michigan avenue rehabilitation – Capital City Sidewalks

Sidewalk-adjacent news: they have started clearing trees away for the “Michigan Avenue Rehabilitation” project, which is supposed to improve the Michigan Avenue corridor from Pennsylvania to 127 – in other words, the length of the east side – for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Fans of the blog know I’m inclined toward anything that improves sidewalks. I’m also in favor of bicycle lanes, especially when they mean cyclists won’t be risking collisions with pedestrians on the sidewalk. I get why they ride on the sidewalk, and when I rode my bike I would ride on the sidewalk on Michigan too since the alternative is worse, but I’d still rather not have them scare me by blowing past my shoulder inches away (often without warning as they should).

The trouble is that I’m also generally opposed to anything that involves removing mature trees. The honey locust trees on this stretch are pretty, making for nice shade and pleasant colors. They stand in dedicated little holes in the sidewalk that I’ve always found a bit fascinating. According to the official phasing map, the city is going to replace them one to one – actually better than one to one in some blocks – but a tree that has already had decades to grow is always better than a new planting. I wish they had tried harder to work around them, at least keeping the ones that could be kept.

Most Lansing residents have probably heard about the upcoming construction project on East Michigan Avenue, which the city is calling “Michigan Avenue Rehabilitation.” It has already caused the usual freakout because it will involve reducing traffic lanes from five to four in order to make room for protected bike lanes on either side of the street. I’m heartily in favor of it: as a frequent pedestrian I have been startled too often by bicycles barreling past my shoulder, but I also understand why they would choose to ride on the sidewalk when the alternative is riding in the traffic lanes on Michigan Avenue. A separate bike lane keeps both bicycles and pedestrians safer.

The project will stretch from Pennsylvania Avenue to Clippert Street. In addition to the traffic lane reduction, it will include “sidewalk replacement, traffic signal modernization, and upgrades to utilities such as sewer and water main work.” I believe this will mean entirely new sidewalk, so go see all the older contractor stamps while you still can. (Alas, we’ll never know what that -oleum stamp was.) According to the diagrams the city has provided, the new sidewalk will be seven feet across on both sides of the road, which I think is wider than most of the sidewalk in that area is at present. (Also, the above diagram is not to scale, since the new bike lane will actually be narrower than the sidewalk, not larger as it appears in the picture.) Details on the sidewalk configuration and the trees that will be planted between the bike lane and the road – sadly, I assume the current street trees will end up cut down – can be seen starting on page 30 of the full design plan.

More on this, as they say, as it comes to pass.