\n| \n By the end of summer 2010, Anthony Wayne Drive will have a whole new look. Plans are underway to make the busy stretch of road between Warren Avenue and Kirby Street more pedestrian-friendly. Tapan Datta, professor of civil engineering and head of the WSU Transportation Research Group (WSU-TRG), explains how the project came about.<\/p>\n “Wayne State University needed more short-term parking on Anthony Wayne Drive and came to me for a traffic study. I knew that we could do this study and also could acquire funds from MDOT, through the City of Detroit, to create more parking as well as a pedestrian-friendly street.” MDOT approved 80% of the construction costs and the other 20% of the costs will be provided by WSU.<\/p>\n While the added parking will surely be a benefit to campus, Datta says the main impetus for the WSU-TRG to work on this project was pedestrian safety. ‘In the past few years there have been 10 or 11 pedestrian involved crashes around campus, which is very significant,” says Datta. “We hope we can bring that number down.”<\/p>\n The improvements to promote pedestrian safety will include: narrowing the street from four lanes to two in each direction and creating an additional lane of parking on either side of the median, which will boost the number of additional short-term parking spaces up to 150. A bike lane will be installed in each direction and the entrance to Parking Structure Two will be closed off so that drivers will have to enter from the Lodge Freeway service drive. A HAWk (High-intensity Activated crossWalk) signal will be installed at the crosswalk between the General Lectures Building and the Engineering Building. <\/p>\n HAWk signals — which can already be found at a pedestrian crossing on Cass Avenue near the Business School and Detroit Public Library– allow drivers to proceed as usual when there are no pedestrians present, as well as make pedestrians more aware when crossing the street. In addition, wrought iron railing will be placed in the median, to deter pedestrians from crossing anywhere but at designated crosswalks. <\/p>\n Additionally, the project calls for streetscape: flower pots and benches as well as lantern-type street lighting to make the environment along Anthony Wayne Drive more enjoyable and aesthetically-pleasing. “The objective of this project is to create a pedestrian-friendly environment,” says Datta. “Not only will pedestrians be safer, but it will enhance the environment for commercial development on the east and maybe west side of Anthony Wayne Drive.”<\/p>\n Datta and the members of the WSU-TRG have spent countless hours since March 2009 on the project and hope it will pay off for the WSU community. Construction will begin in July and Datta says the goal is to have the opening ceremony for Anthony Wayne Drive coincide with the TRG’s annual Drive Safely to Wayne State campaign in the fall. A combined event would draw a great deal of positive attention, says Datta.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether or not the project is recognized outside of the university, “It’s worth to Wayne State is invaluable” says Datta. "The difficult thing now will be changing pedestrian behavior.”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A pedestrian fails to use the crosswalk on Anthony Wayne Drive. This scene will change when safety improvements are made to the stretch of road this summer. By the end of summer 2010, Anthony Wayne Drive will have a whole new look. Plans are underway to make the busy stretch of road between Warren Avenue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-566755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.eng.wayne.edu\/user_files\/443\/image\/AnthonyWayneDriveProject2DR%20reduced.jpg\")
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