The Jonesville ‘road diet’ plan. Courtesy | City of Jonesville

Construction on US-12 for the City of Jonesville’s “road diet” is set to wrap up by the end of October or early November, according to Jonesville City Manager Jeff Gray, as Hillsdale residents anticipate a similar project beginning in 2027.

The project narrowed Chicago Street in downtown Jonesville from two lanes in each direction to one lane in each direction, preserved the existing center turn lane, and added buffered bike lanes on both sides of the street. Coldwater, Tecumseh, and Quincy have all adopted similar road diets in the past 10 years. Gray said the road diet aims to strike a balance between accommodating through traffic on US-12 and making parking and foot traffic safer for downtown businesses.

“Those front parking spaces are places that it can be a little scary to get out of when traffic is right up against you on a five-lane section,” Gray said.

The new traffic pattern adds a three-foot “buffer zone” between the parallel parking lane and the bike lane. The extra space allows residents to open their car doors safely without worrying about cars passing each other in the outside lane. 

“I don’t know how many times I have watched a mirror get clipped off,” said Zack Bigelow, co-founder of Ramshackle Brewing Company on Chicago Street. “At least once a week.”

Jonesville Bakery owner Laura Udzik said the construction for the road diet has hurt her business because drivers have avoided the construction in downtown Jonesville. But, as residents get used to the new configuration, she said she hopes business will return and parking will be safer along the street.

“It might just be until people get used to it, but the other day I have seen a couple of people pass people in the bike lane already because they’re impatient,” Udzik said. “So that might be causing an issue and might not be safe in the future. It might be too early to tell.”

Conversations for the road diet started as far back as January 2022, when the Downtown Development Authority was planning to update Jonesville’s streetscape. When the project coincided with the Michigan Department of Transportation’s plan to resurface all of US-12 through Jonesville, the DDA used the opportunity to change the lane configuration in Jonesville to benefit local businesses. 

Jonesville’s share of the project costs comes to $485,960, Gray said. Adding bike lanes helps qualify for an $805,740 Transportation Alternatives Program grant through the state. The Michigan Department of Transportation will also invest about a million dollars in paving costs for US-12 and north M-99, Gray said. By applying for these state grants, Gray said the city was able to accomplish more work than anticipated for the same price.  

An engineering study commissioned by the city of Jonesville found an average of 14,400 vehicles per day drive through Jonesville on US-12, which becomes Chicago Street through downtown. The figure puts it squarely in the feasibility range for a road diet, but the study recommended changing the timing of the traffic lights in order to accommodate the traffic volume in a three-lane cross section.

When the council first introduced the road diet, public reactions were mixed, Gray said. 

Most concerned citizens warned that squeezing five lanes of traffic into three would result in greater congestion and traffic problems on the road, according to records from a 2023 public forum. Gray said city staff have tried to address residents’ concerns throughout the process.

“The volumes just don’t shake out that way,” Gray said. “We will have to have MDOT adjust the timing of how the signals function based on the volume because the volumes change, but it isn’t quite as dramatic as doubling the traffic in the lane.”

As of Oct. 30, the Michigan Department of Transportation has yet to change the timing of the signals, causing backups through downtown. Gray said when construction wraps up and the timing is adjusted, the current traffic holdups will abate. 

Other residents said the addition of bike lanes, which end abruptly outside of the downtown area, would add an additional safety hazard and waste taxpayer money.

Bigelow, who is a Hillsdale resident, said he believes the tradeoff of adding bike lanes in Jonesville in exchange for the state grant was worthwhile. 

“It’s just painting two lines on the road to get a lot more money to fix our infrastructure,” Bigelow said. “It’s just paint on the road. They didn’t widen anything; they didn’t shrink anything. It’s literally just paint on the road.”