LANSING, Mich. — Oakland Avenue is one of Lansing's most traveled roads. It's also the road where drivers are most likely to be stopped. And it's not even close.
Roughly one of out every five traffic stops in the city between 2016 and early 2020 happened on Oakland Avenue, according to data from the Lansing Police Department.
More than 5,100 stops, to be precise. The road with the next highest number was Cedar Street, with just over 1,700.
Lansing police Sgt. Donald Porter say there's one violation his traffic unit stops drivers for over and over on Oakland Avenue: speeding.
"People tend to get a little carried away with their speeds and don’t pay attention to the speed limit and then the next thing you know, they’re going 15, 20, sometimes 25 miles over the speed limit," he said.
In 2019, a man was killed on Oakland Avenue after his car went airborne and hit a tree. Police believe speed was a factor in the crash.
Edward Scott opened Team Motor Group, an auto repair shop, on Oakland Avenue last year. He said he's already lost count of how many accidents he's seen happen on the road.
“A lot of people come down Oakland, they can’t stop for whatever reason, try to run the stoplight, and then crash," he said.
Scott said the constant speeding on Oakland makes him worry about the residents who live in nearby neighborhoods.
“You got a lot of kids that are in this area, so there’s always a concern that somebody could get hit," he said.
Even a pandemic didn't slow drivers down.
“The pandemic did create an increase overall in the city as far as receiving complaints from various neighborhoods," Porter said.
The address the uptick in traffic complaints across Lansing, Mayor Andy Schor launched Operation Slowdown in September. The hope was that the city-wide initiative would discourage reckless driving and speeding.
“With Oakland Avenue being a major artery through the city of Lansing, it gets enforced periodically just to keep those issues under control,” Porter said.
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