This happened a few days ago but wasn't posted here yet. A school bus (with no children on board) crashed in to the side of the Stadium District where the Beer Grotto was (they closed about 6 months ago I believe). The building suffered major structural damages and two apartments have been evacuated for safety concerns. It looks like it may take a while for full repairs.
I really think in may be time to think about slowing down the traffic on our downtown cross streets. How much longer would it take to get across town if the speed limit was lowered? Our corners should not be dangerous.
Yeah, I agree with your whole comment. The speed limit needs to be lowered and we were very lucky there were no casualties.
Changing Cedar and Larch to two-way would help in lowering the speed limit, and adding in protected bike lanes along Michigan Ave would also give a nice road diet to help people think slower speeds.
This corner, and at Larch there should be some sort of pedestrian protection. Has anyone ever considered making these street two way again. I would guess not, but our downtown area has changed a lot since these one way street were made that way, it is becoming a neighborhood with people living there, and could be far more friendly to people without really causing traffic problems.
I hate, hate, hate Cedar and Larch as a pedestrian. Not only do people drive fast, but they don't look for pedestrians when they turn. It's very unpleasant. It could be a coincidence, but not many businesses do well between those two roads. On both Grand River and Michigan you've got urban business blocks that really underperform. Lansing Brewing Company is the big exception, though most seem to drive to it.
MLK south of the Grand River also needs pedestrian bridges or something in spots. Really hurts the walkability of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Are those state-controlled roads? I have been a broken record in East Lansing about the stupid-obvious need for pedestrian improvements along certain stretches of Michigan Avenue. Have gotten some nice talk back, but if anything have actually seen the state treat the road even more as a higher-speed auto-throughway as time has gone on.
I do not know it there is enough room at these four corner intersections, and I know it's all "euro" and all but traffic circles or rotary's slow but generally do not stop traffic and are much safer for pedestrians and bikes. People live on streets like MLK and Saginaw, I always think of what that would be like, not too nice I would think. They slow the traffic on State Highways through small towns so way not in our neighborhoods? It would be a good subject to bring up during the local elections.
I will say that Cedar and Larch do seem to carry a good amount of traffic during the day. It'd be interesting to see projections on where that traffic would go if the city made those two-way streets.
Grand Avenue is another interesting road to think about. That street and all of the parking lots along it definitely hurt the interaction between downtown and the river at the street level. That stretch could use some more placemaking. I actually think the east side of Grand River is planned out pretty well. I think if you fixed up the situation with Grand Ave you'd really have something special.
I have thought about this area as well. I think surface lot owners should be required to fence and landscape all downtown lots. Empty or unused black top should have to be pulled up and replaced with grass after a certain time empty . Make developing the land more attractive that just sitting on it. I could see removing or replacing the pedestrian bridge that darkens the whole block and is really dated and ugly. Replace the bridge with something really cool, something that people will want to visit and walk over, or create some sort of covered walk way across the Michigan Ave bridge from the Raddison to the Lansing Center. Make Wentworth Park a real garden, even a winter garden house there would help connect the street to the river, creating a "place" or destination year round on Grand Avenue. Amazon is building a really cool winter garden in a city sized space in front of their building in Seattle, and London built a very nice green underground stop in a smaller space.
Yeah, it's easy to forget how big of a step in the right direction that building was. I do kinda wish he would have went with the original design in a way, it would have been a lot more unique.
Comments
I really think in may be time to think about slowing down the traffic on our downtown cross streets. How much longer would it take to get across town if the speed limit was lowered? Our corners should not be dangerous.
Yeah, I agree with your whole comment. The speed limit needs to be lowered and we were very lucky there were no casualties.
Changing Cedar and Larch to two-way would help in lowering the speed limit, and adding in protected bike lanes along Michigan Ave would also give a nice road diet to help people think slower speeds.
This corner, and at Larch there should be some sort of pedestrian protection. Has anyone ever considered making these street two way again. I would guess not, but our downtown area has changed a lot since these one way street were made that way, it is becoming a neighborhood with people living there, and could be far more friendly to people without really causing traffic problems.
I hate, hate, hate Cedar and Larch as a pedestrian. Not only do people drive fast, but they don't look for pedestrians when they turn. It's very unpleasant. It could be a coincidence, but not many businesses do well between those two roads. On both Grand River and Michigan you've got urban business blocks that really underperform. Lansing Brewing Company is the big exception, though most seem to drive to it.
MLK south of the Grand River also needs pedestrian bridges or something in spots. Really hurts the walkability of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Are those state-controlled roads? I have been a broken record in East Lansing about the stupid-obvious need for pedestrian improvements along certain stretches of Michigan Avenue. Have gotten some nice talk back, but if anything have actually seen the state treat the road even more as a higher-speed auto-throughway as time has gone on.
I do not know it there is enough room at these four corner intersections, and I know it's all "euro" and all but traffic circles or rotary's slow but generally do not stop traffic and are much safer for pedestrians and bikes. People live on streets like MLK and Saginaw, I always think of what that would be like, not too nice I would think. They slow the traffic on State Highways through small towns so way not in our neighborhoods? It would be a good subject to bring up during the local elections.
I will say that Cedar and Larch do seem to carry a good amount of traffic during the day. It'd be interesting to see projections on where that traffic would go if the city made those two-way streets.
Grand Avenue is another interesting road to think about. That street and all of the parking lots along it definitely hurt the interaction between downtown and the river at the street level. That stretch could use some more placemaking. I actually think the east side of Grand River is planned out pretty well. I think if you fixed up the situation with Grand Ave you'd really have something special.
I have thought about this area as well. I think surface lot owners should be required to fence and landscape all downtown lots. Empty or unused black top should have to be pulled up and replaced with grass after a certain time empty . Make developing the land more attractive that just sitting on it. I could see removing or replacing the pedestrian bridge that darkens the whole block and is really dated and ugly. Replace the bridge with something really cool, something that people will want to visit and walk over, or create some sort of covered walk way across the Michigan Ave bridge from the Raddison to the Lansing Center. Make Wentworth Park a real garden, even a winter garden house there would help connect the street to the river, creating a "place" or destination year round on Grand Avenue. Amazon is building a really cool winter garden in a city sized space in front of their building in Seattle, and London built a very nice green underground stop in a smaller space.