Quote Originally Posted by Gistok View Post
There is a MAJOR reason that Michigan Ave is 4 lanes + turning lane + bike lanes on both sides + parking lanes on both sides.... Michigan is one of the major spoke roads radiating out from downtown... if you have all the other boxes checked [[parking + bike lanes + adequate width sidewalks)... why on earth would you want to turn the major spoke roads of Detroit into anything less? When there are freeway accidents, freeway bridge work or replacement... or just rush hour... these major spoke roads are important to continue the flow of traffic around the city. To turn them into middling 2 lane roads diminishes Detroit even further... especially since there's no other use for making these streets smaller.

Nothing says "pleasant experience" quite like being stuck for miles behind a slow moving 18 wheeler on a major 2 lane roadway without any opportunity to get past them!!

I'm no traffic engineer, but I reason Michigan Ave similar to Gratiot and other major roads have tons of excess capacity. When I can speed up Gratiot at 55-65 mph weaving through traffic during rush hour tells me the road is too damn wide.