Comments on: Commissioners Discuss County Road Tax

By: Ellis Freatman

Ellis Freatman — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:33:04 +0000

Ironically,the cost of the millage may be less than the car repairs necessitated by the poor condition of the roads. It may be our last best hope for some meaningful repairs to badly neglected roads.

By: Karen Hart

Karen Hart — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:45:00 +0000

Re: road millage, it's a good idea as long as the cities don't have to pay for it (at least, those without Road Commission-maintained roads within them). Otherwise, it's not fair to city taxpayers. Too bad road maintenance can't be paid for by a vehicle-miles-driven fee or tax. Re: closing Monroe Street, it's poor policy from an urban planning standpoint. Making it easy for both pedestrians, bikes and vehicles to move through campus minimizes congestion and keeps campus and city integrated. The city absolutely should NOT close it. Maybe this is an opportunity for the city and UM to collaborate on creating Ann Arbor's first woonerf (a shared use street invented by the Dutch).

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:40:37 +0000

Re: turner and pat russell’s comments on Grove Road

Can you confirm this is the general vicinity? [link to GoogMap street view] This is the road that goes along the north shore of Ford Lake. I noticed from the GoogMaps imagry there’s a bike lane marked on it.

Not sure from what era that streetview photography dates, but I’d guess it’s a couple years old at least; and the pavement has probably deteriorated since then.

By: turner

turner — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:23:24 +0000

ditto on grove road. please fix it before my teeth rattle out of my head.

By: pat russell

pat russell — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:06:41 +0000

I live in Ypsilanti Township and drive across Grove Road everyday. If anyone needs to question the need for road repairs, just drive down Grove Road at I-94. Case closed. If this is the only way to fix Grove Road I’ll pay the millage.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:03:03 +0000

Dave (Askins), one of your best contributions is drawing lines between dots where the rest of us didn’t see a connection – what an intriguing point!

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:58:57 +0000

One of the options sketched out for higher capacity transit in the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority’s countywide transit master plan is “bus rapid transit” (BRT), which can include among other things, longer, articulated buses, plus additional road infrastructure (extra lanes and whatnot) at intersections to allow for buses to leap-frog over (queue jumping) regular passenger vehicles.

So I wonder if those kind of road improvements associated with BRT would be eligible for funding by the road commission through Public Act 283. And I wonder if the road commission had any conversations with AATA on this subject in developing the road improvement plan.

But my sense is that for this year at least, any idea of bus rapid transit is still too much in the notional stage to incorporate it into a road improvement plan.

By: christoper roderick

christoper roderick — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:32:26 +0000

Finally someone is looking out for the roads. I drive this county as a contractor and I swear that I have spent hundreds of dollars repairing my small fleet due to defective roads over the last few years. If takes a tax to fix the roads I’ll live with it because in the long run I save money. Let’s get it done now!

By: Bob Martel

Bob Martel — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 23:27:16 +0000

0.6 mills to save our roads? Do it!

By: Jim Rees

Jim Rees — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:31:26 +0000

Ann Arbor-Saline Road used to be a great way to bicycle to Saline until some time in the 1980s when it was converted to motor vehicle use only. Would the new Complete Streets law require the City to restore bicycle access in this corridor?