Division Ave. (June 2011)
GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) -- Engineers are evaluating the results of reducing the number of lanes on a stretch of South Division Avenue.
In June 2011, Division was reduced from four or five lanes to three, from Cherry to Wealthy streets. The idea was to create an area that was more business friendly.
The results so far have been mixed. There is more parking and vehicles have been going slower, but travel times are longer, and there have been more crashes.
"The goal here is to increase the overall accessibility of downtown. Not just to support motor vehicles of the people choosing to come downtown, but also to expand the various modes of which people access downtown, by walking, biking or mass transit," says Eric Pratt of the Downtown Development Authority.
City officials will either keep the three-lane design or go back to the old configuration. That decision will be made in 2014 or 2015.