Bike lanes on Cass Street in Traverse City could soon be a thing of the past.
The city is considering replacing the lane with parking spots after the Old Towne Neighborhood Association approached the city asking for more parking in the area.
9&10’s Megan Woods met with people in the neighborhood to find out what they think about the potential change.
“The neighbor behind me on 11th Street, when she has company she has no place for them to park,” says, Jacqueline Finch who lives on Cass Street.
Parking is a struggle for homes on Cass Street.
Penny Hill, assistant city manager for Traverse City says, “The neighborhood (OTNA) felt they needed additional parking in their neighborhood and Cass Street was one of the places being looked at.”
Originally, the city and Old Town Neighborhood Association worked together to add bike lanes.
Now they’re considering removing those lanes to add more parking, sending out 83 surveys to people living on Cass between 8th and14th Streets.
Hill says, “We had a good response to them we’ve also had some, I call the unsolicited emails, because there’s a lot of interest throughout the community.”
Not only is the survey gathering feedback it’s creating mixed emotions.
Finch says she rather cars parked on the street instead of the bike for safety reasons. “I don’t like the bicyclist here on the road to begin with, I like to see them on the sidewalk like it used to be for years and years and it worked well.”
June Wells who also lives on Cass Street says, “It would be a definite blockage when you’re backing out because I already deal with that right now without having cars along here.”
The results of the surveys and email feedback will be presented to the traffic commission. If majority of neighbors support the change they’ll try it out for 90 days.
The traffic committee is ultimately responsible for a decision, but Hill says this could be a tough one. “If it’s a bigger issue, which I believe this is, we probably would work with stakeholder groups in particular the neighborhood but others as well.”
All surveys need to be turned in by July 19th.
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