Michigan Avenue in Detroit's Corktown to undergo $50 million overhaul

This will be great for improving Michigan Ave between Downtown and Corktown. Although I do wish that long term light rail is added.


Michigan Avenue in Detroit's Corktown to undergo $50 million overhaul
https://s3-prod.crainsdetroit.com/s3...corridor_i.jpg

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The project, scheduled to start in 2024, is intended to tie into Ford Motor Co.'s renovation of Michigan Central Station, the nation's first wireless EV-charging road and the broader vision of creating a "connected corridor" from Detroit to Ann Arbor.


The Detroit Mobility and Innovation Corridor will include:

• Expanded sidewalks and pedestrian amenities such as seating, lighting and street trees

• Raised bike lanes at sidewalk level for areas with existing lanes, new dedicated and buffered bike lanes downtown and bike racks

• Two center-running dedicated lanes for transit vehicles and for connected and autonomous vehicles, with transit signal priority to limit waiting time

• Concrete transit islands and new shelters with improved amenities

• Additional/enhanced mid-block pedestrian crossings with improved markings and islands

• New signalized intersections

The red brick drag at the heart of Corktown, beloved for its historical value but bemoaned by motorists for its poor condition, will be replaced by new red concrete pavers while the old brick "will be carefully removed, restored, and reincorporated into other aspects of the roadway's design," according to the RAISE grant application.

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https://www.crainsdetroit.com/infras...llion-overhaul

This is the transformation Michigan Ave needs. We'll see how the dedicated lanes pan out [[I'm skeptical), but overall this is fantastic project that will really change how pedestrians experience Corktown.

If only Woodward would have followed a similar model when it was reconstructed a few years back for the Q Line, as it's still relatively inhospitable to pedestrians. And with I-75 running parallel a few blocks over, it is not used heavily by through traffic. Ditto for Michigan, which also runs parallel to 75.

Urban neighbourhoods need to be friendly to walking and offer a range of transportation options. They ought to be destinations rather than places to drive through at high speeds.

So soon. It's only been crumbling for 50 years.:)

So, they're just going to block it all off and make it unusable cutting off a major traffic artery and probably cause a lot of accidents.

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Originally Posted by Meddle

So, they're just going to block it all off and make it unusable cutting off a major traffic artery and probably cause a lot of accidents.

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Or lose business because people from the surrounding areas won't want to deal with the hassle.

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Originally Posted by Meddle

So, they're just going to block it all off and make it unusable cutting off a major traffic artery and probably cause a lot of accidents.

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The proposal is hardly to “block it all off;” that’s a ridiculous comment. These big ugly overly wide arteries were designed for much more traffic than they current carry. This seems like a great improvement for a new era.

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Originally Posted by DetroiterOnTheWestCoast

The proposal is hardly to “block it all off;” that’s a ridiculous comment. These big ugly overly wide arteries were designed for much more traffic than they current carry. This seems like a great improvement for a new era.

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Bicycle over from Palm Springs and get yourself one of those $16 lattes.

We have seen problems with islands and the like.

Recall that fiasco of Livernois and Seven mile that had to be completely revised.

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Originally Posted by Zacha341

We have seen problems with islands and the like.

Recall that fiasco of Livernois and Seven mile that had to be completely revised.

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Recall the fiasco of Conner between Jefferson and I-94 that had to be completely revised.

^ For sure HT. I worked in that area. It was quite dodge-em drive with the Chrysler/ Fiat or whatever car haulers weaving in and out and about.

I'd rather see plain asphalt instead of fake red brick for those lanes.

^^^ I don't care about the brick ... can add character if done properly. But give me two travel and one parking lane each way with a center left turn lane like normal American roadways, not these Euro abortions.

The middle lanes look to just be painted red, as they are transit only. Same thing they did with the lane in front of LCA. Big missed opp to not add in rail to this corridor at this point though.

I'm glad so many cities in the US are realizing that the 20th century "American" form of development leads to low quality of life and is totally unsustainable. Design roads for people, not cars, and get rid of stroads whenever possible.

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Originally Posted by K-slice

Big missed opp to not add in rail to this corridor at this point though.

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agreed, it pains me to see that every time there's a big opportunity to expand the rail system to add coverage where people actually live and could use to commute, it's a project being overseen by MDOT, who have proven to be incredibly opaque and seem to operate under a vested interest in quelling non-car modes of transportation. every time i write to them, they deflect to republican state house reps, and when i write them, they deflect back to MDOT. it's infuriating.