Traverse City officials are gearing up to restripe Eighth Street next week – the third time in seven months the experimental three-lane configuration will need to be painted.

More than 800 residents have taken to Facebook to complain about fading striping in the corridor, which was pared from four lanes down to three last September as part of a year-long, nearly $50,000 traffic study. After the temporary paint used for the restriping had largely disappeared by December, the city spent just under $2,000 to refresh the lanes.

Officials are planning to invest the same amount next week – April 1, weather permitting – to reinforce the striping yet again. City Planning Director Russ Soyring explains that a combination of Eighth Street’s aging, broken concrete, winter plowing and salt and the oil-based paint required by the state have led to the rapid deterioration of the lanes.

“At a much higher cost, we could have paid to grind down the lines and paint inside of those, so when plows went over it, it wouldn’t be scraping off,” says Soyring. “But it didn’t seem appropriate to put down paint that would last two to three years when it’s a pilot project.”

Online and in letters to city commissioners this week, residents have criticized the “dangerous” nature of the corridor without visible lane markings, describing drivers using the center turn and bike lanes as though they were vehicle lanes. “Today it became four lanes while I was on it briefly…horns honking and people yelling and giving the bird,” wrote one user. “(It’s) a disaster waiting to happen,” agreed another. A third resident – repeating the sentiments of many in the Facebook community – pleaded: “Fix the road and put it back the way it was!”

“We’ve created a problem, quite honestly,” Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes tells The Ticker. “It’s a safety issue when there is confusion for people using the street.” Estes says that if next week’s restriping is the last one needed before the pilot project concludes in September – as Soyring believes it will be, given the warmer weather ahead – the city should “absolutely” invest the funds and see the experiment through. But Estes also notes city commissioners don’t have to wait until September to discuss the efficacy of the restriping and whether the configuration is one the city wants to implement long-term.

“The whole thing is an experiment,” the mayor says. “Once you feel you have enough results, you can move forward with making a decision.” Though Soyring points out monitoring summer traffic is a crucial component of the test, Estes believes the city will “likely know by the first week of July how it’s working.”

Because a planned reconstruction of the corridor is not scheduled to take place until 2018 – the reason officials are testing lane stripings now – the city will need to invest funds at the end of the pilot project no matter what configuration is favored to lay down paint for the next three years. City leaders plan to review traffic data, in-field observations and resident feedback to determine how Eighth Street will ultimately be laid out.

Soyring says there are “strong camps” that both support and oppose the new markings. “We’ve certainly heard there are both pros and cons to it,” he says. Estes says he doesn’t "necessarily see a problem” with the new configuration personally, but “based on the feedback I’m getting, the majority are saying it’s not working.”

“It’s a combination of the restriping not being noticed because it’s wearing away, and the issue of people waiting in lines and cutting through the neighborhoods,” Estes says. “That’s what I’m hearing the most about."