At the end of October, Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to make an important infrastructure announcement that proponents of transportation said could lead to the swift introduction of transportation legislation.

That could be good news for Transportation for Michigan (Trans4m.org), a coalition of 16 organizations that promotes five guiding principles for improving transportation options for everyone:

• Mobility options — Expanding and improving the network of buses and trains; designing roads to serve all users, including drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians; and safely maintaining existing roads and bridges.
• Connecting systems — Integrating and linking automobile, rail, bus and bike and pedestrian travel for the efficient movement of people and goods.
• Citizen voice — Ensuring that all residents and communities have a voice in identifying transportation needs, developing policy and designing the transportation system.
• Integrated planning — Reinventing Michigan's cities and towns by strengthening the connection between transportation planning, housing and community and economic development.
• Strategic investments — Improving the process to measure a project’s social, economic and environmental impact on a region in order to fund and evaluate transportation projects.

Ferndale Councilwoman Melanie Piana, associate director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, which is a member of Transportation for Michigan Coalition, called for support of Transportation for Michigan — and the coalition's efforts to diversify transportation, making it safer for pedestrians and bicyclists — at City Council's Oct. 12 meeting.

“A lot of the direction of our legislators is to continue funding for roads and bridges, which is necessary, but not actually looking at how to diversify funding for increasing transportation choices,” Piana said.

She added that Transportation for Michigan also aims to improve bus and train systems and integrate transportation networks to increase efficacy for all users.

In the wake of this, the federal government recently announced that $2 million in funding was approved to research the possibility of expanding Detroit’s light rail proposal — spanning an area from Hart Plaza downtown to the Michigan State Fairgrounds at Eight Mile Road to Maple Road in Birmingham. The study will also examine what type of transit that would look like.

For mass transit proponents, funding is a promising step for the communities this would affect, including Ferndale, but construction is likely years away.

“A 10-year process (for developing mass transit), start to finish, is not at all uncommon anywhere in the country,” said Richard Murphy, transportation programs coordinator of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance.

It doesn't have to be so big

Although a light rail from downtown Detroit into the suburbs is exciting, Murphy said there are many other areas and ways to improve transit around Ferndale.

One idea that is a three-lane system on West and East Nine Mile roads, which mostly consists of a four-lane configuration, Murphy said. The process for reducing the lanes is called a "road diet." The reduction of the lanes also provide space to put in bike lanes.

“There’s not a lot out there that’s big and flashy," Murphy said. "(But there's) a lot of small, incremental stuff that builds up to making the system function better as a whole."

A three-lane configuration does not affect the traffic flow, he said, because of the implementation of a turn lane. A four-lane road slows down traffic due to stopping for left turns in a travel lane.

This road diet also increases safety, Murphy said. “Usually between 25 to 50 percent reduction of crashes on these roads, because you’re separating out the left-turn traffic from other traffic, and then you get the space for bike lanes as an added bonus.”

Despite the relatively low cost of a road diet — in comparison to other methods of improving transportation, such as light rail — a good deal of planning and study still must go into such an endeavor.

But, Murphy said, it serves as an example of what can be done to improve transportation without a huge mass transit production.

"Road diets," however, have yet to be discussed for implementation in Ferndale.