In June 2021, Ann Arbor finalized their Vision Zero plan, which aims to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from car crashes by 2025. From 2020 to 2021, the fatal and serious injuries resulting from crashes have been reduced by 15%. However, crashes still caused more than a dozen deaths and critical injuries on Ann Arbor roads in 2021. The Michigan Daily spoke with government officials, students and local activists to understand Ann Arbor’s efforts toward pedestrian safety.
In an email to The Michigan Daily, Raymond Hess, Ann Arbor transportation manager, wrote that the main cause of these fatal crashes is speeding. Studies show that at an impact speed of 20 mph, pedestrians have a 95% chance of survival. When impact speed increases to 40 mph, the chance of survival drops to 15%. Hess wrote that despite local governments’ limited jurisdiction to set speed limits, there are still many road design components the city can employ to reduce speeding.
“We are currently engaged in a multipronged approach to address speeds in Ann Arbor,” Hess wrote. “1) We review capital projects for opportunities to make improvements that can reduce speeds and/or provide better facilities for people who walk/use a wheelchair, bike, or take transit. 2) Absent a major capital project, we look for opportunities to implement quick build improvements. 3) The City is working on a Speed Management Program for Major Roads — this can be thought of as a traffic calming program for arterials and collectors. ”
Hess wrote that the metrics on current progress are still unavailable due to a normal delay in state data sharing and the city’s ongoing efforts to create a dashboard to visualize the progress.
In response to persisting pedestrian deaths and injuries, U-M students have taken action to foster discussions surrounding pedestrian safety and urban planning on campus. The Urbanism Club is a U-M student organization dedicated to informing the University and Ann Arbor communities about pedestrian safety and sustainable development. One of the club’s current objectives has been making the stretch of North University Avenue near the Central Campus Transit Center open for buses and emergency vehicles only. Engineering senior Shane Guenther, one of the co-presidents of the club, told The Daily he believes this would make the area safer for students and easier for buses to navigate.
“There’s no parking there (and) there (are) no destinations,” Guenther said. “The only reason for private cars to be going through is to get to the other side just as through-traffic … (prohibiting cars) is essentially a free way to speed up the bus system.”
Guenther elaborated further on how urban planning directly impacts the behavior of city residents.
“As we all know, the design and structures around you impact your behavior,” Guenther said. “They guide the behavior of people walking, of people driving. So it’s not just putting a lower speed limit on a road, it’s designing that road to be driven at a lower speed.”
Both Guenther and his co-president, LSA senior Hazel Magoon, believe the Ann Arbor City Council has the right idea surrounding efforts toward improving pedestrian safety, but must ensure they are executed correctly. Magoon said the Urbanism Club is working to support the council’s efforts however they can.
“We’re also working with the City Council to just help them in any way possible to improve the bike lanes around Ann Arbor,” Magoon said. “Whether that’s going to City Council meetings or just being a voice for students who can’t show up to these City Council meetings and express that it’s something that the students are really interested in, as well as trying to spread the word around campus that pedestrian safety, biking and transportation (are) important.”
Peter Houk, a Transportation Commission member and owner of the Facebook page Safe on Scio Church, said his advocacy work has yielded results, with the city agreeing to install a pedestrian refuge island in the center lane to discourage high-speed passing. Houk said he was generally satisfied with the city’s road diet plan along Scio Church Road, but he does not believe it addresses the fundamental problem that roads are often not designed to protect pedestrians.
“There are a few things that I disagree with,” Houk said. “What we don’t have in the plan is the right elements to break up this very long, very straight section of road. The nearest stop light from (the corner of Scio Church and South Seventh) is 4000 feet. This is really straight, really flat and really wide. This makes people want to go fast.”
Kirk Westphal, former City Council member and a member of Walk Bike Washtenaw, a non-profit advocating for pedestrian and cyclist safety in Washtenaw County, has been calling for lane-reductions along Huron Parkway since 2017. Westphal told The Daily his current advocacy is driven by concerns for the safety of his son, and the memory of a crash on Huron Parkway involving one of his neighbor’s children.
“The issue here on Huron Parkway is of particular relevance to me because I lived close to it,” Westphal said. “A neighbor’s child was hit while going to school, and now I have my own son who mostly goes to school by foot or by bike. So it is personal for me in this instance.”
Although the city’s maintenance plan for Huron Parkway at the end of last year included lane-narrowing in an attempt to increase pedestrian safety, Westphal said he was disappointed the plan didn’t include lane reduction and other safety-enhancing reconfigurations like roundabouts. He said he believed wide roads would inadvertently encourage speeding, and said in his personal experience he has continued to observe speeding near school zones despite previous changes. “Since I have moved here, they have implemented school zone speed reduction, and more recently, the flashing lights near crosswalks and speed feedback signs,” Westphal said. “However, it took me three minutes standing down the Parkway (to take) a photo of someone speeding down at 54 miles in a maximum 25 mph school zone … there just seems to be nothing advantageous to keep Huron Parkway as a four-lane route.”
In an email to The Daily, Hess wrote the city has not ruled out the possibility of future modifications along Huron Parkway.
“Huron Parkway is a preventative maintenance project, which is a project of a lesser magnitude than resurfacing,” Hess wrote. “It was not analyzed for a road reconfiguration or lane reduction at this time. But nothing precludes us from revisiting this topic in the future.”
Daily Staff Reporters Chen Lyu and Alexandra Vena can be reached at lyuch@umich.edu and alexvena@umich.edu.