City Seeks More Information Before State Street Decision

Traverse City commissioners voted Tuesday to have staff bring back information and costs on both converting State Street permanently to two-way traffic or reverting it back to a one-way configuration. Either option will require engineering changes with costs attached to them. A new complete streets advisory committee is also expected to weigh in on the design, with City Manager Benjamin Marentette estimating the topic will return for commission discussion in June.

Commissioners Tuesday discussed whether to permanently convert State Street, Pine Street, and Boardman Avenue to two-way traffic after three years of studying the configuration as a pilot project. The Traverse City Downtown Development Authority board unanimously supported keeping the corridor two-way after consulting firm Progressive Companies said the conversion has slowed traffic, increased utilization on State Street (based on parking revenues), and reduced the number of accidents involving cyclists/pedestrians. The firm said the change was also supported by a majority of businesses along State Street.

The city hired a separate external traffic engineering firm, Wade Trim, to analyze the pilot data from Progressive Companies. Wade Trim also recommended keeping State Street two-way from both a "traffic and safety standpoint." While multiple commissioners said they agreed with that assessment and wanted to make a data-driven decision about the corridor, others felt there was public dissatisfaction with the two-way design and an experiential aspect that was being overlooked in the data analysis.

City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht noted there are costs associated both with keeping State Street two-way - which will require long-term modifications, such as adjusting signalized intersections where backups are now occuring on Cass and Union - or in reverting it back to one-way. Bumpouts, lane striping, and parking deck entrance configurations are just some of the changes that have been made for the two-way design that would have to be converted if the corridor went back to one-way.

"Either way, the commission really needs to decide how they're going to authorize money to make either option happen," Trible-Laucht said. In response to commission questions, Trible-Laucht acknowledged the city could have potential liability in ignoring the safety recommendation of a traffic expert - which is "out there in the public" now - if the city went back to a one-way design and some type of incident occurred.

Commissioners were presented with a recommended motion from staff Tuesday to direct the city manager to return with traffic control orders they would adopt to make State Street two-way permanently, along with recommendations on improvements to be made as part of the conversion. However, commissioners modified that motion to also ask staff to bring back options for going back to one-way, including costs, with the intention of weighing both scenarios.

Since the city recently adopted a new complete streets policy that calls for the creation of a complete streets committee that will review city projects - with that committee likely meeting for the first time in April - Marentette said he will also have that group look at the options and make a recommendation to commissioners. That committee is only advisory, so commissioners will have the final say over State Street's design.

Marentette estimated options will be brought back to commissioners for consideration in June. He pointed out that any design changes will still have to go through engineering, regardless of which route the city selects. Therefore, there "might not be any real changes on the ground until next year," he said. "I just want to be clear on that, just so everyone's expectations are respectfully realistic."