Barnes Avenue School was a big part of the neighborhood along with the St. Casimir School all the kids stayed in the neighborhood for school. I'm not sure if any of the students at the El Shabaaze School are from the neighborhood. I never see any students walking home from school.
I wonder why Barnes Avenue is being rebuilt with such nice features, like the brick trim [it does not look like they are for a drain as before] and a big traffic circle? It is only for a few blocks where the street is a boulevard but it sure looks nice. Are there any other streets getting this kind of treatment? Meanwhile, the last block of W. Barnes at S. Washington is still full of huge potholes and is a mess. This seems kind of crazy to me.
I was excited to see all the traffic cones on this part of Pennsylvania Ave, in hopes of seeing a really bad section being repaved.[I know I should look at the repaving plan] It was the flower project which is very good, think how nice it would look or how you could actually turn your head away from dodging potholes if the street was repaved.
All winter there was no rotary at Beal and Barnes the old one had been removed. This spring they reconstructed a new circle at Beal. I have not been down Smith lately but they had removed a rotary on that street too, maybe it's also been rebuilt. This one looks like drivers will not be able to cut over the side of the circle as the curbs are higher. I'm sure many will try, it is difficult to turn that stirring wheel! The new street looks very nice.
"State of Michigan: Meeting to discuss 2020 Homer Street lane reduction project in Lansing on June 27"
"MDOT will invest approximately $200,000 in 2020 to remove the far right lane on Homer Street between Vine Street and the northbound US-127 exit ramp to M-43 as part of its safety program. This will improve the sight distance for turning onto or crossing Homer Street and is expected to reduce crashes along the corridor. MDOT is working on this project with local partners, including the City of Lansing and the Lansing Board of Water of Light, to reduce cost and increase efficiency."
I'm trying to visualize how this change will be done, but it is a good change regardless. I try to avoid that exit ramp if at all possible because of how dangerous it can be during peak travel periods. This reduces the oncoming lanes but the way that is worded it sounds like there will still be four lanes total from the exit ramp onward to the entrance ramp back onto 127. So people will have to cut across lanes of traffic to turn right onto M43.
Yeah, that off ramp has always been a nightmare. I often get off at Kalamazoo and drive down to avoid it. I've always wondered why they can't so something as simple as a stop sign, like much of the Detroit area has, as someone previously mentioned.
Assuming it actually would work...people seem slow to adapt to traffic changes I'm noticing. I passed through the intersection of Mt. Hope and MLK several times a day and I can't tell you how many people refused to adapt to the new right turn only lane to go north on MLK, despite the many, flagged signs!
I think on MKL the two outside lanes of the five are in very bad shape and need more extensive repair, they also seem to have cement pavements that are different than the three inside lanes which seem to have asphalt pavements. Mich just noted that! These lanes are bad all the way from the tracks south to the city limits.
At the lane drop on Mt Hope and MLK, I think there needs to be a traffic island that creates a must turn right lane, and blocks traffic from going straight through. I wonder if they are going to reconfigure the lanes as they did from MLK west when they finish the sewer project? I think it is confusing to go from two with a left turn lane then four then back to two.
On another transit subject, today I noticed new locomotives on the Amtrak Blue Water train! I do not know if this is a permanent change but they looked pretty cool, like a 21st Century train! I wonder how long they used the old locomotives, it seems like at least 20 years. The train still looks to have passenger cars of three different ages.
Anything they can do to make 127 safer in the Grand River/Saginaw area is welcome. I often turn off at Round Lake Road and take Wood Road back into the city, it is a very pretty and peaceful way to avoid that whole section of 127 when coming south from my cabin up in Hale.
Just another little note about our streets. The center median of Pennsylvania between Mt. Hope and the zoo is all in bloom right now and looks really nice. The annuals they have been planting really filled in and are very pretty. Now if they could fill the potholes on that stretch people could enjoy the flowers while driving by there.
I got a better look at the new Amtrak locomotives today, very sleek and a nice paint job. I also saw that there were a couple of new looking passenger cars as well. My building has a great view of the Washington Avenue rail crossing to the south. It is a great place for train spotting.
Yesterday another trainload of giant windmill blades went by. They are so huge one blade takes a whole train car. I wonder where they are manufactured, from up the line? The very large windmills near Alma are functioning and are now landmarks on the trip up north. They make the windmills near Ithica look small. So the tracks are interesting to watch even if it is just freight trains going by.
That is quite nice features. It would be better if there were just more buses on routes and they ran into the evening and weekends. I have had several times where I just caught the last bus of the day at the airport and if I had checked a bag I would have missed it.
Comments
Barnes Avenue School was a big part of the neighborhood along with the St. Casimir School all the kids stayed in the neighborhood for school. I'm not sure if any of the students at the El Shabaaze School are from the neighborhood. I never see any students walking home from school.
I wonder why Barnes Avenue is being rebuilt with such nice features, like the brick trim [it does not look like they are for a drain as before] and a big traffic circle? It is only for a few blocks where the street is a boulevard but it sure looks nice. Are there any other streets getting this kind of treatment? Meanwhile, the last block of W. Barnes at S. Washington is still full of huge potholes and is a mess. This seems kind of crazy to me.
I was excited to see all the traffic cones on this part of Pennsylvania Ave, in hopes of seeing a really bad section being repaved.[I know I should look at the repaving plan] It was the flower project which is very good, think how nice it would look or how you could actually turn your head away from dodging potholes if the street was repaved.
All winter there was no rotary at Beal and Barnes the old one had been removed. This spring they reconstructed a new circle at Beal. I have not been down Smith lately but they had removed a rotary on that street too, maybe it's also been rebuilt. This one looks like drivers will not be able to cut over the side of the circle as the curbs are higher. I'm sure many will try, it is difficult to turn that stirring wheel! The new street looks very nice.
"State of Michigan: Meeting to discuss 2020 Homer Street lane reduction project in Lansing on June 27"
"MDOT will invest approximately $200,000 in 2020 to remove the far right lane on Homer Street between Vine Street and the northbound US-127 exit ramp to M-43 as part of its safety program. This will improve the sight distance for turning onto or crossing Homer Street and is expected to reduce crashes along the corridor. MDOT is working on this project with local partners, including the City of Lansing and the Lansing Board of Water of Light, to reduce cost and increase efficiency."
https://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-47796-500127--,00.html
I'm trying to visualize how this change will be done, but it is a good change regardless. I try to avoid that exit ramp if at all possible because of how dangerous it can be during peak travel periods. This reduces the oncoming lanes but the way that is worded it sounds like there will still be four lanes total from the exit ramp onward to the entrance ramp back onto 127. So people will have to cut across lanes of traffic to turn right onto M43.
Yeah, that off ramp has always been a nightmare. I often get off at Kalamazoo and drive down to avoid it. I've always wondered why they can't so something as simple as a stop sign, like much of the Detroit area has, as someone previously mentioned.
Assuming it actually would work...people seem slow to adapt to traffic changes I'm noticing. I passed through the intersection of Mt. Hope and MLK several times a day and I can't tell you how many people refused to adapt to the new right turn only lane to go north on MLK, despite the many, flagged signs!
I think on MKL the two outside lanes of the five are in very bad shape and need more extensive repair, they also seem to have cement pavements that are different than the three inside lanes which seem to have asphalt pavements. Mich just noted that! These lanes are bad all the way from the tracks south to the city limits.
At the lane drop on Mt Hope and MLK, I think there needs to be a traffic island that creates a must turn right lane, and blocks traffic from going straight through. I wonder if they are going to reconfigure the lanes as they did from MLK west when they finish the sewer project? I think it is confusing to go from two with a left turn lane then four then back to two.
On another transit subject, today I noticed new locomotives on the Amtrak Blue Water train! I do not know if this is a permanent change but they looked pretty cool, like a 21st Century train! I wonder how long they used the old locomotives, it seems like at least 20 years. The train still looks to have passenger cars of three different ages.
Anything they can do to make 127 safer in the Grand River/Saginaw area is welcome. I often turn off at Round Lake Road and take Wood Road back into the city, it is a very pretty and peaceful way to avoid that whole section of 127 when coming south from my cabin up in Hale.
Just another little note about our streets. The center median of Pennsylvania between Mt. Hope and the zoo is all in bloom right now and looks really nice. The annuals they have been planting really filled in and are very pretty. Now if they could fill the potholes on that stretch people could enjoy the flowers while driving by there.
I got a better look at the new Amtrak locomotives today, very sleek and a nice paint job. I also saw that there were a couple of new looking passenger cars as well. My building has a great view of the Washington Avenue rail crossing to the south. It is a great place for train spotting.
Yesterday another trainload of giant windmill blades went by. They are so huge one blade takes a whole train car. I wonder where they are manufactured, from up the line? The very large windmills near Alma are functioning and are now landmarks on the trip up north. They make the windmills near Ithica look small. So the tracks are interesting to watch even if it is just freight trains going by.
That is quite nice features. It would be better if there were just more buses on routes and they ran into the evening and weekends. I have had several times where I just caught the last bus of the day at the airport and if I had checked a bag I would have missed it.