Transportation Commission launches study of 10 multi‑lane corridors to advance Vision Zero goals

At its March 19, 2025 electronic meeting, the Ann Arbor Transportation Commission received a staff briefing on a planned, citywide evaluation of 10 multi‑lane corridors to identify opportunities for lane reconfiguration, safety improvements and space for future transit.

City staff member Trevor Bridal said the study’s purpose is “to evaluate all city owned multi lane roads for potential roadway reconfigurations to advance the moving together towards vision 0 goals.” Bridal said the city issued a request for proposals, received three responses and is preparing to seek City Council approval of a contract with Tool Design Group.

The study will be planning-level rather than corridor-specific engineering, Bridal said, so it can evaluate all 10 corridors together and identify where conceptual lane reassignments, transit priority lanes, separated bike facilities or other uses of right-of-way might be feasible. The consultant’s proposed scope focuses on five elements: safety, workforce mobility, transit, cycling network connectivity and traffic-volume analysis. Bridal said the team will use metrics such as person throughput (which counts people using all modes), vehicular volume and capacity, anticipated crash reductions and changes in perceived bicycling and walking stress.

Bridal described three groups of corridors the consultant will analyze: “opportunity corridors” with fewer complications, “challenging corridors” where peak-hour volumes or intersection constraints could cause diversion, and “transit corridors” where future high‑level transit infrastructure is a priority. He said the consultant recommended multiple options per corridor so the city can weigh tradeoffs between mode priorities.

Bridal told commissioners the project timeline anticipates City Council consideration of the consultant contract on April 7, 2025, followed by roughly one year of work: data collection and methods development in summer 2025, concept development and public engagement in late 2025, and final concepts and reporting in winter–spring 2026.

When asked whether the study treats each corridor end‑to‑end or by segment, Bridal replied broadly that the study treats the 10 corridors as corridor‑scale candidates but that concepts are likely to be responsive to local variation: “there could be areas in which there are some easy things to do and some areas where there are some harder things to do,” and the study will identify “the hard areas to be able to put more attention to.”

Bridal said state‑owned trunk lines — including North Main, Jackson, Washington and Huron — were intentionally excluded from this study because they are under Michigan Department of Transportation jurisdiction and subject to separate studies or jurisdictional‑transfer negotiations. He also said the Washington corridor is already a priority for transit service planning and will be handled in coordination with the regional transit agency (The Ride).

Commissioners and staff flagged possible traffic diversion on nearby streets as a risk for corridors that would lose travel lanes during peak periods; Bridal said the study will identify those “challenging corridors” and focus additional data collection and analysis there. Bridal said grant funding such as the federal Safe Streets for All program can support related capital work but adds complexity and time because of grant requirements.

Bridal closed by saying the consultant will provide conceptual cross sections, planning‑level cost estimates and options for each corridor, which the city can use to advance individual corridors into design and construction when funding and priorities align.