Since a Nov. 8 Clarkston City Council discussion about traffic and pedestrian signals at Main and Washington, two council members and the city’s contracted engineer have had separate conversations with state and county road officials.
Whether the talk is on the right road remains to be seen.
At their Nov. 22 meeting, the council again spoke of how to lessen the confusion at one of the downtown’s main intersections.
Freshmen council members Kristy Ottman and Steve Wylie were motivated to try their own contacts with MDOT, Ottman concentrating on the ‘no right turn on red? issue.
‘They were under the assumption that, coming off of Washington and turning right on Main, the parking lot was a building,? Ottman said.
With that assumption corrected, Ottman said the city could petition MDOT to change the hours for the traffic restriction, but ‘I didn’t want to go any further until we talked about it.?
‘Why would we want to change it?? asked Mayor Sharron Catallo. While some advocated loosening the restriction at certain times, Catallo said that could lead to more confusion.
‘My problem with changing it or putting times on it is that people sort of absent-mindedly go to that intersection and think, ‘I usually turn right here,?? she said. ‘I have a problem with that. We worked really hard to get that.?
Catallo’s main complaint was the length of time for the pedestrian ‘walk? signals. That was the subject of Wylie’s inquiry, which led to his discovery of a ‘timing permit? which he suggested the city submit to MDOT.
‘It allows for the walk and don’t walk to be automatic,? Wylie said, but his state contact said the permit is to be administered by the Road Commission for Oakland County. ‘I think they made a mistake.?
Wylie said he hoped his investigation would again lead to automatic ‘walk? signals, eliminating the need for push buttons to be activated.
Gary Tressel, the city’s contracted engineer through Hubble, Roth and Clark, offered his own interpretation of the situation.
‘The signal is operated by the road commission but it is an MDOT signal,? Tressel said. ‘The road commission may have an opinion, but [MDOT] has been very firm about the push button.?
An outside consulting firm is doing a county-wide study on signal efficiency, Tressel said, and results from that study may eventually have an impact.
In the meantime, Tressel came away from recent meetings on next year’s I-75/M-15 project with a promise that MDOT representatives will meet with the city council at some point to discuss downtown traffic issues.
The goal, Tressel said, is to ‘put everybody in one room, and let them talk it out.?