Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

1. Eastbound I-696 between Bermuda Mohawk and Campbell Hilton, Royal Oak.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... 275081001/

More than 40% of fatal crashes occur on a highway, meaning almost 60% do not. I hate when reports are phrased that way, trying to say one thing when in fact the opposite occurs.

NB US-23 around the Washtenaw/Livingston County line where the temporary left lane ends sees its fair share of accidents. The last one I saw was a few weeks ago and all three lanes were stopped. A state police unit was trying to get to the crash scene with siren/lights going and was not going anywhere. Making a shoulder into a temporary lane is just plain stupid! MDOT is looking at doing this same design with I-96 between US-23/I-275 due to the "success" of US-23's.

In the Flint area, I-75 from Corunna Rd. (M-21) to the US-23, I-75 split.

Making a shoulder into a temporary lane is just plain stupid!

Agreed!!!

I'm trying to figure out what's worse:
- The toggle lane feature of US-23
- The roundabouts at the Green Oak Village Place exit off US-23.

Not surprised at all that Eastbound I-696 right before I-75 is on the list. Always see crashes there. Cars should not be permitted to enter from Bermuda; closing that entrance ramp would completely solve the problem.

Two other areas that drive me nuts include the Woodward Ave. exit ramp off westbound I-696 and the stretch of westbound I-696 either side of Southfield Rd. (The narrowing of the freeway from four lanes to three lanes creates a burdensome bottleneck that backs up every morning during rush hour.)

Oh, here's another one I hate - the left side merge onto the inbound Lodge Freeway from the westbound Davison. The problem isn't so much accidents...it's the fact the merging traffic creates tons of gridlock on the Lodge every single damn morning! Usually traffic crawls for three or more consecutive miles before the Davison interchange. As soon as you get past the merge, the Lodge usually opens right up.

I-94 from Ann Arbor-Saline Road and US-23 is a nightmare during rush hour.

The roundabouts at the Green Oak Village Place exit off US-23.

Oh don't let me get started with roundabouts...too late!!!

First of all I totally agree with you about the above-mentioned roundabouts. I have ended up going where I didn't want to go a couple of times on those!

Roundabouts should not be used where freeway ramps are part of the intersection. When the freeway is closed or backed up due to an accident, the traffic in the roundabout(s) is stopped. I've experienced this at North Territorial at US-23. I was on North Territorial and just wanted to cross US-23 when I couldn't get into the roundabout, thus, waiting for nearly 20 minutes until a kind driver let me in. Before the roundabouts was a pair of traffic lights with sensors to detect traffic (when no traffic the lights defaulted to green for North Territorial) and this was better/quicker even if I had to wait for 5 light changes to get through.

The City of Jackson is in love with these things to the point of their residential streets are falling apart due to the money spent on constructing roundabouts.

Too many close calls in multi-lane roundabouts. Those things must have been designed in India.

Most injuries happen in Jan and Feb? Must be related to first snow/icing events while many are still driving on bald tires, that finally wreck and are no longer on road.

Low profile tires are terrible! Buy a pair of winter tires on steel rims.

Huh, 80% in the Detrot area...

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:17 pm

- The roundabouts at the Green Oak Village Place exit off US-23.

The should eliminate the two next to each other and just make it one H*** roundabout. (edit: "h-u-g-e" is a bad word??)

The industry nickname for two roundabouts being placed near each other is called "dumbells". Probably for the designer.

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:17 pm

Making a shoulder into a temporary lane is just plain stupid!

Agreed!!!

I'm trying to figure out what's worse:
- The toggle lane feature of US-23
- The roundabouts at the Green Oak Village Place exit off US-23.

That isn't even the worst part of US-23. IMHO, the stretch on the east side of Ann Arbor (US-12 to M-14 east) is worse as I always seem to run into traffic on this part. That is one stretch of road I would tolerate a toll on it to go toward a complete upgrade of that stretch to three through lanes in each direction and a fourth lane between exits

Low profile tires are terrible! Buy a pair of winter tires on steel rims.

Low profile tires definitely shouldn't be on the road in winter driving conditions. Absolutely agree!

I've often pondered something about lane closures. What do you think about this?
Instead of having two lanes merge into each other, make an "Exit Only Lane" at the last, or the next major exit before the merge would of been, where many cars get off anyway.
Sign it up real good for a couple of miles that the Right Lane is going to be Exit Only.
Seems to me anyway that folks would get out of the lane and move over sooner, than if it was a traditional merge over thing.

Your thoughts.

Circle Seven wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 14, 2019 8:50 am

I've often pondered something about lane closures. What do you think about this?
Instead of having two lanes merge into each other, make an "Exit Only Lane" at the last, or the next major exit before the merge would of been, where many cars get off anyway.
Sign it up real good for a couple of miles that the Right Lane is going to be Exit Only.
Seems to me anyway that folks would get out of the lane and move over sooner, than if it was a traditional merge over thing.

Your thoughts.

I'd like to see it tried to see how it would work.

However, I think we'd have the same problem. Folks would see the open lane and use it to pass anybody they could before slamming on the brakes and cutting in at the end. There needs to be a hard law of "NO PASSING IN A MERGING LANE". This would also apply to those folks who are entering the expressway and try to pass as many cars before they merge in, then have to quickly slow down, causing everyone to have to brake hard, instead of merging in appropriately.