Garden City reviews draft Safe Streets for All action plan, aims for council adoption this fall

Consultants from McKenna Associates briefed the Garden City City Council on Monday on a draft Safe Streets for All action plan that covers Garden City and three neighboring communities and recommends corridor- and intersection-level safety improvements.

"This provides funding for local communities to ensure that all roadways are safer, not just for motorists, but for pedestrians and cyclists and those that use transit," Laura Haw, project director with McKenna Associates, told the council. McKenna and its local partners prepared the draft after an 18-month process funded by the federal Safe Streets for All program created under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Haw said the planning team examined five years of crash data from the Michigan Department of Transportation to map a high-injury network, then compared that network with demographic and equity indicators — income, persistent poverty, vehicle access, disability and senior-population concentrations — to prioritize investments. Ashley Jankowski, project planner at McKenna, said the team also used an online public survey (239 comments citywide), walking and driving "ground-truthing" tours and focus groups with local engineering, public works and public-safety staff.

The draft plan identifies specific corridors and intersections in Garden City and flags which recommendations align with equity objectives, likely partners, and an estimated timeline. The plan groups recommendations into behavioral, infrastructure/design, operational, and policy/enforcement actions intended for short-, medium- and long-term implementation.

McKenna recommended continued cross-jurisdiction collaboration on shared corridors such as Michigan Avenue and Ford Road, coordinated improvements to bus stops and transit access, and establishing safer routes to schools by mapping school buffers and prioritizing crossings and signal work within those areas. The consultants provided a separate handout listing potential local, regional and federal funding sources, including Safe Streets for All implementation grants, and offered to assist with grant strategy and applications.

Community Development Director Matt Miller told the council the project grew from a Wayne-led grant application and that Garden City’s individual action plan is included among the four-city materials being finalized this summer. McKenna said the working group plans to take the draft through public comment this summer and pursue council adoption in each partner city by September.

Council members thanked the presenters but did not take formal action on the draft at Monday’s meeting. Miller also noted related local outreach tied to sidewalks and a separate city effort to encourage resident participation in sidewalk projects.