] bit of preliminary design. Um, we have a few graphics to show you today kind of

[30:42] what a a four to three lane conversion actually looks like. So, I'll walk

[30:47] through kind of from the the west end going east. So, at the Park Lake

[30:54] intersection, we'll basically stay as the existing

[30:57] configuration. They'll be two lanes in each direction. will come uh heading

[31:04] east through the intersection and at the first intersection to the

[31:09] east that's where we'll start to taper down to three lanes and that's where the

[31:13] bike lanes will actually come into play. Um we'll end up with three 11 ft lanes

[31:20] and two 4 and 1/2t bike lanes on either side. That'll be your crosssection

[31:27] going up to the Okamus Road intersection. So we'll be consistent

[31:32] three lanes through there. When we get to Okamus Road, we'll go back to an

[31:38] existing configuration.

[31:42] Go to the next.

[31:51] I can't. Okay. So there's Alchemist Road intersection. So, you'll

[31:58] be back to basically a four-lane configuration at Okamus Road. Um, your

[32:04] north south legs on Okamus will stay as is. Um, no change there. Uh, we'll come

[32:11] through the Okamus Road intersection and then transition back to a threelane

[32:16] section. Um, going towards Hazard Road. So the

[32:21] next So your bike lanes will start kind of

[32:27] mid block after the intersection. Give um cars time to merge back into one lane

[32:33] [clears throat] and then your bike lane start. That'll carry through um down to

[32:38] the last intersection before Marsh Road.

[32:47] So at that that intersection will be back

[32:52] to existing configuration. So you'll have um two lanes in either

[32:57] direction going all the way into Marsh Road. So basically no no change at that

[33:02] point.

[33:07] And then on the bottom here, we've got highlighted kind of the four proposed um

[33:13] pedestrian crossing, the RFB protected island locations.

[33:19] Um those same locations that Dan went through earlier. Um the actual

[33:24] construction, um this is just a light resurfacing project. It's what we call a

[33:29] mill and fill. So, we'll just be milling off between 1 and 2 in of the pavement

[33:36] surface, repaving. Basically, that gives us a clean slate to restripe um rather

[33:42] than trying to grind off stripes and paint over top. Um so, dual purpose. We

[33:48] get a new new clean paving surface and new striping. So, that'll that'll go

[33:54] through the project limits. um each approach if we need to pave a little bit

[33:59] at each intersection we can do that as well.

[34:02] So um the actual uh islands the protected

[34:09] islands those will be concrete that'll be a concrete curb and gutter and a

[34:14] concrete sidewalk panels in between. um most likely would have some sort of a

[34:20] raised um delineator, a flexible delineator in in the wall.

[34:27] So that's the the overall configuration.

[34:34] Anything else you wanted to touch on? >> I think you got it all.

[34:38] » Anybody any questions?

[34:42] » With that, I think we'll turn it over to questions. uh if you could please raise

[34:46] your hand and we'll call on you and we'll have you come up to the podium and

[34:49] that way you can uh that way everyone in the room can hear the question that's

[34:53] being asked and we'll ask those who are attending virtually to start raising

[34:58] their hand uh virtually um and we'll go to the virtual questions second um ma'am

[35:05] in the pink and if you're comfortable please use the

[35:09] the uh podium that way the audio equipment can pick up your question for

[35:15] the recording.

[35:21] » Do I have to give my name or anything? No. Um, I think it's very fortunate that

[35:27] you mentioned why there's a bike path. I think there's a feeling that out there

[35:33] that why are we having a bike path? Gee whiz, isn't there enough going on in

[35:38] Hasslet Road? So, that's not a question. I think

[35:43] how on earth are you going to get out to the public why you have a bike path

[35:48] because that 10 foot 7 foot that's going to make a difference in selling this.

[35:54] It's not just a bike path for healthy people. You know what I mean? That came

[35:59] out sounding wrong but you know anybody else have the same feeling

[36:05] because I just didn't get the bike path thing.

[36:09] » Thank you. So, thank you. >> I think there's stuff we can do on

[36:14] social media. Sir, with the tie in the front.

[36:21] » I probably have more questions than we have time to cover right now. So, I

[36:25] appreciate you'll have more time later, right? The meeting for personal.

[36:30] » Yep. Okay. A lot of things hit home for me. I'm longtime resident almost 36

[36:35] years on Hazard Road, just off the corner of Okamus.

[36:39] Um the police chief mentioned one of the accidents I was rearended in March total

[36:44] the car very dangerous. Um you were able to mention from the

[36:50] township's perspective you know you talked about the four lane where it's

[36:54] going to be at the intersections and that's not changing but the narrowness

[36:59] is between and I'm all for the safety. I think a lot of things look good to me

[37:03] but um I am concerned about where I am. I'm right in that zone

[37:10] that's already iffy. Left turn lane narrows at that point. It's not always

[37:15] clear to people coming to my house whether they should get in the left turn

[37:17] lane. It's not really made for that. It's made for the intersection.

[37:22] the drawings that were done seem to show I'm I'm again in that

[37:27] section that's going from four to down to you know single lanes and

[37:33] there's a lot of concern there from that perspective you know whether I'll be any

[37:37] safer or it'll be even more complicated the other thing is that um well number

[37:45] of things but um the speed as you said as people go

[37:50] through That's not apparently going to change on the road at least not

[37:54] initially. Right. So where we've got a slower speed down towards Martian Hlet

[38:00] that's about 35 and then it gauges up to I think 45 during that time. That's

[38:06] always been you know as you said people trying to get through. It's a

[38:09] thoroughare to many places. So it's not just going through town for a lot of

[38:13] people. It's the only way to get across town. So those are things a lot of those

[38:17] things are in my mind like well what does this really mean? So the others I

[38:22] think I can take off oneonone but those are the comments I wanted to make.

[38:27] » Uh just to briefly answer that the question regarding speed limit and then

[38:31] I'll have a show of hands. Um ordinarily what would happen is the road would be

[38:35] died and then a new speed study would be conducted to discern whether the current

[38:40] speed limit is appropriate or if a new speed limit should be set. And just for

[38:45] everyone's education, speed limits are generally set using the 85th percentile.

[38:50] So the 85th BA instead of the average would be a which would be the 50th

[38:54] percentile, speed limits are established using the 85th, right? Um so basically

[38:59] post project there could be a change. Um but that would wouldn't be known until

[39:04] the project has concluded. Um just to be orderly, let's go with the

[39:10] gentleman here and then we'll go to the right hand side. Thank you.

[39:17] I'm gonna go this way so you can get the microphone. I can talk to you guys at

[39:20] the same time. I'm uh Rogers Aivera by right by by the high school and I

[39:24] actually came with the concern of a bike lane because I thought again that the

[39:30] whole point was to give a bike lane in that on that road. I'm like I'm an avid

[39:34] biker. I love all the bike lanes that we have on Mount Hope and all these other

[39:38] places. They're like, why would you put a bike lane on that road when you have

[39:42] the inter urban all the way? But after coming to this meeting, I realized it's

[39:46] a speed. It's a safety issue. And that's that opened my eyes. I am with this lady

[39:50] here. It's really uh my concern with the uh road diets is those blinking yellow

[39:57] lights. I'm always trying to cross those with my bike and I bet you 60% of

[40:04] people, maybe 80% never stop. They just keep on going. Oh, that yellow blinking

[40:08] light is just a warning. And so I'm always going, "Okay, well, I guess I'll

[40:13] just, you know, go across." So, what I've what I've want to bring up is maybe

[40:18] instead of those yellow blinking lights when you go on Lake Lancing, there's one

[40:22] of them where it's actual stop light, red, yellow, green. So, if if you're on

[40:27] I don't know what that trail is, but you can push a crosswalk and actually turns

[40:32] red and cars have to stop and that would be much more safer. you have a couple

[40:36] there like by the YMCA and you know maybe two or three of them that would

[40:41] cut out a lot. Um the other thing that I want to bring up is [snorts] the

[40:47] configurations at the intersections. I don't know I can understand why you'd

[40:52] want to have two lanes at the intersections or four lanes I guess two

[40:56] going each way. But could you make the right lane be right turn only because

[41:02] you're gonna have at that intersection, I've seen it many times, is somebody

[41:06] will come up, they know it's going to merge, but they're going to speed up to

[41:10] try and get ahead of the slow person that was ahead of them. So, every

[41:13] intersection is going to be a drag race. And I don't know if you can make that a

[41:16] right turn lane only, and then the on the other side is just emerging for

[41:21] people turning right onto that street. Um, I think that's the only comments I

[41:25] have. Thanks, >> Mark. Could you briefly speak to that

[41:28] last uh comment? >> Yep. The right turn, that definitely is

[41:32] a possibility and that's what we'll look at when we get further into design of

[41:36] what the actual lane configurations would be, but a right turn is is more

[41:41] than likely there. >> And I would just note that the the lane

[41:46] configuration you described is exactly how every other road diet in the

[41:49] township has been performed to date. Um ma'am in the back and then ma'am in the

[41:54] pink. second.

[42:01] » Um, I don't really have questions, but I just want to first of all, thank you all

[42:06] for taking this on. If this was actually built, it would dramatically change our

[42:12] relationship with the neighborhood that we live in. We have an 8-year-old and

[42:16] his very best friend lives right across the street from us. You have to risk

[42:21] your life, and I'm not exaggerating, to cross the street is extremely dangerous.

[42:27] I don't even feel comfortable when he becomes 10 or 13 having him cross the

[42:32] street because there have been 12y olds that have been really badly injured

[42:38] trying to cross the street. So, we live um

[42:43] on the side of Hasslet Road that doesn't have a sidewalk. So, we don't really

[42:47] even have the option of taking the halfmile walk all the way down to park

[42:52] or to Okamus because we have to walk through people's unmode grass and like

[42:57] it's just not realistic, right? So, if he wants to go play with his friend, we

[43:02] have to take him across the street every time and I'm not comfortable crossing

[43:07] the street. It is truly and legitimately dangerous. So, this would be radically

[43:12] transforming for us. The other thing that I wanted to flag for folks is that

[43:16] that drag racing continues. We hear it, not every night, but very frequently

[43:21] from our house. And our house is very far set back from the road, but it's

[43:25] that loud that we can hear it. And the last thing that I'll say is that um when

[43:30] I'm coming from Hasslet going towards East Lancing, I have to sit there in

[43:35] that middle lane and put my turn signal on and wait to cross. And it's scary.

[43:40] It's just scary sitting there knowing that somebody flying down the road

[43:45] because the speed limit's 45, but people routinely drive 55 and even 60 miles an

[43:50] hour on that road. And it's scary to sit there exposed in the middle of the road

[43:55] waiting to turn. We love our house. We love Meridian Township. We love Hasslet

[44:01] School District, but we don't feel physically safe moving throughout our

[44:06] our neighborhood area. and we would be profoundly grateful. And I don't know

[44:11] how many of the folks here have small children, but there are a lot of

[44:14] families that have small children in this corridor. And it would really truly

[44:19] benefit folks. So, I really hope that um you all take this project on. And I

[44:25] really hope too that the folks who maybe have some concerns about it express

[44:29] those and find good solutions to some of their concerns to allow this project to

[44:34] go forward because it really will support the safety of everybody in the

[44:38] community and especially children in the community. Thank you.

[44:42] » Thank you. Uh the one thing I would note to build on one of my prior points um

[44:47] that she touched on, I referenced that speed limits are generally set using the

[44:52] 85th percentile. There was a recent change in state law that allows for the

[44:56] 50th percentile, basically the average speed to actually be used. However,

[45:00] there have to be ADA compliant pedestrian facilities in order for that

[45:05] to be utilized. Today, that law would probably not be applicable. You'd have

[45:09] to use a very loose interpretation of that new public act um in order to do

[45:15] that. So, the enhancements in this project could also allow that law to

[45:20] come into play. Ma'am.

[45:32] » Hi. Um I'm Donna Kerrion from um Meridian Township East Lancing address.

[45:40] My grandchildren live and go to school right there by Okamos and Mount Hope.

[45:48] And a road diet was done last year or the year before. And I have videos.

[45:57] I'm walking my grandchild home from school like I usually do. And the bus

[46:02] trying to get out of the northwest corner of that intersection. There's

[46:08] like a little business there. um is sitting there and sitting there and

[46:13] sitting there despite the wider lanes at that intersection and the traffic's all

[46:19] backed up down Mount Hope and this is during rush hour and when schools get

[46:24] out. Okay. And um the people from Indian Hills Drive,

[46:32] from Indian Hills subdivision where my daughter lives, um are trying to make a

[46:38] left turn onto Mount Hope toward Okamus Road and they can't. Um

[46:47] during certain times of the day, it's all backed up. I have videos if anybody

[46:51] wants to see this. Um, we've had people cutting through the subdivision. So,

[46:57] we're moving the safety issues from Mount Hope into Indian Hills

[47:03] subdivision. And none of those roads have sidewalks

[47:09] except for one. And u there's bikers, there's people walking their dogs. It's

[47:16] a very active neighborhood. They've even put speed bumps at one point in that

[47:22] subdivision. Um, and I want to bring up this article

[47:29] written January of 2019.

[47:35] Um, it's online. It's by the International Journal of Transportation

[47:41] Science and Technology. If anybody wants to see this, come see

[47:46] me after the meeting. And the name of the article is Advancing Healthy Cities

[47:53] through Safer Cycling, an examination of shared lane markings

[48:00] and it's multi-page. I'll read you the summary.

[48:05] More important, the rece the researchers found that painted bike lanes provide no

[48:12] improvement on road safety. And their view is that shared roadways

[48:19] where bike symbols are painted revealed that it is actually safer to have no

[48:26] bike markings at all. We found they're worse than nothing.

[48:32] you're better off doing nothing. Marshall, he's one of the authors said

[48:38] it gives people a false sense of security that a bike lane has. It's just

[48:46] a sign telling cyclists it might just be there. The security,

[48:52] the sense of security. So, this study shows that there were more accidents

[48:59] where drivers see this bike lane and they think they're giving the cyclist

[49:05] enough room versus not having the bike lane and a

[49:10] biker next to you or coming up on a biker.

[49:15] They give wider birth to the biker when there are no lines marked. Besides on

[49:22] Mount Hope, there are multi-pathway bike lanes on both sides and hardly

[49:30] anybody uses them. I use them because I walk my grandchild to school and back.

[49:35] Okay. So, I'm in that subdivision a lot. But with the backups

[49:41] and people cutting through the subdivision, it's just transferring the

[49:44] safety safety problem from the main road to the subdivision.

[49:50] And if most of these accidents are happening because people are jaywalking

[49:55] and they're cutting across the road where they should not be, then let's

[49:59] reduce the speed limit and let's put in these cross

[50:05] intersection things so that they can get through. I'm all for that.

[50:09] Okay. And putting the red lights instead of the yellow lights and etc. But what

[50:14] we found at Indian Hills subdivision and I'm afraid at mine which is at West

[50:21] Westminster Way there it's Everett Farms and Everett all that um is that we're

[50:27] going to have buses, we're going to have delivery trucks. You're going to have

[50:30] some slowm moving vehicles and it's going to back everybody up

[50:36] and they'll try to cut through the subdivision

[50:41] to get wherever they're going and it's just transferring the problem to another

[50:48] area which there have been no studies by the way. So what you're hearing is

[50:54] people who are basically jaywalking because they don't

[51:00] want to go down and cross with the light and come back and so we do need the

[51:05] cross lights. Yes. Um but there might be a reduction in

[51:13] vehicle collisions, but what will but will they replace by

[51:19] be replaced by more serious injuries from bikers and pedestrians like in the

[51:26] subdivisions that people are cutting through on. And like I say, there has

[51:29] been no study of that. So, I would like to see the the before

[51:36] and after stats of how many collisions and what kind

[51:41] were being held on Mount Hope before and after the road diets and also

[51:50] accidents or problems inside the subdivision there.

[51:55] Um, so I'm in favor of reducing

[52:02] the um speed limit. If that's the problem, reduce the speed limit. Put in

[52:08] those cross lights and I think you'll achieve the same

[52:13] thing. But as far as backing up and me trying to get out of my subdivision onto

[52:19] Hlet Road and make a left turn, I'm going to have the same problem I'm

[52:24] having now as coming out of my daughter's subdivision at Indian Hills

[52:29] Drive trying to make a left to get out. Because what we do is we say, "Oh,

[52:35] they're coming this way and they're coming that and we try to zoom across

[52:41] to to just get left there to the intersection because it is backing up.

[52:49] Um, all right.

[52:54] I'm basically done. Thank you.

[52:59] » Thank you, sir.

[53:11] I live on Hassler Road at the top of the hills. I look down at everybody at East

[53:17] End. So that's kind of a joke, but [clears throat]

[53:21] uh the one thing that I see right away for

[53:27] the road commission people is where you putting the traffic. I'm an engineer, so

[53:33] been through civil engineering and everything else. That's not where I work

[53:38] most of the time, but I work garbage and sewer and water. So, I'm moving things.

[53:45] And I think in Meridian Township, since I moved here long ago, has the stupidest

[53:52] road arrangement I've ever seen. And if I'm going out east of here,

[54:00] I'm going to go Grand River or Hasslet. Everybody used to go Grand River. Well,

[54:06] when they were messed around with Grand River for three years, everything got

[54:11] changed around. I do things out, have a garden and everything out in the yard. I

[54:17] see what's going on. I have a couple of dogs. uh they bark at things and look

[54:22] around. So I see things the whole traffic pattern changed radically in

[54:28] that three-year period. People figured out I'll go a little bit out of

[54:32] Wilminston or off the main drag down there. I can fly down here and it and

[54:39] after the road's done, we got traffic lights to little islands and all that

[54:44] stuff. Well, there's less of that on Hasslet. there's still going to be less

[54:50] even if you make these changes. Uh they're going to stay there. So you got

[54:57] that traffic and it's going to flow and it goes the other way too if you look at

[55:02] things. Haggodorn ends Okamus ends jolly ends you have all

[55:09] these roads that don't go through the community. So everybody gets forced into

[55:14] the one. So, I think you got an issue there because right now with the change

[55:21] in East Lancing, I'm beyond Park Lake coming this way.

[55:27] Everybody races up the hill because it's been one lane. They get into they get up

[55:34] the hill on one lane and then they go to two

[55:39] and they're flying. When I'm messing around like by the

[55:43] mailbox at a little garden out there, uh I'm used to driving and doing things. Uh

[55:51] I'm not I don't feel comfortable there. So, uh, you got to you should consider

[55:58] what's going to go on particularly with that switch on two lanes, one lane type

[56:03] things. Uh, that's not going to be a pleasant change. Just drive by Abbott

[56:10] and Lake Lancing and watch the traffic pattern coming

[56:15] this way from there. You're It's just a mess. Uh, one of my biggies is I'm in

[56:24] kind of the environmental program. Uh, what do you put in the turn lane for

[56:29] me and everybody on the road? A left turn lane. There's no reason to have a

[56:36] left turn all the way up and down the road.

[56:40] My thing is if you want it safe and you want it safer for people to cross the

[56:44] road, do a Michigan turn like four places

[56:49] along the road so everybody's making a right turn no matter what you're doing.

[56:55] If I come out my driveway on the north side, I'll end up going towards up by

[57:01] the Y maybe and do a turn, a Michigan turn there to go towards East Lancing.

[57:09] And then you may not need all your cute little flashing lights. just put a

[57:15] crosswalk where you want it and you don't have to put up all and go to the

[57:21] expense of putting the lights and all the special stuff in. And if I'm going

[57:27] to walk across the road in between the the designated

[57:32] crosswalks, you have an island then that's grass, maybe some nice little

[57:39] trees along it that over the years grow up and turn into something. And you've

[57:46] got the left turn, come down, turn around,

[57:50] go back. and you got walk across a street anywhere along the road is not

[57:56] going to be nice. But you have a safe margin in the middle a curved area with

[58:02] grass and a tree or two. Not you're in the middle of a left turn lane because

[58:08] I'm not going to walk down the even one of your little turns

[58:12] and I'm with the lady on a speed limit.

[58:19] I I've see people when they don't see messing around by

[58:24] the yard doing up to 70 80 m an hour down the road and in the rush hour

[58:32] 55 is nothing going by my house and and then the other thing is when you

[58:40] have the lanes down the single lane traffic coming up to me if you live like

[58:46] me on the road Right now, because of the way that traffic changed since East

[58:52] Lancing has the one lane, everybody's in one lane when they get up there to the

[58:57] light. When the light changes, they come through. So, even in the middle of the

[59:02] afternoon, I can have 10 cars going try right by my house

[59:09] on one lane configuration because they haven't switched to two yet. And that's

[59:15] 10 going the one way. The light goes red and it clears out. The okamus one turns

[59:22] in that time period. And I have 10 going the other way. So I can trying to drive

[59:28] or go across the street. I can spend two three light changes at any time and

[59:35] particularly 8 to 10 in the morning. You you can be 15 minutes trying to get

[59:41] out of your driveway if it's a one lane. I guarantee it.

[59:47] So uh that's it. And uh the other thing is I

[59:55] want to compliment them. I have a big tree that's over 100 years and they

[1:00:01] actually came out and kind of listened to me. I don't completely agree with him

[1:00:07] at all. So you better watch it in the parking

[1:00:10] lot when you're driving out if I'm still there. uh but his junior engineers or

[1:00:16] whatever were very helpful in this and uh the other thing is

[1:00:24] Saturday or Sunday I can't remember which day

[1:00:29] across the way is already a bike way and there were three boys high school age

[1:00:35] not the 10 year olds that got hit coming along and they had a soccer ball

[1:00:41] and they weren't [snorts] the South American champ soccer players. They were

[1:00:48] kind of goofing along. They got it up there and that's close to the road and

[1:00:54] there's a little bit of a rise there. Three times while I was getting in my

[1:00:59] car and driving out and I saw him out there three times

[1:01:04] it went in the road. They were kicking it in the road in their high school.

[1:01:09] Give me a break. And one of the guys looked like he was going to nonchalantly

[1:01:15] run out without really looking to get the ball. One of his friends stopped him

[1:01:22] and going. So you can't tell everybody how to go across the street. Exactly.

[1:01:29] And then the bike trails in the road. I wouldn't recommend

[1:01:34] taking the bike trail in the road on Hassl when you change it or even right

[1:01:41] now go along the curb. I've only seen two people that I consistently I don't

[1:01:47] know who they are but I know what they look like that go on that road. No one

[1:01:52] else goes on the road. They go on the bike trail on the north

[1:01:57] side

[1:02:00] and My other general one that goes beyond

[1:02:04] that is I would recommend that all you elected officials look at the map for

[1:02:11] the bike trail, walking trail thing. Uh I'm Scotch.

[1:02:19] I ride bikes. I walk. I do all of stuff. Go on a tennis court. I'll take you out.

[1:02:27] I don't care who you are, younger or older. Uh

[1:02:32] and uh like you have Marsh Road and that's a

[1:02:37] bike trail on both sides right now, right? All the way up from the mall

[1:02:43] » and designated bike lane. >> Yeah. [clears throat]

[1:02:45] » Drive up and down there a couple of times. You got a bike trail. You poured

[1:02:50] all that concrete

[1:02:53] and I if you see more than five or six people and this is summer so the kids

[1:02:59] are running around you know you may be working

[1:03:03] there's five or six people that use that road and anytime you drive up and down

[1:03:07] it and I've I drive it fairly frequently and so my consideration and some of my

[1:03:13] neighbors is we want the bike trail we want the walking trail but we don't want

[1:03:18] it everywhere. where we don't need four of them going around this building.

[1:03:24] And that exists right now. If you go over here at Marsh and Hasslet,

[1:03:30] you guys just opened your little pile driving

[1:03:35] trail there by the new old folks home. That's big money. I'm an engineer. It's

[1:03:41] pilings. It changes the wetlands. There you have both sides of Marsh Road.

[1:03:49] You now have at least in that area both sides of Hasslet Road. You had the old

[1:03:56] urban inner urban train street car what it was really were on.

[1:04:02] You had that road back in there and you put uh the new one between the

[1:04:08] wetland and the old folks home. And then right on the other side of the

[1:04:14] wetland, as close as you can get, you have Bayon and you have a hookup that

[1:04:20] goes through the back there. And now with the new housing development going

[1:04:25] in there behind the commercial stuff, you're going to have a couple streets

[1:04:30] and parking area. So you have about seven different ways that go around

[1:04:36] there. >> [clears throat]

[1:04:37] » I'm wondering why you spent our money on the bion part of that thing. That's big

[1:04:44] bucks. And you say you got a grant. Well, I'm sorry. I pay state taxes and

[1:04:50] federal taxes, so you're still paying for it somehow.

[1:04:56] And I I just regulating hit what you really need.

[1:05:01] [clears throat and cough]

[1:05:03] I can see the future of if you go up there on Okamus Road, you have the

[1:05:08] bridge on the walkway. I've used

[1:05:13] [clears throat] to goof around at Best Buy way around. I'd ride my bike over

[1:05:18] there and that wasn't there when I was doing some of that. That is that was a a

[1:05:25] an act to get through that swampy area with all the traffic. So the bridge was

[1:05:32] should be there on some style. I wouldn't put that bridge there since I

[1:05:37] think it's falling apart already. [clears throat] Uh but I can see the

[1:05:42] other side. The excuse is going to be in front of the trustee. Well, we're going

[1:05:46] to get this grant and we can put a bridge on the other side

[1:05:50] of the road. There's hardly any buildings over there that are directed

[1:05:55] on the road. Maybe five or six. There's a whole bunch of trees there that you

[1:05:59] could save. And the bridge there, what did the one

[1:06:04] that's built? A million bucks. >> Which one are you referring to, sir? The

[1:06:08] one on road. >> Okamus one.

[1:06:10] » Uh, that was just over $1 million for that boardwalk,

[1:06:14] » which we are we've already had conversations with the road department

[1:06:17] that that could have been done differently in concert with a road

[1:06:21] elevation raising. If I saw that when I was working for the state, the way it

[1:06:26] was it's designed, there would have been red ink all over that thing. But my

[1:06:32] comment is you don't need another one on the other side.

[1:06:37] You know, be economical. Pick the better side. The bridge that

[1:06:43] you have is the better looking side, I think, for looking at the birds or doing

[1:06:47] something. But you don't need two sides.

[1:06:53] And sometime somebody should fix some of the

[1:06:58] roads around here to make for more traffic flow.

[1:07:04] I a long time ago was bend in people's ears that you have Mount Hope ending at

[1:07:12] Okamus. You have marsh ending down at technically by the river red cedar.

[1:07:22] You could easily there's an easement there for the power lines. You could go

[1:07:27] around the mount hope take it over on the easement and bend it up towards

[1:07:32] Marsh. Put a bridge in there. Condemn one house.

[1:07:38] And now the traffic instead of going all up Okamus

[1:07:43] you the Mount Hope won't join the Okamus traffic you can go around the Mount Hope

[1:07:50] will go keep going around and then you can go east without ever getting on

[1:07:54] Okamus road you spread out your traffic around the shopping center both sides

[1:08:03] but nobody was interested in doing that and I kept bringing it

[1:08:09] 15 20 years ago. So anyhow, >> thank you sir.

[1:08:13] » Thank you for having me in. Thank you for what you're doing.

[1:08:18] » Absolutely. Thank you, sir. >> Um I'm going to put out a refresher

[1:08:23] reminder for those who are attending virtually that you can use the virtual

[1:08:28] raise your hand function. We're nearing the end of the uh uh public comment here

[1:08:33] in person. sir in the back.

[1:08:45] All right. Thank you. Uh my name is Sean Hammond. I live uh off of Green Road um

[1:08:49] out so I on Hlet Road all the time. Um and uh you know I want to say one I

[1:08:56] really applaud this project. I think that this is a great start um on HLlet

[1:09:00] Road. I know there's been some work done with the repaint and rechip and seal.

[1:09:05] Um, and I really think I've I've really appreciated, you know, hearing a lot of

[1:09:09] things from Meridian Township lately that it sounds like we're trying to

[1:09:12] really build a community here and not just move cars because that's kind of

[1:09:15] how we always designed roads and traffic for the last 50 years in America is that

[1:09:20] we want to move cars as fast as possible. End [clears throat] of

[1:09:24] sentence. That's not what our cities and towns should be about. And we should be

[1:09:30] providing pedestrian safety, bike safety for everyone in the community where it's

[1:09:36] all needed. Um, and I'm going to actually take a little bit of a

[1:09:40] different tack here and say I encourage you all to go bigger when you're

[1:09:43] reconsidering this project. 11 foot lanes with a 4 and a half foot bike lane

[1:09:46] is great. About a 5ft bike lane with a 10-ft turn lane so you can actually

[1:09:50] buffer the bike lane and put up some ballers and protect it because as as was

[1:09:54] said earlier, paint doesn't do much on its own for a bike

[1:09:58] lane. And frankly, you know, I've heard I've seen and heard comments about, you

[1:10:02] know, bikers ride the sidewalk a lot. I will push it and ride the road most of

[1:10:06] the time because that's what I've historic, you know, I've I've biked most

[1:10:09] of my life. I'm feel comfortable uh taking the lane when I need to and and

[1:10:13] biking in a safe manner. Um I occasionally bike with uh my young child

[1:10:18] on the back of my bike. I ride the sidewalk then because a lot of our roads

[1:10:21] are not safely marked for pedestrian including that redone Hazlet road

[1:10:25] between uh pass Marsh um that really needs to be striped a little bit better

[1:10:30] for bike lane markings. Um if we're going to build a holistic system and I

[1:10:34] think that's really where um some of the comments I've heard today I want to push

[1:10:38] is like make the system holistic. I know this is a we're talking Hasla road today

[1:10:42] but there's a lot of pieces and parts here and yes we have a lot of great bike

[1:10:46] infrastructure the inner urban I ride it a lot. um all the trails kind of through

[1:10:50] town, but to get from one to the other is near impossible in a safe way. To get

[1:10:55] from Hlet Road to the inner urban means turning left across Marsh that is not a

[1:11:01] easy or safe thing to do and you're use you're relying on sidewalk right now

[1:11:05] with all the construction especially. Um, so as we're building this out,

[1:11:09] continue to think holistically about how are we going to build all these

[1:11:12] interconnections so that you know you're not, imagine you're driving your car and

[1:11:17] all of a sudden the nicely paved, freshly paved, freshly marked road turns

[1:11:21] into a twotrack. That's basically what happens for bikes when a bike lane ends.

[1:11:25] You know, you're riding along, you have a nice safe feeling ride, and then all

[1:11:29] of a sudden you have to stop and figure out, okay, where am I going now? Is

[1:11:32] there a sidewalk? How do I get to the sidewalk? How do I safely navigate

[1:11:35] traffic? who thinks I'm going to stay on the road when I actually want to not be

[1:11:38] on the road because now it's not safe anymore. Um, so there's a lot of when

[1:11:43] we're doing that and that's what's happening I think on HLA road right now

[1:11:46] with the East Lancing portion of the road diet that just kind of ends and now

[1:11:51] we're you know this will very nicely continue that and I definitely encourage

[1:11:55] the right-hand turn lane only so that you only have those two lanes of

[1:11:58] traffic. Keeps it smooth, keeps it flowing. Um,

[1:12:03] and the la the next thing I'll say is, you know, there's been a lot of talks

[1:12:06] about speed limits. Um, there's a lot of studies out there. Speed is a factor of

[1:12:12] design, not necessarily a sign on the road. A sign on the road tells you what

[1:12:17] the police are going to pull you over for.

[1:12:19] But if the road is overdesigned, as Hasslet Road is right now, you're going

[1:12:23] to go faster than the road is. I've seen, you know, I today I paid very

[1:12:29] careful attention as I was driving down Hlet Road. I drove right at 45. I drove

[1:12:34] right at 35. People were getting frustrated behind me and going around me

[1:12:39] because that's not what the road feels like it's designed for. Um, another

[1:12:44] thing I'll add is uh wildlife crossing. Adding uh a red doing the road diet will

[1:12:51] provide a safer wildlife crossing in some ways. I helped move a snapping

[1:12:54] turtle across Aslet Road earlier this year. Um, we have a very active wildlife

[1:12:59] corridor throughout Meridian Township because of our very protective wetlands

[1:13:02] ordinance. Um, as uh myself and another person were trying to move a very hefty

[1:13:07] snapping turtle out of the road, which is a road safety concern on top of a lot

[1:13:10] of other things, people were still trying to fly by A45

[1:13:14] um going the other direction as we were trying to like maneuver things uh to get

[1:13:18] a road hazard out of the road. Um and then you know lastly I'll just say

[1:13:25] there is uh or two more things. One there was a talk about the schools and

[1:13:29] things like that. Um uh you know there's been a recent study

[1:13:35] out of Chicago 7% of all traffic in Chicago during the school year is K12

[1:13:40] school drop off and pickup related. 7% of all traffic in the city of Chicago.

[1:13:46] We've all driven on Hasllett when we pick up time from the various elementary

[1:13:49] schools. It's a lot. What if we could build a pathway and a

[1:13:55] system where people didn't have to feel like they needed to drive their car to

[1:13:58] pick up their kid? Right? You're going to reduce those backups if you have the

[1:14:02] alternatives that are safe and everyone feels safe using them. Um,

[1:14:08] and really lastly, I'll just say there's a factor of induced demand. It's a

[1:14:11] concept well known in traffic engineering. goes back again 50 60

[1:14:16] years. If you build another lane, there was a highway expansion I believe in New

[1:14:22] York. They announced in the 50s, "Hey, this is going to end all our traffic

[1:14:25] problems forever." Lasted 3 weeks until it was completely

[1:14:30] backed up again. When you build another lane, you're going to add traffic. When

[1:14:34] you shrink a lane, you actually divide the traffic up. And when you build a

[1:14:38] bike lane, you're going to induce people to actually use that bike lane,

[1:14:41] especially when it's a safe and well marked one. Um, so you can induce demand

[1:14:45] with bikes, you can induce demand with pedestrians, and by adding crossings,

[1:14:48] you're going to do that. So there's a lot of really, really good work being

[1:14:52] done here. And I just continue to push everyone here to go bolder, push harder,

[1:14:57] understand that there is a a trustful majority who likes all this stuff and

[1:15:01] they just don't have the time or energy to come out on a Monday night to come

[1:15:06] talk uh at the township hall. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:15:13] Uh sir, in the black shirt, did I see one more hand in the back

[1:15:17] somewhere? No. Okay. So we will uh be going on to

[1:15:22] the virtual public comment next. We have uh

[1:15:26] Matthew and Janette on deck. [clears throat]

[1:15:29] So my principal comment is that I think it's important to look from a policy and

[1:15:34] planning perspective. It's very easy to create solutions to

[1:15:39] solve problems. But too often you solve one problem and create new problems. And

[1:15:44] I think we have a significant risk of creating new problems here that would

[1:15:49] just replace the old problems. And in that area, I think that one of the

[1:15:54] biggest concerns that I have is right now the cars can platoon.

[1:15:59] And so you have a stream of cars and let's say you have four cars that are

[1:16:03] running down the road in two lanes. If you go to one lane, now you've got eight

[1:16:07] cars running down the road. So the gaps in the traffic don't take place to the

[1:16:11] same measure. This issue came up when I was living in the Marble Township on

[1:16:16] Hagenorm. In 2007, they were talking about road uh diets. Then uh they did

[1:16:23] studies, they did a lot of studies, they got public hearings and it was rejected

[1:16:28] at that time in 2007. I was wondering why it resurfaced in 23.

[1:16:33] And now I know it's because federal funding is incentivizing the creation of

[1:16:37] bike lanes when they're really not needed. And not only not needed, in my

[1:16:42] opinion, dangerous. I brought a bike and I tried riding down the bike lane on

[1:16:46] Oakmus Road once. We'll never do that again. I don't think they're safe,

[1:16:50] generally speaking, and not on roads like Hazel Road. I like love the bike

[1:16:54] paths. Those are great. But the platooning of the cars is important

[1:16:58] because in from Everett Woods, if you're going to turn right, you got to wait for

[1:17:02] a gap in the traffic. And right now, the timing is pretty clear. You see the

[1:17:07] traffic coming from Okamus Road from the light and then there's a gap and then it

[1:17:12] starts coming from from Park Lake on the other side. And if you don't get that

[1:17:18] gap then you have to wait and when the traffic's heavy in the morning at times

[1:17:21] you have to wait considerably longer. If the traffic is now platooned, so it's

[1:17:26] stretched out, those gaps are going to be smaller and your capacity to make and

[1:17:32] timing for those left turns is going to be greater and then the traffic's going

[1:17:35] to back up into the neighborhoods. And exactly what has happened in on

[1:17:41] Hagodor, I wouldn't call a success because uh my kids have a house on Mount

[1:17:46] Vernon and I cannot make a left turn from Mount Vernon going south on

[1:17:50] Hagodoran Road because there's never any breaks in the traffic ever. Maybe during

[1:17:54] the summer there are a few, but not generally. I can turn right, but I have

[1:17:59] to go back through the neighborhood. And I go all the way through the

[1:18:02] neighborhood down to Brookfield and come out that way. So, what is East Lancing

[1:18:06] doing? They've now done a study and everyone's complaining about all the

[1:18:10] traffic going through the neighborhoods and they're going to put roundabouts in

[1:18:14] the neighborhoods. They're going to put speed bumps in the neighborhoods. They

[1:18:18] tried doing that 20 years ago by putting partitions down Cill. the traffic speed

[1:18:22] actually increased as a result of that. So now East Lancing space was spending a

[1:18:27] lot of money in the neighborhoods to try to control traffic in the neighborhoods

[1:18:30] that's been caused by the controlling of the traffic on Hagador. So that's a you

[1:18:35] don't want to create those kind of unintended problems and I think coming

[1:18:39] out of Everett Woods is going to be highly problematic because there's going

[1:18:44] to be very little gaps in the traffic. So, I'm gonna have to make a decision to

[1:18:48] make and I want to be able to go in the left turn lane. If I want to go left,

[1:18:52] I'm going to have to get into that traffic. So, you're going to have to

[1:18:54] accelerate very quickly and I think the probabilities of more accidents from

[1:19:00] that could potentially occur. So, I mean, you got to weigh those

[1:19:03] considerations and I have some further information that I'll leave with you

[1:19:06] tonight, but I'll I'll leave it at that. Thanks.

[1:19:09] » Thank you, sir. All right. Uh, that concludes the public comment here in

[1:19:14] person. Stephen, you wanna So, Matthew, you are unmuted.

[1:19:21] » Thank you. Um, as um as others have said, I'm uh I'm very excited about this

[1:19:27] project. I live on Hlett Road at the corner of Hlett and Westminster where

[1:19:32] there was a pedestrian accident involving a child two years ago. The

[1:19:38] last time that I or three years ago now, uh the last time I addressed the city

[1:19:42] council was following that for a couple reasons. That stretch of Hazlet Road

[1:19:48] from Park Lake to um Marsh Road, I'm sorry, to Okamus Road is sandwiched in

[1:19:56] is 45 m an hour sandwiched between 35 miles on the other side of Park Lake

[1:20:02] whenever you're in East Lancing and 35 miles again when you get on the other

[1:20:06] side of of Park Lake Road. Um and so living there, we live um on a road that

[1:20:13] everybody speeds through. And not only that, there is it's at the top of a hill

[1:20:18] where there is minimal visibility. I deal with this every single morning when

[1:20:23] my kids get on the bus to school. Um the everything is great with the school, but

[1:20:27] as people are flying to down Hazlet Road to get to work, um I sincerely feel like

[1:20:34] I have to say a little prayer every time the kids are getting on and off that bus

[1:20:39] because people don't stop for the bus. Um and people are already going above 45

[1:20:44] m an hour um on that road very frequently with a massive hill that um

[1:20:50] minimizes visibility. Um, so I think that while there is

[1:20:55] concern about traffic, um, the safety of the roughly 80 houses on both sides of

[1:21:02] Hlet Road, um, and the neighborhoods that come that walk around and enjoy,

[1:21:07] um, that area is a is a is a priority to, um, the safety of of the people that

[1:21:14] live there is a priority to any concern about um, that change in traffic. Um and

[1:21:21] um uh we have friends on other sides of the street that do not have a sidewalk

[1:21:27] that do not have an accessible place to walk across the street within half a

[1:21:32] mile. And so in a in a family-friendly area like Meridian Township where we

[1:21:37] have great parks, um we have a number of households that have to literally play

[1:21:43] Frogger anytime we want to go visit our friends in the community. Um

[1:21:48] [clears throat] and so by just you know um by just de and and the last thing

[1:21:55] I'll say is um on both sides of the road depending on which direction you're

[1:21:58] coming from currently you have to turn um into we have to turn into our homes

[1:22:04] um from a left lane um on the coming up minimal visibility on a hill. Again, it

[1:22:11] is a terrifying prospect um when we enter our homes on a daily basis of what

[1:22:18] visibility someone might be dealing with coming from the other end. So again, I I

[1:22:23] I really applaud this project. Um I think for those um who drive by on

[1:22:28] Hazard Road um and don't live there, notice the people that are turning in.

[1:22:33] Um notice the speed of the people around you. Notice the people, notice the kids

[1:22:37] that are walking around, getting on and off the school bus, um going to visit

[1:22:41] neighbors because there's a lot more than just traffic. There are actual

[1:22:46] lives and as we've seen with two major um car accidents taking place in this

[1:22:52] stretch of road. Um this has the opportunity to really improve the

[1:22:56] quality of life for people that live in this area. So, thank you so much for um

[1:23:01] for this opportunity to discuss this. Thank you, Matthew. Uh uh before I go to

[1:23:08] our final attendee virtually who has their hand raised, final call for those

[1:23:13] attending virtually to raise your hand for public comment. Uh Kaen is our next

[1:23:19] speaker with her hand raised. And as we discussed, we've got 35 minutes left in

[1:23:24] tonight's a loted time from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. So once public comment concludes,

[1:23:30] uh, all the panelists will stay and we'll basically do a sharet style

[1:23:34] one-on-one. You can walk around the room. You can take a look at the diagram

[1:23:38] boards over on the table which mirror what Mark walked through earlier

[1:23:41] tonight. Um, and with that, Stephen, if you could unmute.

[1:23:47] Kaen, you are unmuted. And oh wait, no, you're still

[1:23:55] » So she she's muted on her side. >> Yeah.

[1:23:58] » Miss Fear, could you please uh unmute your microphone?

[1:24:04] » Can you hear me? >> There you go.

[1:24:06] » Yes, we can. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I have lived in this township

[1:24:10] since I was 2 years old and I have lived on the corner of Hllett and Bayon since

[1:24:15] I was 16. Um, I have seen a lot of changes on Hlet

[1:24:20] Road. Uh, for some reason they put in curbs which were not needed. And as a

[1:24:26] matter of fact, it actually made things more difficult on Hlett Road way back

[1:24:29] when. They took away a,

[1:24:35] you know, the side of the road that was gravel where our mailboxes were further

[1:24:39] back and the mail cars, delivery cars, emergency vehicles, they could all be

[1:24:45] safely on the side of the road. If you were in an accident, you could get off

[1:24:48] the road and be out of the way. Um, now our mailboxes are right on the curb. And

[1:24:53] I am one of these people that have had my mailbox hit five times this year. And

[1:24:59] I do not think it's speed. I think it's people on their phones. Um I also have a

[1:25:05] lot of car accidents at Hlet and Bon. Almost all of them are from someone

[1:25:14] going off from Bon, not stopping at the stop sign or just going and being hit by

[1:25:19] someone on HLT. I can see a lot of problems with this

[1:25:26] plan mostly because I know that by 5:00 p.m.

[1:25:31] at Marsh it is almost backed up all the way to Bon

[1:25:36] and that's that's almost a nightly thing. Um, I do have to drive

[1:25:44] um to my job and I do have to take the Mount Hope road and the amount of scary

[1:25:52] issues that I see on that since the road diet is unbelievable. I believe that the

[1:25:58] right hand the the right turns should be a hard stop. You should not be able to

[1:26:03] merge because you do have people trying to rush to get around and then they get

[1:26:08] around and then they slow down. So then you have people slamming on

[1:26:12] their brakes trying to avoid hitting people who are

[1:26:17] doing that. You have people passing other people who they feel is are going

[1:26:23] too slow in the turn lane. So you're not really you're just you're

[1:26:28] causing people to actually play more frogger. They're getting angry. They're

[1:26:34] road raging. They're using the turn lane to pass people instead of just

[1:26:40] sitting there waiting. Um, and yes, those of us who live on

[1:26:44] Hasllet Road are going to have a more difficult time getting out of our

[1:26:48] driveways. Um, I already have Bon right there. Literally,

[1:26:56] right? I mean, it's not even 50 ft from my driveway to Bon. And I do have issues

[1:27:02] getting out, but I wait sometimes up to five minutes

[1:27:08] because of how much traffic there is. I can see if you take that down to two

[1:27:13] lanes, one on each side and a turn lane, that's going to

[1:27:18] take more time for me to get out of my driveway. Um, also, you do have those

[1:27:24] school buses. uh anybody who's being stopped by the

[1:27:28] police, getting in a car accident, delivery drivers, they all stop in that

[1:27:32] road. So, you're going to have people going into the turn lane to get around

[1:27:38] them because they're not going to want to stop and wait. And then, you know,

[1:27:44] I sit here and I watch people cross Bayon every single day. People on bikes,

[1:27:48] people walking, people walking their dogs. They don't wait a long time. and

[1:27:55] they do wait. They don't run out in the middle of the road in front of cars.

[1:28:00] Um, but they get across with no problem. And if they're complaining, it's

[1:28:03] interesting because they I I literally while you were all

[1:28:08] talking, I was watching a a couple cross the road. They stopped, they waited,

[1:28:12] they got to go. Um, I just think that

[1:28:18] some of this is I don't know. I feel like it's because

[1:28:22] you got the grant. Um, you get the grants before you make the plans and you

[1:28:29] just want to do it because you have that money. And I understand that that money

[1:28:33] is meant to improve things, but I have a feeling that this is going to cause more

[1:28:38] issues. You're going to have people going through down Bayon to get to Lake

[1:28:43] Lancing to get down faster and get around away from this, but that's also

[1:28:47] going to cause people to speed through school zones.

[1:28:51] Um, I don't know. I just I've seen a lot of

[1:28:56] changes. I've seen things that they thought were going to be great and that

[1:29:00] have caused more issues. You have us mowing the lawns now closer to the road

[1:29:05] than what we were before because we now have curbs and it extended our right of

[1:29:10] way in the front. And then you're going to make these and you're going to put

[1:29:13] bikes in the roads, which that is very dangerous. I don't care what road you're

[1:29:18] on, it is dangerous. And I do see people almost get hit on

[1:29:23] their way to MSU um on their bikes. And there's not a lot

[1:29:28] of people, but there are a few. Um anyways,

[1:29:33] but yeah, there are a few things. Those um yellow lights, those yellow flashing

[1:29:37] lights, they are confusing because you have people who will stop at them when

[1:29:41] there's no one there because they've already crossed and they'll sit there

[1:29:44] and wait because they don't know what they're supposed to do. and you have

[1:29:49] people who won't let the people cross because they don't know what they're

[1:29:51] for. So those flashing yellow lights are confusing.

[1:29:56] And uh yeah, so if you're going to make the changes anyways, um

[1:30:01] make those turn right turns a hard stop. You can't go forward anymore. Make the

[1:30:05] lights red and uh you're going to have to find a way to get us out of our

[1:30:11] driveways because it's going to be more difficult. Anyways, thank you.

[1:30:17] Thank you, Kaen. All right, I see no more hands virtually. Um, the one thing

[1:30:23] and I would encourage folks as we get into the sharet phase, take a look at it

[1:30:27] on the poster boards over here and then everything that's presented tonight,

[1:30:31] including the recording will be made available online. But if you look at the

[1:30:34] poster boards over there, what's unique to this road diet that we've at least

[1:30:40] discussed in concept is that from Benson Drive to Shoptown, which is where the

[1:30:46] former W8 is, right? When you go eastbound on HLT, you can go, we have

[1:30:52] two through lanes through uh uh the Marsh Road intersection

[1:30:58] eastbound, right? and that outer through lane terminates when you get to Shoptown

[1:31:03] and it becomes basically an auxiliary right turn lane into Shoptown. That

[1:31:07] configuration would likely remain. That's what we've discussed in concept.

[1:31:11] So from Benson Drive to um the Shoptown complex on the east side

[1:31:16] of Marsh Road, you would have two through lanes in both directions and

[1:31:20] there wouldn't be so whatever capacity there is to queue cars from Marsh West

[1:31:26] towards Benson and towards Bayon that would remain the same. Um and that's

[1:31:31] another uh public commenter made reference to uh shared bike emblem

[1:31:36] symbols and you know we can use utilize pavement markings like that in those

[1:31:41] conditions. So with that uh final comment uh we are we'll segue into the

[1:31:46] sh phase. Thank you to everyone for attending tonight and uh please feel

[1:31:50] free to mingle and chat.

Haslett Road Diet & Safety Improvement Project Public Meeting - August 31, 2026

Transcript