Woodward Heights Design Plans – June 2023

Toole Design has created short- and long-term plans for Woodward Heights. The short-term plan will be implemented as soon as the work can be bid and completed by a contractor. The long-term plans will be implemented once funding can be secured.

• Short Term Plan (west end)
• Short Term Plan (east end)
• Long Term Plan (west end)
• Long Term Plan (west end – alternate)
• Long Term Plan (east end)
• Basis of Design

The short-term design uses paint and plastic bollards to create horizontal deflection along the street. The short-term plans feature alternating-side parking, which causes travel lanes to weave back and forth along the length of the street. Additionally, there are median islands created using paint and plastic bollards between Woodward Avenue and the alley, and at Indiana. These low-cost, short-term improvements will allow us to gather data on traffic volume and speed reductions, and to gain experience with the practical impact of these design features on residents of the street.

The short-term improvements will remain in place until the long-term plan is implemented, or if the short-term improvements area directed to be removed by action of the City Commission.

The long-term plan includes a raised intersection at Bermuda to add vertical deflection, and the option to either make the median islands permanent at the alley and Indiana intersections or to eliminate the median islands and install a raised intersection at Indiana. The final decision on what design to pursue for the long-term plans will be made later considering input from Woodward Heights residents and data on the effectiveness of the short-term changes. The number of driveways along Woodward Heights made designing the median islands difficult, and we will be interested in the lived experience of residents on the street with the temporary median islands before deciding which long-term plan to pursue.

Woodward Heights Traffic Management Study – 2022

Woodward Heights is a major collector street located in the City of Pleasant Ridge that has experienced increased traffic volumes, including truck traffic, in recent years. Woodward Heights has a residential character in Pleasant Ridge, which is at odds with the increase in traffic volume. This study seeks to engage residents and reach consensus on improvements and methods that can be implemented to mitigate traffic and improve quality of life for residents on the street.

The City retained Toole Design to study traffic issues on Woodward Heights, and to generate recommendations to address those issues.

The CIty Commission voted to proceed with design work for option 5 – non-operational traffic calming measures on November 15. The City will work with Toole Design to prepare a design plan for traffic calming measures on the street.

Click Here to view the Final Report

Documents and Resources

• Public Engagement Summary
• September 27, 2022 Public Meeting Video
• September 27, 2022 Public Meeting #2 Presentation
• Existing Conditions Report
• Survey and Public Engagement Summary
• July 14, 2022 Public Meeting Presentation
• City Request for Qualifications Document

Latest Project Updates

• The second public meeting for the Woodward Heights Traffic Management Study took place on Tuesday, September 27. The project team summarized the traffic analysis conducted to date and gathered feedback from residents on potential alternatives. The meeting video is available in the “Documents and Resources” section above.
• August 18: Community survey and public engagement summary have been posted in the Documents and Resources section above.

  The project team is using StreetLight Data to learn more about travel patterns on Woodward Heights and throughout Pleasant Ridge. StreetLight gathers data from smart phones and navigation devices and combines this data with other sources such as parcel data and road network data to analyze travel patterns. StreetLight analyses will be performed to determine the origins and destinations of trips on Woodward Heights, trip and traveler attributes, and top routes to and from Woodward Heights. Separate analyses are being conducted for truck traffic, and all vehicle traffic.

• July 14: Toole Design has completed the first two public participation events. These events were intended for Toole Design to hear from the community and learn about the concerns about traffic on Woodward Heights.

  Toole Design will now take the results of the community survey, the public participation events, and their data collection and complete their analysis. They will also be developing recommendations to present to the community at a videoconference public meeting in September.

Email Updates

Click here to sign up to receive email updates about this project as it progresses.

Public Participation Opportunities

Residents of Woodward Heights, and the City at large, will have multiple opportunities to engage in this process:

• The community survey (now complete). The purpose of the survey was to gain feedback on Woodward Heights traffic issues, and on traffic issues in the City generally.
• Toole Design hosted stakeholder walks on Woodward Heights on Wednesday, July 13 at 4pm and 6pm. These walks were intended for Woodward Heights residents to be able to interact directly with the project team, and were open only to interested Woodward Heights residents.
• A public meeting was held in the breezeway at Iron Ridge (660 E. 10 Mile Road) at 6pm on Thursday, July 14. Toole Design facilitated discussion around traffic issues and presented baseline data that had been collected.
• A second public meeting will be held via Zoom in September. Toole Design will present findings of the traffic analysis and other reasarch, and will present potential Woodward Heights changes for discussion and feedback.
• The final report and recommendations will be delivered by Toole Design in late October.

Postcards were mailed to every house in the City notifying residents about the survey and the engagement events.

Summary of Prior Actions

The City has been actively working on Woodward Heights traffic since 2018. Following is a summary of actions:

• Fall 2018 – Woodward Heights-Bermuda Stop Sign Warrant Study
• January 2019 – Traffic Calming Town Hall meeting, with a focus on Woodward Heights test projects
• February 2019 – City Commission adopts Pleasant Ridge Traffic Calming Manual
• Spring-Fall 2019 – Woodward Heights under construction in Ferndale, precludes installing test projects in Pleasant Ridge
• Fall 2019 – Edge stripes added to visually narrow the street
• Summer 2020 – Test projects installed on Woodward Heights, data collection & resident feedback
• Summer 2021 – Stop sign moved from Bermuda North to Bermuda South (per the 2018 stop sign warrant study)
• Fall 2021 – resident petition to close Woodward Heights
• Winter 2022 – Pleasant Ridge hires Toole Design to conduct traffic management study