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“Once that’s developed, that will alleviate (US-31 traffic) and give people other options for ingress and egress off the site,” Sych said. Sych last year said he was working with engineering consultants and nearby property owners on possibly creating a service drive behind the property that would connect over to Lowe’s and the traffic signal at that intersection, as well as to the Grand Traverse Mall. If there are persistent safety issues in the corridor, MDOT can work with Chick-fil-A on solutions for addressing those, such as permanently restricting left turns, Lake says. He notes MDOT staff have been on-site observing traffic, adding that there have been times of day with no backups at all.
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James Lake, communications representative for MDOT, says it's "too early to tell" whether the traffic issues are temporary and simply related to the restaurant's grand opening or if long-term problems could be an issue at the site. When Garfield Township planning commissioners approved Chick-fil-A's plans last year, the board expressed concerned about allowing customers to turn left out of the restaurant onto US-31. Township Planning Director John Sych acknowledged left turns would likely be “problematic” – particularly during peak hours, when Chick-fil-A estimates 100-plus cars can come through the drive-thru – but said the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) didn’t consider it to be “anything outside of the norm for this particular corridor.” MDOT approved Chick-fil-A's permit allowing both right and left turns from the site. They're going to reevaluate that and figure out if they need to do something more or less." "They're closed on Sundays, so we'll see how that goes for the rest of today (Friday).and Saturday. "We're just monitoring that (situation)," he says. With traffic frequently backing up past the Grand Traverse Mall close to the South Airport Road intersection and customers at times reporting 1-2 hour waits for food, left turn movements have been temporarily restricted at the property, meaning customers can only turn right in and right out of the business.Īccording to Bensley, an officer will be on-site helping direct traffic through the weekend. The section also plays a pivotal role in helping to meet the data collection and reporting required by the FHWA’s Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) on all federal-aid roads.Sheriff's Office, MDOT Weigh In On Chick-fil-A Traffic By Beth MilliganĬhick-fil-A has contracted with the Grand Traverse Sheriff's Office to "try and expedite the flow of traffic" at the restaurant chain's new US-31 location Thursday, Friday, and Saturday this week, according to Sheriff Tom Bensley. The data is also used to drive decisions being made by other MDOT divisions, Michigan State Police, the Transportation Asset Management Council, and local agencies. The data collected is provided to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on a monthly and annual basis. Traffic data collection consists of short-term counts/studies, year-round data from the continuous count sites, and special studies. MS2’s NMDS allows state and local planners to analyze daily, monthly and annual non-motorized volumes as well as identify the highest bicycle and pedestrian ADTs along trails, roads and sidewalks.įrom MDOT’s announcement: “The Data Collection and Reporting Section at MDOT collects, analyzes, summarizes, reports, and retains detailed traffic data and travel information for 36,000 miles of federal-aid roads in Michigan, with additional reporting requirements for the 83,000 miles of local roads. Walking and the use of bicycles have increased in the state of Michigan.
Mi mdot traffic software#
We have also integrated our software with ESRI’s Roads and Highways software which will enable MDOT to manage geometric and volume changes along road segments throughout the state.
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The HPMS module will assist MDOT in reporting traffic data to the Federal Highway Administration. The MDOT TDMS will be one of the most complete datasets of any of our users. Some of the modules within TDMS include: Traffic Count, Turning Movement Count, Non-Motorized, Highway Performance and Traffic Crash. TDMS is a software solution developed by MS2 that offers a variety of modules to receive, process and analyze traffic related data. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) today publicly rolled out its new Transportation Data Management System (TDMS).
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