When Otsego eliminated one lane in either direction along M-89 through downtown last May, city officials hoped to make the area safer.
The changes extended curb “bumpouts” and left the outer-most lanes empty. That both shortened the distance needed to cross the highway at the crosswalks and also created a space between traffic and people entering and exiting parked cars.
The point was to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly, with an eye toward getting people down there shopping more.
City officials said the changes have gone mainly well, though some things need to be addressed.
Public works superintendent Mike Bosch said he didn’t think the amount of traffic had increased to where it was a problem.
“I don’t think I notice a massive change in the traffic,” he said. “It may seem like you aren’t getting through, but I rarely notice a difference. I’m down here all day long.
“The worst time is when school gets out and it was before, too.
Other than those 30 minutes or so, Bosch said, the intersection seems to be moving people through fine.
He said he thought the changes to parking made it feel much safer to park on M-89 downtown.
“The parking downtown, I do believe is much safer,” Bosch said. “That buffer zone, when you get out of your car, before you’d have people right next to you, often above posted speed.”
That matches what other community members have told him.
“I think the perception that it’s safer is there, both from people I talk to and from myself,” he said. “You can jump out and not feel like a car’s going to run you over.”
City manager Thad Beard said he’d definitely heard people express that idea about the parking.
“I’ve heard—this is unscientific—but people I’ve heard from have mainly commented on the parking, where they feel a perception of safety,” Beard said.
The biggest problem the city had hoped to solve with the changes—but hasn’t—is making pedestrians both feel safer when crossing M-89 and actually be safer.
“It’s not there yet,” Beard said.
The changes have made it better, he said, but not enough.
“Several people have commented to have a shorter distance to cross and they appreciate the peninsula of the bumpout,” Beard said. “We have, unfortunately, had several comments about drivers not yielding to pedestrians in the cross walk.”
Specifically, he said, there seems to be a problem of drivers who are heading south on Farmer Street to turn left on M-89 not seeing or just not yielding to pedestrians in the crosswalk.
“I don’t know if it’s because they’re going up a hill and then turning, or what the situation is,” Beard said. “Somehow you have to change the culture here, that if someone is in the rightaway you have to stop for them, not they have to yield for you.”
The city, he said, plans to discuss with the Michigan Department of Transportation and with Otsego Main Street strategies for how to improve this, but mainly the options are signage reminding drivers approaching the light to yield and sending police officers to sit there and strongly enforce it with tickets to violators.
Currently, the city is trying to figure out what the best signs to put are.
Beard said the downtown in general will be improved, he hopes, once MDOT restripes the whole area.
“Once we get the permanent striping down, we hope that will help to,” he said. “The temporary striping has faded and the old striping is showing through.
“They plan to do the permanent striping as part of their project.”
In business?
After a year of living with the changes, reactions at downtown businesses were largely negative.
Amish Oak Treasurers and More manager Vikki Grinnewald said Thursday, May 26, that the notion things were safer was “a joke.”
Grinnewald said people block the crosswalks with their cars all the time and drive over the curb bumpouts often.
“So pedestrians have to go either way out around or in back of them; so, that isn’t safe. It happens more often than you’d think,” she said. “I have a perfect view of it.” Amish Oak is at the southwest corner of M-89 and Farmer Street, amid the heart of the changes.
“I still cross the street and still almost get hit by people turning. As far as it being any safer? I don’t see it.”
Others agreed, commenting that the crosswalks were set too far back from the intersection.
Sherry Cunningham, owner of Suzie’s Dogs, said she’d seen many cars stop well past the crosswalk to see to turn on Farmer.
That’s besides those who don’t even bother with the crosswalk.
Charlie Kling, an assistant manager at Bob’s True Value Hardware, said, “I’d say 50 to 80 percent of people don’t use them.”
Employee Jessica Deemer said she’s seen more drivers run red lights and didn’t feel safe crossing, crosswalk or no.
Jody Morris, a waitress at Judy’s Restaurant, said she’d grown up in Otsego and had never felt scared to cross the street.
“Now I’m trying to dodge my way across. I think it should go back to the way it used to be,” she said.
Cunningham, who’s restaurant is at the east end of the downtown, said she’s noticed something else: drivers using the closed lane to pass vehicles that have stopped to turn left.
“It’s safer sometimes getting out of your car,” Cunningham said. “It just depends on when it is. If they don’t want to wait for you when you’re turning, they just whip over and drive past you. So, that is nerve wracking because we’ve got a lot of elderly people who come down here. They just get out and assume nobody’s going to be in that lane.”
Flower GallaRE owner Darcy Ennis acknowledged that some drivers using the closed lane to bypass cars stopped to turn, but she attributed that to impatience and not the design of the streets. She has long supported the project and believes it still has made the main strip safer.
“Just watch for pedestrians. People are so impatient it drives me nuts,” Ennis said. “But it is—it’s safer to exit your car. It’s safer to park.”
She said her customers occasionally bring it up, noting the safer parking.
Mezzo Coffee owner Sue Cramer said, “I can’t say that I’ve heard any complaints about the lane changes recently but it seems to me that people are having a much easier time crossing M-89.
“We have several customers who park on the opposite side of the road and walk over, and they have commented that it feels safer with the new crosswalks,” Cramer said.
Ennis also believes the traffic had slowed.
“I think it’s slowed the semis down. The windows don’t rattle the way they did,” she said.
Most others disagreed.
Among them, Grinnewald at Amish Oak said, “I don’t think it’s slowed people down; I think it’s actually sped people up.” She said sees drivers during the busy blocks of time attempt to not get caught in the red light for longer.
From his vantage point at the hardware store, Kling agreed; “They know there’s that delay,” he said.
The consensus among businesses The Union Enterprise spoke to was that the lane changes had not significantly impacted business.
Cunningham, at Suzie’s Dogs, was the exception. She said she had lost business because of the change.
“Those who were adamant about not wanting to wait did not come back,” she said.
Ultimately, she felt the project was unnecessary.
“I’ve lived here my whole life; it wasn’t unsafe before.” She would’ve preferred the city give the grant funds to another community that might have needed it.
M89 Sports Bar & Grill co-owner Linda Gladysz said there hadn’t really been a problem before the change and there hadn’t been much of an effect after the change.
“I cross the road every day,” Gladysz said. “If you look both ways like your parents taught you, you can probably make it across without getting run over by semis.”
Judy’s Restaurant owner Judy Witters thinks it’s been more detrimental. When the change was made, she said her customers all hated it. She said it was not too different now.
“They tell me it’s ridiculous,” Witters said. “We have traffic jams all the time.”
Ennis, at GalleRE, remains positive about the changes and even still holds out hope for reverse angle parking, an aspect of the project abandoned by the city in its early stages.
Ennis said, “I hope they do the reverse angle like they were thinking about. It’s genius; it would add more parking, which we still need.”
Contact Ryan Lewis at rmlewis@allegannews.com or (269) 673-5534.
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