ADA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Ada Township is asking for public input on the crosswalk located at Thornapple Drive and Fase Street.
According to Kevin Austin, the DDA Director for Ada Township, the area sees a lot of pedestrian traffic, but the current rules of the road do not give right-of-way to pedestrians.
"Those are marked pedestrian crossings, but with the current rules of the road, there isn't a right of way that's given to pedestrians," Austin said.
The township has been made aware of concerns from residents about the interactions at the crosswalk.
"Our residents bring it up to us that they don't like the interactions that happen there," Austin said.
Kevin tells me he had reached out to the Grand Valley Metro Council after hearing about a program they run called Complete Streets Pilot Program. This program aims to install low-cost temporary measures to increase pedestrian safety and awareness for multimodal travel.
"I knew it was an excellent opportunity for us, so I reached out to them, and the Kent County Road Commission is part of that work group, and they are the jurisdiction that control our roads, so they understand our desire to have that kind of installation," Austin explained.
Adding that he had asked the Grand Valley Metro Council to evaluate two of Ada's crosswalks for their pilot program. One of the locations being Ada Drive in Bronson, and the other between Thornapple River Drive and Fase Street.
Austin says the DDA board has approved to install a temporary pilot program at the Thornapple Drive and Fase Street crosswalk, that will "choke off the pedestrian crossing a little bit, or choke off the road in limiting, minimizing the pedestrian crossing, the crossing distance, and adding some delineators," according to Austin.
QR codes will be available at the crosswalk for residents to share their experiences. Austin says while temporary, "hopefully that data altogether will allow us to, in the future, basically request that if we do want to address safety in that are, and we think that's an effective way to do it, we can show them where and how our residents reacted to it."
Residents can access the available survey by visiting:
WATCH THE VIDEO STORY
