Summary of the January 4, 2024 meeting of the Planning Commission for the City of Kalamazoo.
The City of Kalamazoo efforts to slow down the traffic have not all been popular and apparently not all of them have worked as hoped. Road engineer Dennis Randolph says their goal has been to increase safety. He says, turning four lane streets like Miller, Kilgore, and Portage Road into two lanes with turn lanes and bike path has worked. On three of the streets there has been nearly a 40% decrease in crashes on those streets. But the results along two other streets have not been that successful. One and a half years of data show a slight reduction in crashes, but a slight increase in severity or injuries. Again, we’ve got a decrease in crashes and maybe not a lot, but it’s certainly a decrease.” He says the reduction in speed has been only about one or two miles per hour for most of the things they have implemented. He hopes those numbers will improve in the coming years, but they realize that some of this is experimental and will be dependent on data and public input to make corrections when necessary.
