Two-Way Downtown Streets to Face First Summer Test

The temporary conversion of State Street, Pine Street, and Boardman Avenue to two-way traffic – part of a two-year pilot project by the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) to slow vehicle speeds, improve pedestrian crossings, and offer better grid connectivity and detour routes during construction – will face its first major test this summer with the arrival of peak tourism traffic. DDA board members received an update Friday on the pilot’s progress since launching last fall, as well as improvements planned in the coming weeks throughout the project area.

DDA board members and city commissioners agreed last year to convert the streets on a two-year basis to allow adequate time to monitor how traffic flows at different times of year. The pilot included removing existing traffic islands at some intersections, improving traffic signals, upgrading pavement markings and signage, and making snow-plowing modifications. Four-way stops were installed at Boardman/State and State/Park, with new stop signs also installed at the Front/Pine and Boardman/Front intersections. Bulbouts – or curb extensions that feature posts and other barriers – were added to multiple intersections.

According to Chris Zull from Progressive AE, a consultant on the project, traffic data will be collected at 10 locations four times per year in 2023 and 2024, during March, May, July, and October. Initial data collected during Traverse City Restaurant Week this March showed that vehicle speeds are averaging close to 22 miles per hour in the project area, which Zull said was “good to see” and could be lowered further with more calming improvements. Approximately three times as many vehicles are driving east than west in the project area, which Zull said made sense because there’s only one eastbound route through the downtown core (on State Street) versus two westbound routes (on State and Front).

Zull said the conversion “has been generally well received by the public” based on approximately two dozen comments submitted to the DDA. He also said initial concerns about how winter maintenance would work on a two-way State Street were “less pronounced than expected,” in part because downtown did not experience many significant snowfall events this year. A project team of city staff and consultants continue to regularly monitor certain intersections, Zull said, including State/Cass, State/Union, and Pine/Front.

Zull said that monitoring has already led to some tweaks being made to the pilot project. For example, continued lane confusion at the State/Cass intersection – where eastbound drivers often don’t realize the left lane is left-turn only and continue straight through the intersection, conflicting with the right through lane – prompted staff to add a temporary message board and lane signs at the intersection. More signage and pavement markings could be deployed soon to make the lane assignments even clearer, Zull said.

DDA COO Harry Burkholder said other signs will be placed in the corridor soon to educate summer drivers – many of whom may not be aware of the two-way changes that have taken place – about the traffic shifts. The Traverse City Arts Commission is also working on a project to paint the bulbouts at the Pine/Front and Boardman/Front intersections, Burkholder told The Ticker, which could improve the aesthetics of the bulbouts and make them them more visible to drivers. Adjusting traffic signals is another option during the pilot, Burkholder said, but one that would likely only be undertaken once more data has been collected. Zull said collecting data over multiple years – especially since different years have different conditions, from bridges being down this year to Grandview Parkway being reconstructed next year – can help “normalize” traffic volumes, especially when compared with historical data.

After the Traverse City Fire Department expressed concerns about navigating narrow westbound lanes on State Street as the lanes round the corner near the Uptown Development and head north on Pine Street, the DDA bagged some parking spaces on the curve to prevent cars from parking there – widening the turning maneuverability on the curve. DDA board members also discussed the Pine/Front intersection Friday, expressing concerns about vehicles running stop signs and the visibility of pedestrians in a crosswalk south of the intersection. Zull said the team would continue to monitor the intersection and look for ways to better make drivers aware of pedestrians. Burkholder said that evaluating the “pedestrian experience” throughout the corridor overall is a key part of the pilot.

DDA CEO Jean Derenzy said the project team will continue to provide data updates to DDA board members and city commissioners through the pilot, including at the end of this summer and after the 2023-24 winter season. City officials had previously agreed the two-year pilot project could potentially be extended out to four years if more data collection is needed. After a board member asked Zull Friday about why Front Street wasn’t part of the two-way project, he noted that the team “heard loud and clear” that the 100 and 200 blocks of Front Street are critical to downtown businesses and that experimental change “on those two street segments would be considered too disruptive...especially with the unknowing of how a two-way system would work.”

Evaluating other streets over a period of a few years will help give the DDA and city enough information to determine whether to make the two-way change permanent – and whether it could work in other areas, like Front Street. “We need to make sure that we’ve done our diligence with the State Street process...and document the pros and cons of the change before having that conversation about Front Street,” Zull said.