The city of Lansing is doing a survey on possible configurations for the South Washington rebuild/streetscape project coming up next year. They have options that I very much like as presented. There's three A/B/(C) questions:
-For street type, I'm in favor of option "B - Curbless Street"
-For bike system, I'm a fan of "Option B" (basically an extended Capitol Loop separated bike lane route, no bike lanes on Washington Sq).
-For the "Washington Sq options" I'm less certain. "B1", a curbless straight road is my safe choice. "A", a curbless road with gentle curves, is interesting.
This is quite interesting, though, I wonder how quickly they could implement this with the imminent CSO project coming up.
I'm also a bit confused by the options. Are the "Washington Square Options A & B" subsets of the "Bike System Options" or are they options in themselves?
Anyway, my big consideration if the re-use of the pavers. Quite frankly, I want them reused on the actual street, but that doesn't appear to be an option. The "Option B: Curbless Street" gets closest to that. And Option B: Cubless Street also effectively juggles what I'm sure if want by business for street parking on the eastside of the square with opening the square to better cycle uses + people on the westside of the square get to keep their pull-in parking, which is quite frankly something I don't care about, at all, but is probably a concern for business owners.
The last two options I do not like at all. lol I don't think we need "chicanes" or anything that shifts traffic every mid-block. In fact, I think the best way to keep speeds low is...retention of the pavers. Nobody speeds on them, currently, precisely because it's not a comfortable drive. And I know they are thinking about this from a maintenance angle, but it's a great speed-control device all by itself.
It sounds like they plan to implement these designs with the CSO work, they say in the post this is in preparation for that.
As far as I can tell there's a question as to whether or not they want to create a main cycle path down Washington Sq or do a loop on some combination of Capitol/Walnut/Shiawassee/Grand/Pine/Kalamazoo. I'm a fan of the loop that includes Grand & Pine. If they do a cycle path down Washington it looks like one side would turn into parallel parking with the other angled, if no cycle path then they'd go with angled instead of the current perpendicular parking on both sides. They're also talking about doing the same curbless treatment on Washtenaw from Capitol to Grand.
I like the aesthetics of the bricks but don't find the unevenness of the surface acceptable for driving or even crossing the street on foot, much less if there's going to be a focus on street festivals. If they want to do a concrete underlayment for the bricks or something then actually maintain them properly then I'm all for it, but I don't see that happening.
Haven't been south of Mt. Hope, but at least as far as I can tell, they've completed the traffic islands on MLK between Victor and Mt. Hope. Looks like they've lined them up so that that are at - or steps from - the bus stops, which was a smart thing to do.
Couldn't make out if it was a different surface material or paint, but they are finally placing the markings of the bike path along East Michigan Avenue where they've finished. It's green stripes of some sort. Still not particularly happy how this part of the reconstruction turned out, but I'm just so relieved we're getting close to it finally being done.
Also, the road surface is still so smooth where they've finished that if you're in an automobile, you hear the road start to "whistle" once you get over 30 MPH. We are not used to roads this geometrically smooth in Michigan. lol Hopefully, this means that this is a really good grade of asphalt. I'm tickled every time I drive on it.
I drove down the fresh pavement the other day, after E Michigan by Frandor it feels like velvet, and I kind of sigh in disbelief that it has taken this long to accomplish the rebuilding of a couple of miles of urban roadway. I have been back in Lansing for ten years, that is how long it has taken at least. That is how long it took to build The Big Dig in Boston! My dream is that it does not take ten more years to finish the repaving of E Michigan, it has already been three years of bombed out road way there. I noticed a large number of new trees at the city green houses on Mt. Hope, I wonder if they are for this project.
I was wondering about the part east of the freeway, too, and was under the impression that it was part of the drain project that's now finished. But apparently it's not. I contacted the city about this, and it's separate from both the drain project and the East Michigan Avenue project to the west. Anyway, they said that the project will be done this fall after they wrap up the other reconstruction project.
Either the public misunderstood or the city wasn't clear that that project wouldn't start until after the drain project was done (since they had to tear up the street), rather that it would be done as part of the "clean-up" work of the drain project. So it's not really off schedule. They also said they want to use the same contractor that's currently doing the project to the west, but if they can't do that they'll do a bid on it, but that in any case, it is scheduled to happen this fall regardless.
Thank you for the information, I'm amazed by the schedule They could have just laid a temporary blacktop when they were done digging up the street. Oh well come next fall I will have to find something else to complain about!
Comments
-For street type, I'm in favor of option "B - Curbless Street"
-For bike system, I'm a fan of "Option B" (basically an extended Capitol Loop separated bike lane route, no bike lanes on Washington Sq).
-For the "Washington Sq options" I'm less certain. "B1", a curbless straight road is my safe choice. "A", a curbless road with gentle curves, is interesting.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19VyhgKsjC/
I sounds like they're thinking about the right things.
I'm also a bit confused by the options. Are the "Washington Square Options A & B" subsets of the "Bike System Options" or are they options in themselves?
Anyway, my big consideration if the re-use of the pavers. Quite frankly, I want them reused on the actual street, but that doesn't appear to be an option. The "Option B: Curbless Street" gets closest to that. And Option B: Cubless Street also effectively juggles what I'm sure if want by business for street parking on the eastside of the square with opening the square to better cycle uses + people on the westside of the square get to keep their pull-in parking, which is quite frankly something I don't care about, at all, but is probably a concern for business owners.
The last two options I do not like at all. lol I don't think we need "chicanes" or anything that shifts traffic every mid-block. In fact, I think the best way to keep speeds low is...retention of the pavers. Nobody speeds on them, currently, precisely because it's not a comfortable drive. And I know they are thinking about this from a maintenance angle, but it's a great speed-control device all by itself.
As far as I can tell there's a question as to whether or not they want to create a main cycle path down Washington Sq or do a loop on some combination of Capitol/Walnut/Shiawassee/Grand/Pine/Kalamazoo. I'm a fan of the loop that includes Grand & Pine. If they do a cycle path down Washington it looks like one side would turn into parallel parking with the other angled, if no cycle path then they'd go with angled instead of the current perpendicular parking on both sides. They're also talking about doing the same curbless treatment on Washtenaw from Capitol to Grand.
I like the aesthetics of the bricks but don't find the unevenness of the surface acceptable for driving or even crossing the street on foot, much less if there's going to be a focus on street festivals. If they want to do a concrete underlayment for the bricks or something then actually maintain them properly then I'm all for it, but I don't see that happening.
Also, the road surface is still so smooth where they've finished that if you're in an automobile, you hear the road start to "whistle" once you get over 30 MPH. We are not used to roads this geometrically smooth in Michigan. lol Hopefully, this means that this is a really good grade of asphalt. I'm tickled every time I drive on it.
Either the public misunderstood or the city wasn't clear that that project wouldn't start until after the drain project was done (since they had to tear up the street), rather that it would be done as part of the "clean-up" work of the drain project. So it's not really off schedule. They also said they want to use the same contractor that's currently doing the project to the west, but if they can't do that they'll do a bid on it, but that in any case, it is scheduled to happen this fall regardless.
So, there you have it!