Smarter Heads Have Prevailed When It Comes to the Pedestian Crossing at the Tunnel

**royce** · August-22-14, 02:43 AM

Many of you may not have noticed but you can "legally" cross the street at Jefferson and Randolph, which is the entrance to the Tunnel to Canada. A few years back when they finished removing the berms from in front of the RenCen, someone decided pedestrians were"prohibited" from crossing at that intersection. They wanted pedestrians to cross at the Brush Street crossing to the north side of Jefferson, go west along that path, and then cross Jefferson on the west side of Randolph to get back to the south side of Jefferson. Yeah, like that was going to happen when for years people have been crossing at the Tunnel intersection.

Well, perhaps someone in Washington DC overruled this "ludicrous prohibition" when it was decided that the sidewalk at the Tunnel intersection had to be ADA compliant. The "pedestrians prohibited" sign is no longer up and people can freely cross at the Tunnel intersection, like the sign really ever stopped them before. Man, some folks can come up with some crazy stuff sometimes. Talking about crazy stuff, that sidewalk along Jefferson from the Tunnel entrance to Bates is ridiculously narrow. Another brilliant idea from city fathers/mothers. That situation also needs to be rectified but that discussion is for another thread.

**dtowncitylover** · August-22-14, 08:13 AM

Huh, didn't know there was a No Crossing sign

And I don't think the narrow sidewalk needs another thread, I'll second that comment about it being too narrow. But I guess they were thinking there weren't going to be hoards of crowds walking between the tunnel entrance and Bates so there wasn't a concern.

Also, when I was coming back from Ontario last Saturday there was a homeless man in the middle of the turn lanes begging for money. I try to respect the homeless, but can't the border patrol or police do something about that?

Perhaps this should be the "Tunnel Logistics" thread.

**Jimaz** · August-22-14, 08:27 AM

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

Huh, didn't know there was a No Crossing sign....

I found it hard to believe so I looked it up in Google Street View: Pedestrians Prohibited. You can barely read the white signs there.

What possible reason was there to ban crossing there?

**dtowncitylover** · August-22-14, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

I found it hard to believe so I looked it up in Google Street View: Pedestrians Prohibited. You can barely read the white signs there.

What possible reason was there to ban crossing there?

Ohhhh I see...I sign can only do so much and with a pseudo-island there too most people just figure, why not? Should've built a fence or something if you really didn't want people crossing.

**Mackinaw** · August-22-14, 09:09 AM

Hah, yeah, I ignored that sign. Glad it's gone, and I would like to see wider sidewalks there too. The Bates St. area needs a ton of attention.

**DetroitPlanner** · August-22-14, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by royce

Many of you may not have noticed but you can "legally" cross the street at Jefferson and Randolph, which is the entrance to the Tunnel to Canada. A few years back when they finished removing the berms from in front of the RenCen, someone decided pedestrians were"prohibited" from crossing at that intersection. They wanted pedestrians to cross at the Brush Street crossing to the north side of Jefferson, go west along that path, and then cross Jefferson on the west side of Randolph to get back to the south side of Jefferson. Yeah, like that was going to happen when for years people have been crossing at the Tunnel intersection.

Well, perhaps someone in Washington DC overruled this "ludicrous prohibition" when it was decided that the sidewalk at the Tunnel intersection had to be ADA compliant. The "pedestrians prohibited" sign is no longer up and people can freely cross at the Tunnel intersection, like the sign really ever stopped them before. Man, some folks can come up with some crazy stuff sometimes. Talking about crazy stuff, that sidewalk along Jefferson from the Tunnel entrance to Bates is ridiculously narrow. Another brilliant idea from city fathers/mothers. That situation also needs to be rectified but that discussion is for another thread.

The reason for this prohibition was because the sidewalk in front of Mariner's Church was no longer ADA compliant and not very safe for non-ADA users to boot. The plan at the time was to build a pedestrian bridge behind the Church to the Ren-Cen, but that was cost prohibitive as well once the engineering began.

How are they [[the City/MDOT) going to make this segment of sidewalk ADA compliant given all of the constraints? I am not aware of a project here.

**Bigb23** · August-22-14, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by Jimaz

I found it hard to believe so I looked it up in Google Street View: Pedestrians Prohibited. You can barely read the white signs there.

What possible reason was there to ban crossing there?

I can see why Google street view would blur out personal identity info, but why spend the time to blur out the headlights on the Hundai/Honda mini van turning right onto Jefferson?
Can anybody explain this?

**Király** · August-22-14, 11:09 PM

The blurring isn't done by a human, but by software that detects and blurs out things that look like faces and license plates. The sensitivity seems turned up so high that it blurs quite a lot of stuff that wouldn't need it. But sometimes it misses too.

**Scottathew** · August-23-14, 07:57 AM

I crossed there quite a few times, with a stroller too! I never noticed the signs. I think it's pretty silly to "prohibit" pedestrians.

**EastsideAl** · August-23-14, 03:23 PM

Pedestrians were prohibited there because that had become a very dangerous crossing with all of the traffic turning into the tunnel, etc., especially a few years back. In order to try to speed up traffic going into the tunnel, and to save themselves from any liability exposure for pedestrians getting smacked there, the city just made it illegal for people to cross - even though it was clearly stupid, and people were going to cross anyway. But if anyone got hit, the city could just say that they were violating the law by crossing there. With the somewhat diminished border crossing traffic I think this has become a bit less of a problem.

As for the sidewalk on Jefferson, it was never intended for people to walk next to the street on the portion between Bates [[the old Ford Auditorium site) and Mariners Church. Pedestrians are actually supposed to walk on the wide inner walkway behind the grassy berm. The part directly in front of Mariners Church they can't do much about though. After all, when the church was moved there and the tower was erected Jefferson was not as wide as it is now, and that sidewalk led into a sparsely traveled industrial area.

**royce** · August-24-14, 04:49 AM

Some additional history about the narrow sidewalk. Just before 9-11 the city had discontinued the Washington Blvd Trolley and had taken up the tracks. In their place the city added an extra turn lane on Jefferson to handle tunnel traffic. What they failed to do was eliminate or move back the brick wall next to the sidewalk that's part of the Mariner's Church walkway. As a result, you have this sidewalk that two people can barely walk side by side. I know three can't. And when you pass a street light it really gets tight. This issue should have been addressed years ago.