With increased traffic and residential and commercial development, members of the Handy Township board are seeking studies, and hopefully some changes, on a busy road.

The Handy Township Board met Monday night and authorized having Supervisor Ed Alverson send three traffic-related letters to the Livingston County Road Commission. The first is a section of Fowlerville Road from Mason Road to Damman, where the fire substation is located. Alverson tells WHMI that portion of road gets about 4,000 trips a day and speed appears to be excessive for new residents coming in. He says it’s a residential area with subdivisions plus the fire department and a nursery so it’s a really active place and difficult for people to pull out of their driveways when people are going 55 to 60mph. Alverson says they’re hoping the study will be taken seriously and maybe get the speed limit dropped to 45 mph.

The second study requested is for a section described by Alverson as a “pet peeve” because it doesn’t make any sense and involves a stretch of Fowlerville Road from I-96 to Van Buren Road – which sees roughly 4,000 trips a day per traffic counts and an area where 112 new homes will be going in. He says as you’re going south out of the Village on Fowlerville Road and get to where the Church of the Nazarene is located, the speed limit goes to 55 mph to Van Buren Road. Alverson says there are entrances along the way to the church, a car dealership, a coffee shop, a sandwich shop and a gym – with another car dealership on the opposite side. Then down the road at Van Buren is the Red Cedar Subdivision, which gets almost 4,000 trips a day off that road. Alverson says it’s very dangerous for people coming off Van Buren to turn left to go north so they’re hoping the Road Commission would reconsider the 55mph and look at lowering it, at least until get past Van Buren Road.

The final letter that will be sent is related to truck traffic coming from Fowlerville Farms Family Restaurant and seeks a review of the white line on the north side of the I-96 ramp.
Members noted it can be a dangerous area and tough for trucks to turn. Alverson says it’s a very successful restaurant and attracts a lot of truck traffic, which they have no problem with, and there is also CZ cartage trucking company. As traffic has increased, he says there are trucks pulling out of the restaurant wanting to go south on the expressway but when they go to make the left hand turn there is just sometimes not enough room to complete that turn. Alverson says they’re hoping the Road Commission could maybe work with the state to see if anything can be done there to make it better or at least move the white line back a few feet so trucks can make a successful left hand turn. (JM)