EAST GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A tragedy back in June is causing city leaders in East Grand Rapids to consider even more safety upgrades than they already had in the works.
On Monday night, the city commission voted unanimously to buy and install four flashing beacons for uncontrolled crosswalks at the following locations:
- Breton Road and Elinor Lane
- Lakeside Drive and Reeds Lake Boulevard
- El Centro and Reeds Lake Boulevard
- Manhattan Road and Reeds Lake Boulevard
City commissioners say a study had been done for all those flashing beacons before 67-year-old Kenneth Pesonen was killed in June. Pesonen was riding a Onewheel at the corner of Breton and Berwyck Road when a car hit and killed him.
Pesonon's death has city leaders discussing whether an additional flashing beacon should be placed at that intersection, which is right outside Breton Downs Elementary School. Before that will happen, a study will be done. City leaders say they only have a short window to do the study, which will be completed sometime in September at the earliest.
"In our community, which is different than most communities, we see very different pedestrian activity patterns when school is in session and not in session, for obvious reasons. And if we were to do studies in the summertime, we had a different population and generally those locations, especially by schools, are much lower volume than obviously they are when we have all the children going in the morning and afternoon to and from those campuses," said deputy city manager Doug La Fave.
"We'll be looking at other locations that we have here when school starts up here in the 19th and we'll do that until the weather turns sometime in October. We're really trying to make sure that we don't have those other variables that really have that impact on decreasing pedestrian counts."
Until a study is complete, a school crossing guard will be helping children get across the street at Breton and Berwyck.
Discussion on the possible addition of a flashing beacon and Breton and Berwyck took more than an hour on Monday night. During public comment, two residents told commissioners they'd like to see one installed there. Commissioners want people in the city to know they're not taking these requests lightly.
"I hope that we can be very clear and very precise about how we are considering this, that we are considering this in light of Kenneth Pesonen's passing at the accident back in June, that we are not delaying action, but this is part of the action, and we are looking to move swiftly," said city commissioner Abbie Groff-Blaszak.