TRAVERSE CITY — Traverse City commissioners are calling for State Street to be returned to one-way traffic, arguing the road was never engineered for two-way use and that a recent conversion has created unsafe conditions.
The debate came to a head at Tuesday’s city commission meeting, where traffic engineers presented data from a three-year pilot program that converted State Street, Pine Street and Front Street from one-way to two-way operation. The pilot began in November 2022, originally timed to coincide with construction of the Parkway, and was extended through 2025 for additional data collection.
Commissioner Ken Funk said he wants the street restored to its original one-way configuration — the way it was designed, built and operated for roughly 60 years — rather than continuing with what he described as a patchwork approach to making two-way traffic work.
“This road was engineered for one-way traffic, and we’re trying to patchwork together a plan to turn it into two-way,” Funk said. “And it’s unsafe, and it’s going to be expensive to make it into some sort of two-way configuration.”
Funk delivered a lengthy prepared statement during the meeting, arguing that reductions in speed and crashes could be attributed to gridlock at intersections not designed for two-way traffic, and that frustrated drivers stuck behind left-turning vehicles accelerated aggressively when they finally got through.
“This isn’t statistical data and numbers that can be accounted for any study, rather had to be felt, lived and experienced on this day by day,” Funk said. He also pointed to near-miss data that he said is not captured in the traffic study but should not be ignored.
A formal traffic survey conducted by engineers showed that speeds were reduced during the two-way pilot program, and speed limit compliance jumped from 78% to 94% after the conversion. The 85th percentile speed dropped from 26 mph under one-way operation to measurably lower levels over multiple years of data collection. Excessive speeding — vehicles traveling 35 mph or greater — dropped from 16 incidents to just two. Crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists fell from four in the years before the conversion to two total over the past two years. Street activity also doubled, going from roughly 947 people per day to 1,971, and on-street parking utilization on State Street increased by nearly 20%.
Despite these findings, Funk said the community response he has received has been heavily one-sided.
“The response from the community that I’ve received has been significantly opposed towards keeping it two-way,” he said. “And they would like to see it return to one way.”
9&10 News conducted an informal survey of five business owners along State Street and found unanimous support for the change to two-way traffic, citing reduced speeds and better flow of visitors for business operations. The Downtown Development Authority also reported strong support for keeping the two-way conversion among businesses it surveyed, though 78% of businesses said they did not notice a change in revenue during the pilot.
The commission was sharply divided. Commissioner Shaw said she was initially drawn to the convenience of two-way traffic but was swayed by a long list of concerns raised by city staff, including maintenance issues, emergency vehicle access, delivery problems, continued issues with cars parking in bike lanes and significant costs. She noted that a feasibility study had been promised but never completed, and that an ad hoc committee established in March of last year to advocate for pedestrians and cyclists during the pilot appeared to have never met.
“I am really concerned with the heavy focus — it seems like a bias to me — on traffic flow and safety and also this big push for two-lane Front,” Shaw said. She added that she would not feel safe having her grandchildren cross a two-way street in the heavily pedestrian downtown.
Commissioner Treadwell, who regularly bikes through the area, acknowledged that the two-way setup has not resulted in cyclist deaths but described uncomfortable conditions at intersections where cars stack up and squeeze cyclists against the curb.
“It doesn’t feel safe,” he said. “It doesn’t feel safe for the car either.”
Other commissioners pushed back. Commissioner Ness argued the decision should be rooted in data, not “feelings and vibes,” citing the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ position that two-way streets have a traffic-calming effect and create safer environments.
The city attorney warned commissioners to carefully consider the liability implications of going against the traffic engineer’s recommendation.
“When the traffic engineer gives you a recommendation as an expert, and if you act against that recommendation, that’s out there in the public,” the attorney said. “So it’s something to consider moving forward.”
“It’s operated that way for 59, 60 years. And all of a sudden we did one study and we found one engineer that would agree with us,” Funk said. “I respectfully disagree with that expert opinion.”
Funk proposed a longer-term vision rather than ruling out changes entirely. He said the city should wait until it is ready to perform underground infrastructure upgrades — including stormwater, sewer and wastewater systems — to undertake a full curb-to-curb redesign.
“Let’s return it to one way as it was engineered, designed and built to be,” Funk said. “And then when we’re ready to do the underground infrastructure upgrades to the stormwater, the sewer and the wastewater, that’s when we have the opportunity to do a curb-to-curb re-engineering of this road.”
After extensive debate, the commission voted unanimously to direct the city manager to present traffic control orders and cost estimates for both making the two-way conversion permanent and reverting to one-way. The matter will also be referred to the city’s newly formed Complete Streets Advisory Committee, which is expected to begin meeting in April. The street will remain in its current two-way configuration in the interim.
City staff estimated a final recommendation could come to the commission around June, though officials cautioned that even after a decision is made, physical changes to the road may not be implemented until next year due to the engineering work required.