Temporary Street Improvements Popping Up in Chelsea this September

/

Pedestrian and bicycle improvements will be popping up along streets in Chelsea starting late August and lasting until the end of September thanks to Chelsea POP, a 30-day demonstration project. The project coordinators held four different virtual engagement meetings during the month of July, those presentations are available on the project website at miwats.org/chelseapop. We presented the final design concepts for Chelsea POP at a virtual public engagement meeting on July 16. Now that the designs have been decided I am excited to have the public interact with them and get their feedback.  The final designs were informed by project surveys collected from the public and from discussions with city leaders.

Dewey Street 

76% of survey respondents supported striping on-street parking along Dewey St.

1.JPG
2.JPG

  1. Curb extensions painted at Main St. and McKinley St.

  2. Stop bars widened

  3. Crosswalks accentuated with Chelsea School District colors

  4. Stripe on-street parking

There are numerous benefits to these treatments including notifying drivers that they are entering a residential area, visually narrowing  travel lanes to slow traffic coming from M-52, and drawing additional attention to existing pedestrian walkways.

McKinley Street

94% of survey respondents supported testing a bicycle treatment along McKinley St.

3.JPG
4.JPG

  1. Curb extensions painted at Dewey St and Railroad St.

  2. Shared road markings or sharrows added with green spot treatments

  3. Crosswalks accentuated with Chelsea School District colors

  4. Stop bars widened

Similarly to Dewey St., there are benefits that will be implemented along McKinley St. such as reinforcing drivers entering a residential area, visually narrowing travel lanes to slow traffic coming from M-52, and drawing attention to existing pedestrian walkways. One unique feature will be the sharrows along the roadway. This will help reinforce bikes right to the road, green paint treatments notify drivers of the potential conflict area. An additional benefit to using sharrows on this roadway, is that it maintains the existing on-street parking for the residents.

Railroad Street

5.JPG
6.JPG

Given the narrow roadway width along Railroad St., the use of sharrows along with enhanced crosswalks are the treatment options that would be most appropriate for this section along the corridor.

Freer Road

73% of survey respondents supported adding bike lanes and removing on-street parking along Freer Rd.

9.JPG
10.JPG

  1. Enhanced crosswalks at existing crosswalks

  2. Green paint spot treatments near conflict zones 

  3. 4-foot bike lanes with the use of green paint near intersections

  4. Transitioning from bike lanes to sharrows near Trinkle Rd.

  5. Removing on-street parking

There has been strong support from City leaders and the general public for this type of project. The project partners are excited to have the project on the ground in September for 30 days.

The Chelsea POP project is a 30-day demonstration project that will be deployed in the month of September along Freer Rd., Railroad St., McKinley St. and Dewey St. Project partners include the City of Chelsea, Washtenaw Area Transportation Study (WATS) and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System.  More information can be found at the project website at miwats.org/chelseapop.