Cycled through the 3-roundabout series unscathed – cars seem to be yielding, merging about as smoothly as could be hoped. Noticed three downed light poles and a missing bulb fixture, however. [photo1] [photo2] [photo3] [photo4]
N. Maple & M-14
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Keep your head on a swivel and don’t be overly confident in drivers’ attention and abilities as you ride about town. Are there police reports for the damaged light poles?
Re: [1] police reports
I have a call in to city traffic engineering to see if they can shed some light on it. In any case, poles appear to be made of some carbon fiber type material, not metal.
Many of these lights have been down since Skyline opened (and the circles were new). Kids walking (or driving/biking) to school along Maple have to navigate these traffic circles and freeway ramps with substantially reduced lighting in the early morning hours and have had to do so for over three years now. I was told by a city council member a long time ago that this was the Washtenaw County Road Commission’s responsibility.
And I am interested in knowing who is responsible for maintaining the sidewalks between the first two roundabouts (coming from Miller)–the ones that go under M-14. Last winter there was a lot of snow that wasn’t cleared and kids were wading through that for weeks (or more often, walking in the streets because they were impassable). Who is responsible for clearing those?
Yeah, those light poles have been down for a long time.
I drive those roundabouts often, with a daughter at Skyline, and they work very well, except that some drivers seem to be rather timid about going through–but better timid than too bold.
There has been at least one light pole down since those roundabouts were constructed
Brent Schlack of the Washtenaw County Road Commission returned my call and provided some context. The two roundabouts near the entrance ramps to M-14 are handled by WCRC through an agreement with MDOT. The third one, closest to Skyline High School, is county land.
The poles are down due to collisions, not structural defect of the poles. The placement of the poles is currently being redesigned – the idea is that if motorists are crashing into them, their placement could be improved. Moving the location back further from the roadway, in turn, might require a different lighting requirement for the lamp.
The locational redesign and specification of the new poles is expected by January 2012. From the point of ordering new poles, 8-10 weeks will be required for them to arrive. From that point, the installation could be delayed by poor weather.
So then is the WCRC responsible for the sidewalks between the roundabouts as well?
No lights with high schoolers bicycling and walking to school crossing traffic headed to or from the expressway sounds very dangerous. Wonder if there could be temporary light fixtures until permanent lights are reset.
Re: “Who is responsible for clearing [the sidewalks near the roundabouts].”
I spoke with Jim Harmon of the Washtenaw County Road Commission, who was able to explain who is not responsible: WCRC and MDOT. Harmon described communication between AAPS and WCRC on the topic in the form of the attendance of Skyline High School’s principal at a WCRC board meeting. However, WCRC doesn’t take on work like that, at least partly because it’s not resourced with the kind of equipment it takes to do that efficiently – rotating brooms and such.
So from a legal standpoint, responsibility will most likely fall to the local municipalities – either city of Ann Arbor or Ann Arbor Township.
Dave, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the way you can find out this kind of information and get it back to us. As a private citizen, it’s hard sometimes to know where to start. Thanks for doing this.
Boggled that snow removal is still an issue. I used to live in the neighborhood north of Skyline and was contacting the City and WCRC *3* years ago to try to get someone to clear the walks. After heavy snows people, including kids going to school, were actually walking *in* the roundabouts. Oh, yeah, the roundabouts are also terminus points for freeway entrance/exit ramps – what could possibly go wrong?
If that’s not bad enough, the county did (does?) a poor job of clearing the actual roundabouts. Sections of the roundabouts are clearly marked as having 2 lanes, but often the WCRC only cleared 1 lane, which naturally led to some interesting traffic issues.
Finally, many of those downed light poles have indeed been down far longer than they were ever up. I’m talking years here. One of them was knocked over literally within days of the roundabouts’ opening.
Dave, thanks for following up. It looks like they cross into multiple parcels, so I guess I’ll try emailing both the township and the city to see who they think is responsible!