My wife and I grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan. We know from personal experience that it is a wondrous and unusual place to live. In the spring, summer, and fall, Ann Arbor can feel like Camelot. In winter, which may run from October 15 through April 15, it often feels like Siberia.
So, as much as we love Ann Arbor, we moved to Florida in 1974. For 30 years, however, we return to Ann Arbor every fall for the entire University of Michigan football season. We enjoy spectacular fall weather, cruising the local farms and apple orchards, tailgating, football, tailgating, and tailgating. Mostly, we enjoy hanging out with great friends from college, high school and even grade school.
One aspect of Ann Arbor is different than any place I have ever been in North America. Driving in Ann Arbor is a dangerous and totally unique experience.
Since the 1950s, the City Road Commission has timed major road construction projects to block one or more of the principal routes to Michigan’s Football Stadium. This cannot be accidental. It is a source of pride for the brilliant city engineers. “You know that bike lane rework we set up on Stadium Boulevard? It backed up the Notre Dame traffic for three and a half hours. 18 more minutes and we would have had the record! Yeah, we nearly eclipsed the exit time for the 1956 Ohio State blizzard! Boy, it was close.” Okay, game day in Ann Arbor is unique and only happens seven or eight times a year. It is very predictable, however. Since 1975, the city’s population doubles for twelve hours at every home game. Equally predictable, in all of those 48 years, the road commission has closed one or several routes to the stadium with some sort of construction project.
One of the first things I do when we arrive from Florida is cruise the downtown and campus streets. I want to know where the construction is and plan alternative routes so I don’t spend hours getting from point A to point B. I know all of the alternative routes in Washtenaw County. I rode every street in Ann Arbor on my bike in fourth grade and I drove a moving van around the city to pay for my college education.
On the recon drive I discovered a totally unique traffic pattern. This could only happen in Ann Arbor. I turned from Main Street on to Madison to transition from downtown to the Michigan campus. After several blocks I reached a stop sign at the intersection of Madison and 5th Avenue. Madison, the street I am on, becomes a one way street coming toward me so I have to turn. 5th Ave is a one way street as well coming from my left. The only option, therefore, is to turn right on 5th Ave. The brilliant city road commission has closed down and barricaded 5th Ave to my right. The only alternative was to make an illegal u turn and head back the opposite direction on Madison. I understand the need for road construction. I grew up in Ann Arbor. However, there were no “detour” signs, no “road closed ahead” signs, and no alternative route information. I was really happy that I wasn’t driving my moving van with the 40 foot trailer at this point. The citizens and particularly, the students in Ann Arbor are clever and enterprising. As I was marveling at Road Commission’s work, a young man got out of a car parked next to me and tapped on my window. He said: “ Hey Mister, can you help me out? I got to this intersection four days ago. I don’t know when they are going to finish this construction and let me make this right turn. I sure could use a fiver so that I can get a Blimpy burger from Crazy Jim’s. What do you think?” I responded that creativity and moxy on this scale was worth more than that and gave him a ten.
An irony of the Road Commission’s fixation on construction near the stadium is the incredible disrepair of many remaining streets. Ann Arbor has always been pot hole challenged. Although conditions have improved in recent years, a lot of the potholes are bad. Potential axle breakers. Some are big enough to eat small cars. I passed one on Traver Road that had two people rock climbing out of it. So while you are negotiating all of the other traffic challenges in Ann Arbor you constantly have to be evaluating the danger threat of the next hundred feet of potholes.
At this point, we know that we have to be exceptionally diligent driving around this great midwest city. Random and illogical construction coupled with sporadic, long sections of potholes requires critical focus.
These are not all of the challenges, however. A great aspect of Ann Arbor is their focus on liberal and environmental causes. The admirable support for these causes creeps into the transportation grid. The city is exceptionally bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Four lane streets were redesigned to two lane streets to accommodate world class bicycle lanes. Amazingly, a few streets have been redesigned to accommodate bicycle lanes by reducing the automobile channel to a single lane. These are not one way streets. I found myself cruising down First Street in a single lane and encountering an eighteen wheel Peterbilt heading directly at me. It was pretty clear who was going to yield the right of way. I waved at Bubba, who was driving the truck, and backed up 200 feet to the nearest driveway.
Pedestrian rights trump automobile rights. There are many well marked pedestrian crossing areas. If pedestrians are present cars must yield the right of way. On a temporary or permanent basis the city will quickly change traffic patterns to accommodate non motorist activities. For example, many of the downtown streets are closed in the evening and on weekends to allow outdoor dining. In fact, the city has formalized a “Healthy Streets” initiative to slow traffic in residential areas. The initiative reconfigures the usage of various residential streets to facilitate bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
New rules and new driving patterns. Much more complicated than a 25 mile an hour speed limit sign. Is my car allowed on this street? What are the “Healthy Street” speed limits and driving rules? Are these people really allowed to close the street for a touch football game? Oh crap, I didn’t see that huge pothole! Hope I didn’t crack an axle.
Are these all of the challenges to driving in Ann Arbor Michigan? No. The biggest challenge is that the city has an inordinately large percentage of terrible drivers. I know this sounds like the typical, self aggrandizing, “I can drive better than everybody else” comment. But it is true and you better be ready for it if you are motoring around the city. For whatever reason, a lot of people operating vehicles have not learned the basic lessons of driver’s education. I am a defensive driver and have earned the highest safe driver rating from my insurance company over the last twenty years. Normally, I expect hazards to emerge from the right, left, front and rear while I drive. In Ann Arbor, I expect things to come at me straight out of the sky. I am hyper vigilant. The general problem is that a higher than usual number of drivers just go wherever they want with no regard for anything else. Crossing three lanes of traffic to make a right turn without looking happens all of the time. Traffic lights often seem to be nothing more than a recommendation. No left turn signs, no turn on red signs, are meaningless. Turn signals, if used at all, are random and should not be taken as indication of which way the vehicle will be directed. Aggressive driving, that you may encounter in Atlanta or Tampa, is not the problem. Rather, you have to assume that some of your highway companions are simply going to drive wherever they want without regard to anyone else on the road or any of the posted traffic signage.
It always takes me a few days to gear up my driving skills for our autumnal visit to Michigan. Construction, potholes, bikes and pedestrians, strange temporary driving regulations, and non compus mentis drivers make this a truly unique driving experience. Last week we were in a grocery store on Maple and Dexter and I asked the check-out professional how long it would take to drive downtown on Dexter Ave. She replied, “I don’t know, no one has ever made it.”
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