There’s been much buzz this year about the impending redesign of Grandview Parkway, and of the potential for a more pedestrian-friendly layout for one of Traverse City’s busiest thoroughfares. But what about the other side of town, where thousands of cars per day cruise through Acme and East Bay townships traveling 45 miles per hour, and where pedestrian crossings are few and far between?

According to officials at both state and local levels, talks are underway about how US-31 North might be revamped to create a safer roadway for all. Compared to the very public Grandview Parkway discussions, those talks have so far been hushed and have mostly taken place behind closed doors. But change is coming to that part of town sooner rather than later, with potential outcomes ranging from HAWK signals to a brand-new pedestrian bridge.

East Bay Charter Township Supervisor Beth Friend says the US-31 corridor is a regular topic of conversation at township offices, particularly the key stretch between Three Mile and Four Mile roads. The approximately 1.1 miles of road between those two intersections, Friend notes, is something of a perfect storm for traffic challenges, housing multiple restaurants, a campground, a beach, a mini golf course, a car wash, and more than a dozen hotels. The road also sees big traffic each day, given its status as one of the main gateways to the Traverse City area. Grand Traverse County Road Commission traffic count data shows that approximately 50,000 cars traversed the thoroughfare on August 2, 2000 – a figure which obviously doesn’t take into account 22 years of growth for Traverse City as a population epicenter and travel destination. Finally, there are no traffic lights or stops between Three Mile and Four Mile, and only one pedestrian crossing: an over-the-road bridge that Friend says has its own issues – namely, that it’s old and not ADA accessible.

“There’s definitely a lot of activity in that area,” Friend acknowledges. “And then there are also some properties that are being redeveloped along that corridor, and with redevelopment will come added intensity – especially because some of those redeveloped properties are going to be hotels. So there are a lot of opportunities there, and a lot of challenges too. But because it is a state trunkline, it’s under the control of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and that means that things like lighting, or pedestrian crossings, or speed limits, those aren’t under our purview.”

For its part, MDOT is aware of the challenges of the corridor – especially in the summer, when hotels fill up and pedestrian activity skyrockets.

“In 2015, we had a pretty major project between Holiday Road and Three Mile Road to rebuild the pavement,” notes James Lake, a communications representative for MDOT’s northern Michigan region. “One of the things we did as part of that project was interconnect all of the broken links in the sidewalk in that stretch, and that was done intentionally to help make it more convenient for pedestrians to use the sidewalk to reach one of those signalized crossings [at Three Mile or Four Mile] or the pedestrian overpass bridge. But some people – visitors primarily, it seems – rather than walk to a signalized crossing or the pedestrian overpass, will choose to pick a gap in cars and run across five lanes of traffic. And that’s not a safe activity.”

This summer, posters on local social media pages like the Facebook-based Overheard in Traverse City group, have reported multiple close calls where individuals or families crossing US-31 in non-crosswalk areas nearly caused accidents. In 2015, a 71-year-old pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and killed while trying to cross the highway near Four Mile. Friend, who regularly drives that stretch to get to work, notes that she routinely sees pedestrians attempting unsafe crossings.

In Lake’s estimation, the problem is that the existing crossings on US-31 are either not convenient enough for pedestrians or are so far away from certain hotels or attractions that visitors don’t realize they’re there. MDOT is currently working with East Bay Township and other stakeholders to find the best solution, but Lake notes that solving the problem is easier said than done.

“It’s not as simple as painting a crosswalk and putting up a few signs,” Lake tells The Ticker. “Paint and signs won’t protect pedestrians. We can’t count on all drivers observing a crosswalk or a pedestrian in the crosswalk, and we don’t want to give anyone a false sense of security that might end in a tragedy. So we’ve been working, both internally and with the community, to try to figure out a way that we can make crossing in that Three Mile to Four Mile stretch safer and more convenient.”

The person leading that effort is Jessica Carpenter, a traffic and safety engineer in MDOT’s Traverse City office. She says there are two main strategies MDOT could utilize to address the crossing issues on US-31. The first is to install a HAWK signal somewhere between Three Mile and Four Mile. HAWK (which stands for “high-intensity activated crosswalk”) is the same pedestrian-activated crosswalk technology that MDOT utilized to add crossings along Grandview Parkway in 2019. The other option is to build a second pedestrian bridge.

Both options have their challenges. For one thing, the number of driveways along the corridor makes positioning crossings difficult. “Pretty much any location that we would put [a HAWK crossing], we would have to have cooperation from the adjacent business, because we would have to restrict turning movements,” Carpenter explains. A pedestrian bridge adds an even bigger hurdle, given that any project of that ilk would come with “a massive footprint and a massive price tag.” Notably, because any new bridge would have to be ADA-compliant, it would need to incorporate a ramp or elevator design rather than stairs, which would likely mean significantly larger roadside components than what exists at the current pedestrian bridge.

Carpenter sees the HAWK crossing as the more “attainable solution,” and says she’s currently spearheading an “unconventional” study to track pedestrian activity along the corridor. Normally, when considering a new crossing, MDOT zeroes in on a specific point and then collects data relating to that potential crossing location. For this study, Carpenter says MDOT will “look more broadly at that whole corridor,” to flag not just the spots where people are running across the road, but also instances where pedestrians go out of their way to use existing crossings. “We’re not just counting the people who are feeling extra brave and sprinting across the road,” Carpenter says. “We also understand there are people who do take the long way around to use the safe crossings, and who would probably use a midblock crossing if it was available to them.” Tracking all that activity will ultimately tell MDOT where a crossing would have the biggest impact.

There is no exact timeline for when MDOT might bring a new HAWK crossing to US-31, but the corridor will see some construction later this year – albeit, in a different section. Lake confirms that MDOT is set to execute a project previously reported by The Ticker that will add a new median island on US-31. The island will stretch “from 2,600 feet north of Holiday Road to just north of Five Mile Road,” Lake says, and “is primarily aimed at preventing crossover crashes with vehicles.” Work is slated to start on September 6 and finish “by mid-November.”