01042436

Component

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The Village of Chelsea is a rapidly growing small community near the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The downtown section of the village has a quaint and charming atmosphere, with many small specialty shops, upscale retail establishments and a local historic district under consideration. This makes the downtown a popular trip destination. Michigan State Trunkline M-52 provides the only north-south route through the village resulting in severe congestion during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Within the next twenty years, traffic volumes along M-52 are anticipated to double, exceeding the capacity of the two-lane roadway. Widening of M-52 through the downtown is an undesirable alternative to residents of the village and the surrounding townships. The SmithGroup JJR/HNTB team was retained to develop a bypass route for relocating M-52 around the village (the Bypass). Public involvement was identified as an essential element of the project. This included creation of an Advisory Committee, public input at the committee meetings, press releases, and a public workshop. The paper will discuss the interaction between traffic analysis and public involvement and its influence on the corridor selection process. Traditional traffic engineering procedures (Highway Capacity Manual-HCM) were utilized to assess level of service along M-52, but did not accurately evaluate the interaction between the closely spaced traffic signals in the downtown area. To aid in the evaluation process, a corridor simulation model (CORSIM) was prepared. Unlike HCM, CORSIM takes into account signal to signal interaction, intersection storage distance, turning bay lengths, queue spillback, parking activity, and signal progression. CORSIM models were developed for the existing conditions, the No-Build Alternative, and a Bypass Alternative and were presented to the public at Advisory Committee meetings and at a public workshop. Although the overall project is not yet complete (it has been “on hiatus” for several months, while the contracting agency tries to resolve some political and financial issues), this paper will address the successful implementation of a public involvement strategy that was used in conveying traffic analysis results. “Next steps”, “do’s and don’ts”, and lessons learned from this unique transportation improvement evaluation project will also be included.

01042451

English

8p

2000

Seventh National Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities

CD-ROM

Afternoon; Bypasses; Central business districts; Highway capacity; Highway corridors; Highway traffic; Level of service; Morning; Peak hour traffic; Public participation; Spacing; Traffic congestion; Traffic engineering; Traffic signals; Traffic simulation; Traffic volume; Two lane highways

CORSIM (Traffic simulation model); Highway Capacity Manual

Small communities; Traffic analysis

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Society; I10: Economics and Administration; I71: Traffic Theory; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB

Feb 26 2007 5:32PM

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