ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WXYZ) — Ann Arbor’s new transportation plan is revolving all around zero. The goal, zero deaths and injuries because of crashes by 2025, and zero carbon emissions by 2030.
“These two things together, zero carbon admissions, zero road deaths, have really shaped the way our transportation plan is designed to alter the way our roads are structured,” said Molly Kleinman, Chair Ann Arbor Transportation Commission and a transportation safety advocate.
Klienman says work has already been done to meet these goals, including making crosswalks and sidewalks safer.
In the long term, people can expect to see streets transformed, which will include more protected bike lanes along with a push for more public transportation.
That would mean more bus routes from Ypsilanti to Ann Arbor, to accommodate the 800,000 commuters who worked in Ann Arbor pre-pandemic.
Ann Arbor is also getting help from the University of Michigan. The university was recently awarded$9.95 million dollars from the U.S Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway administration to install ‘Smart Intersections'.
In all, there will be 21 Smart Intersections, with the majority of them being installed on Washtenaw Avenue, Stadium and Plymouth Road. These light signals will be installed with sensors that will communicate information with autonomous vehicles.
“They will detect oncoming traffic from each approach, they will also detect bicyclist and also pedestrians, and once they detect those road users or road objects they will broadcast information,” said Professor Civil Engineering University of Michigan Henry Liu.
“These Smart intersections are about how are we going to do these with autonomous vehicles, how are we going to do this using the latest and great technology that is available to us,” said Kleinman.
