After Study, Buttles Expected to be Permanently Reduced to 2 Lanes

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It’s only a matter of time — and process.

After the completion of the road diet study on Buttles Street, and after the Michigan Department of Transportation submits a report to the City of Midland; interviews with City officials, community members, business leaders and Michigan Baseball Foundation officials suggest that both Buttles and Indian streets are expected to be permanently reduced to two lanes in order to calm traffic and make the corridor more pedestrian-friendly.

Most individuals spoke to the City Paper for this article on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal and because not all were authorized to speak on behalf of their respective organizations. Only a select few were willing to go on-the-record.

Most City officials, such as City Manager C. Bradley Kaye, insist that no final decisions about a permanent reduction have been made, but the general consensus was that a reduction is all but a foregone conclusion due to the business and institutional forces involved in the matter.


MDOT’s “Recommended Alternative 1” plan for a reduced lane profile on Buttles St.

For a brief moment in time, however, that was not the public perception. Several community members against the concept of the road diet took to social media in celebration when local media outlets reported the end of the study as well as the removal of the temporary bollards after the City Council unanimously voted to send a letter to MDOT requesting that the state agency end the study by the end of the year.

Local gadfly Eric Anders — perhaps the road diet’s most vocal critic — openly mocked proponents of the road diet after news of the council’s vote.

“We’re very sad to hear of your potential vibrancy and investment loss, Powers That Be,” he posted to a local issues and events Facebook group.

There was a widespread misconception among road diet opponents that an end to the study meant and end to the issue altogether.

Local retiree Ted Oberhellman implored with folks prematurely celebrating in a futile attempt to explain the difference between ending the study and permanently reducing Buttles to two lanes.


MDOT’s “Recommended Alternative 1” plan for a reduced lane profile on Indian St.

“[It’s] not really important to me personally other than just trying to educate people about what is truly going on,” Mr. Oberhellman told the City Paper. “It amazes me that there is such a lack of understanding about this. Part of the blame for that goes to the City, MDOT, and the Michigan Baseball Foundation. All [three] groups have demonstrated a lack of transparency regarding this trial and the ultimate desired result.”

Mr. Anders responded to inquiries from the City Paper about his posted comment and the inevitable reality of a permanent lane reduction with an all-caps tirade, demanding to never be quoted or contacted.

“Please be advised that this IS DEFINITELY NOT an AUTHORIZED interview and you do not now, now [sic] ever will have my permission to quote or contact me in the future,” he told the City Paper.

Conflicting accounts of the origins of the road diet have prompted citizen speculation. Mr. Anders has written that Bill Mayhew, manager of the MDOT Service Center in Mt. Pleasant said he was approached “by two guys a while ago” who asked about starting the road diet, adding that they were from Momentum Midland, the former name of the economic development wing of the Michigan Baseball Foundation.

The baseball foundation insists that it had no role in commencing the study and responded to a list of questions from the City Paper with a brief statement attributed to its President, David Ramaker.

“We are pleased to hear that MDOT believes it has sufficient data to end the road diet trial. We look forward to the results and next steps, as developed by the City and MDOT,” the statement reads.


Once Mayor Maureen Donker (Ward 2) voiced her approval of the idea, the entire council started to embrace the notion of asking MDOT to end the study as soon as possible in order to proceed with the road diet’s later stages.

It was Councilman Steve Arnosky (Ward 3) who proposed the idea of ending the road diet study early, last month, during the New Business portion of one of the council’s regular meetings.

“I think, tonight, I would like, again, to propose that council tell MDOT that it has had sufficient time to collect whatever data it needs to determine if a permanent closure is a feasible solution here, or a feasible possibility, and request MDOT conclude the data collection process by year end,” Mr. Arnosky said.

Mr. Arnosky – who is on-the-record as opposing the road diet — described a litany of negative reactions from the public about the study over the past 18 months at that meeting.

“We’ve been living with lane closure on Buttles St. for 18 months now. We’re coming up on two years since this council voted to support the concept presented by MDOT,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of citizens writing negative editorials in the Midland Daily News, we’ve had negative letters written to the City, to MDOT, members of council. We’ve listened to verbal objections during council meetings, and other meetings that are sponsored by the City on this topic. We even have a council member who is facing a recall over this road diet, and we’ve seen reports of increased accidents.”

The proposal initially received some blowback from Councilman Diane Brown Wilhelm (Ward 4). Ms. Brown Wilhelm noted that M-20 construction has just concluded and that perhaps the study needed more time to collect data post-construction.

“We’ve all received the feedback, we know what the comments are, but at the same time, I think dictating to MDOT — which I don’t think we have the right to do — I do think we have the right to request that when they have enough data to go ahead and stop it, it doesn’t have to go for another year,” Ms. Brown Wilhelm said.

Ms. Brown Wilhelm and Councilman Pam Hall (Ward 1) debated over the origin of the increase in car accidents.

“The accidents are continuing to happen, and at what point does an accident or any other injury or damage to property have to occur before we recognize that this wasn’t the best idea?” Ms. Hall said.

“But is somebody saying that the accidents are being caused by the road diet, or is it because we have people running lights in the opposite direction, on their cell phones? I’ve seen those reports too,” Ms. Brown Wilhelm asked.

“Those all existed before the road diet as well,” Ms. Hall replied. “All those components you just mentioned. So why is there a change now that there’s a road diet? It’s because of the road diet.”

Once Mayor Maureen Donker (Ward 2) voiced her approval of the idea, the entire council started to embrace the notion of asking MDOT to end the study as soon as possible in order to proceed with the road diet’s later stages.

“I think we, as council, have not said [to MDOT] can we please end this as soon as possible?” Ms. Donker said. “You said it was 3 years, we’re into it 18 months, is it possible to end it sooner, do you have enough data to say it’s done? But I don’t think we’re the ones who can dictate that to them, because, frankly, if they come back and say, well we don’t have enough data, I don’t think anyone wants to do this again.”

Ms. Donker expressed an interest in the idea of ending the study. Mr. Arnosky told the City Paper that he had approached Ms. Donker about his motion before the meeting as a courtesy. He would not elaborate on whether or not Ms. Donker agreed to support the motion beforehand.

“We would really like them to wrap it up. I think if we said, ‘Is it possible to be done by the end of the year or, if not, can you come back and give us an update?'” Ms. Donker said.

Ms. Donker took Mr. Arnosky’s idea and formed it into a formal motion for the council.

“I move that we ask our City Manager, on behalf of Council, to send a letter to MDOT, asking if they can wrap up this road diet as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of the year, and if that can’t be accomplished, they will come January and give us a report and update to explain all that,” Ms. Donker said.

In response to the council’s motion and Mr. Kaye’s letter, MDOT will be removing the bollards on Buttles Street this month.

MDOT Communications Representative Jocelyn Hall has said that the department will continue to maintain a traffic trailer in the corridor to continue to collect data.

MDOT is set to prepare a final report, based upon the road diet study’s findings, for the City of Midland, regarding whether or not reducing Buttles Street down to two lanes meets the department’s criteria for operations and safety. The report is expected sometime in 2020.

In speaking to the City Paper, multiple officials disputed which entity had more authority over the corridor. Ms. Hall told the City Paper that the City will have final authority over the decision to reduce Buttles down to two lanes, based upon MDOT’s final report, which is widely expected to permit a reduction.

“The City of Midland will need to make a final decision regarding the lane configuration, assuming data shows the two lanes meet our criteria for operations and safety,” Ms. Hall told the City Paper.

After the city receives MDOT’s report, the City Council will make a final decision regarding Buttles Street. A decision will naturally flow from receiving MDOT’s report, and no outside group or entity will have to formally propose the lane reduction, Mr. Kaye told the City Paper.

“The MDOT study submitted in 2017 was the origin of the current discussion. City Council’s choice to further examine the [two] lane profile option identified in that report spurred the data collection process currently underway. Once that data collection process is complete, and based in part on the results presented, City Council will need to decide what option they prefer to move forward with. There is therefore no need for a further request or formal initiative from anyone at this time. The process will simply continue until the data has been collected, it has been presented to City Council, and a final decision on the design options is made,” Mr. Kaye told the City Paper. “To date, City Council has supported the concept of reducing the lane profile on Buttles Street from [three] lanes to [two].”

Mr. Kaye strongly disputed that any decision on a permanent reduction of Buttles or Indian streets was set in stone.

“City Council has not made a decision on the road profile they will or will not support. Data continues to be collected. Once all data is collected, it will be compiled and presented to City Council. Based on that data and input received, a decision will be made at that time,” he told the City Paper.

Councilman Marty Wazbinski (Ward 5) — who is facing a potential recall over his support of the road diet study — told the City Paper that, when all is said and done, in his opinion, there was about a 50/50 chance of Buttles being permanently reduced to two lanes.

Mr. Arnosky told the City Paper that he doesn’t believe the road diet will be permanent and called the study “a solution looking for a problem.”

5 thoughts on “After Study, Buttles Expected to be Permanently Reduced to 2 Lanes

  1. Well written article. I still have concerns over a special interest group directing municipal direction, when they should actually be relegated to having no more influence than a private citizen. It seems Momenteum Midland (aka MI Baseball Foundation) is getting their Vision implemented at taxpayer expense. Next on the docket will be Ashman and Todd.

  2. Why does the baseball fou dation have any say in the matter of the road diet ? My belief is that there is a backdoor deal with them and developers for this real estate. The condos that were built are to close to the road to be safe. I believe the lanes will be torn up and made to be yards for theae building. A.special backdoor pact if you may.
    By submiting my name.and email does not constitute the right to publish them

  3. The city does not want to an informational ballot or a properly designed survey on a countywide basis because they realize the majority of the residents are opposed to the road diet.

    As was said above public policy should be determined by a broad based public.

    From the start this has been a project with all the facts hidden from the public. The baseball foundation has said this is all about economic development but we have not been told how eliminating one lane will enhance economic development.

  4. Why can’t there be a compromise? I suggest that the 2 lane road start at Ashman. That give traffic from M20 and Buttles time to merge. This way the rest of Buttles is more pedestrian friendly but the new Delta campus and Dow Diamond.

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