Case Study: West Maple Road

Birmingham is one of the wealthiest cities in the state of Michigan, located in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. People come from all over to the popular shopping area downtown. Maple Road intersects Woodward Avenue at the heart of downtown Birmingham, where many of the businesses are clustered. Maple is one of the main roads used by shoppers to access the downtown. I regularly run through Birmingham and down Maple so I know how important the road is to people trying to enter the city.
In September of 2015, West Maple Road was converted from a 4 lane road to a 3 lane road (2 normal lanes and a left-turn lane) to the west of Woodward. I thought this change would negatively impact the businesses in downtown Birmingham. I reasoned that fewer lanes would lead to slower and less traffic. This would cause an increase in the time cost for shoppers commuting to the city, and a decrease in potential consumers passing through the city. My solution to this issue was to simply revert the road back to 4 lanes of traffic. …show more content…
Shoppers need to have reliable, safe and convenient routes into the downtown shopping district”. The 4 to 3 lane conversion decreased the amount and severity of accidents on the Maple and improved the road’s accessibility. These results should cause consumers to feel safer one the road. Customers are more likely to shop and spend money in an area they are comfortable in. The decrease in traffic flow caused less traffic jams and headaches for drivers. This will reduce the time cost for shoppers coming into the city. Pedestrians and bikers now have better access to the city, which is critical to business downtown. Since the project concluded in April, Mr. Heiney has reported, “Merchants have not reported any negative affects” from the change. With the improved transportation into and around Birmingham, merchants should experience better business in the