HILLSDALE, Mich — The City of Hillsdale considers an overhaul of Broad Street to slow down traffic through downtown and add bike lanes. The proposal to reduce traffic lanes has sparked discussion among neighbors and business owners.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR DETAILS AND REACTIONS:
This is Broad Street. As its name suggests, it's four lanes of traffic with two more lanes of parking cutting right through the middle of Downtown Hillsdale. The City of Hillsdale and the Michigan Department of Transportation are now asking neighbors if Broad Street…should be a little less Broad.
"The semis treat the speed limit like it's a suggestion," says Cindy Bieszk, owner of Hillsdale Filling Station. "They go through here so fast that I had my window busted out from something bouncing off the truck because it hit a bump and it was going so fast."
Hillsdale Filling Station is a deli right here on Broad Street. Bieszk didn't want to appear on camera, but said she's in favor of a proposal to reduce it to two lanes plus a turn lane, adding bike lanes in each direction.
Bieszk says: "We were very lucky a customer wasn't sitting out front at the time when that happened, because they would have been dead. It needs to slow down."
Some businesses worry a lane reduction would make deliveries tricky. Others, like St. Joe's Cafe owner Joshua Mincio, would like things to be a bit calmer:
"Would be nice to just have things slower and quieter so that people could enjoy sitting outside....It's a little too fast."
So fast, says Mincio, he and his wife worry about getting out of their vehicle and crossing the street.
Opponents are calling the plan a waste of money that will increase congestion. Some were at Thursday's informational meeting at City Hall.
"It feels like they're doing this all over the state, and they're discussing statistics and data — research supposedly…we don't have all of that information to know," says Hillsdale neighbor Jill Hardway.
Michigan Department of Transportation and
City planning officials were promising increased safety and benefits for local businesses.
Hardway says she talked to businesses in Coldwater, which went through a similar "road diet".
"The business owners I spoke with were not happy with the project from the start to the finish," says Hardway.
If approved, most of the roughly $1 million price tag would be covered by state and federal funding. The City would chip in 20%.
City Council is set to consider the plan Monday.
