Michigan Avenue will lose a lane

DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Right now, Michigan Avenue runs two lanes in each direction between Creyts Road and Dibble Street.

Delta Township wants to combine two of those traffic lanes and turn them into a middle turn lane, so they can add a bike lane in each direction.

Township Manager Brian Reed says it will make the road safer while also making Lansing more accessible.

"It's been in our non-motorized plan since 2012 to include bike lanes on Michigan Avenue," said Reed. "We recently added bike lanes on Willow Highway and Old Lansing Road. Michigan Avenue is a third thoroughfare with bike lanes where people can get into Lansing and use it for either recreation or transportation."

You might think reducing a road from four lanes to three would make traffic slower.

The township decided to take a closer look.

"Any time you do a road change like that you do a pretty comprehensive road study...so that's what we did," said Reed.

The study showed removing two traffic lanes and adding a left-turn lane would actually help during periods of heavy traffic.

"It would calm traffic, make the area more safe and provide some non-motorized facilities on Michigan Avenue," said Reed.

A safer road with bike lanes is a perfect combination for a school zone.

"School safety is really important to us," said Reed. "Waverly has a lot of schools in that area...I feel like calming traffic through the school zone...we think it'll make that safer."

There will be a public information meeting about the project Wednesday night at the Delta Township Public Library at 6 p.m.

The project is expected to take place in the spring and summer of 2021.

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