[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.