The Detroit City Council wants the Michigan Department of Transportation to help make Gratiot Avenue safer.
The council approved a resolution Tuesday that would strongly urge MDOT to prioritize implementing a Complete Streets design for the roadway. The design approach aims to provide safe and convenient access for all users regardless of age, ability or mode of transportation.
The resolution — authored by Council Member Scott Benson and was joined Tuesday by Council Member Latisha Johnson — encourages MDOT to work with the city to find community-centered solutions to make Gratiot a safer and more accessible street through what’s called a Safe System Approach.
In addition to street designs improvements, the resolution promotes safer speed limits and targeting high-injury and high-crash areas. The council’s resolution ultimately supports Detroit’s Vision Zero resolution, which was adopted in 2022 as a means of seeking to “eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries” in the city.
Gratiot Avenue spans roughly 120 feet across, including three vehicle lanes in each direction, a center turn lane and curbside parking on both sides. It’s part of Detroit’s High Injury Network, which represents 3% of streets where 34% of all serious crashes occur. According to the resolution, one section of Gratiot Ave alone — from Eight Mile to Randolph near Greektown — saw over 2,500 crashes, nearly 40 fatalities and over 1,200 injuries from 2019-2023.
The section received a $12.5 million Safe Streets for All grant from the US Department of Transportation and State of Michigan Infrastructure Office grant last year. The grant however prevents the city from removing lanes or reducing traffic capacity.
A 2024 state study found that Gratiot’s width and “auto-oriented character” are barriers to pedestrians, affecting the social, educational, and economic opportunities for people living in adjacent neighborhoods.
“Gratiot Avenue was designed for even greater volumes than it serves today, leading to excessive speeds which creates dangerous conditions for people walking, biking, and riding transit along the corridor,” the 2024 report from MDOT states. “As a result, Gratiot Avenue is a corridor that people tend to pass through, rather than visit outside of several key activity nodes, and divides neighborhoods, rather than unite them.”
The council on Tuesday also voted to expand the resolution recipients to include the Federal Highway Commission and Detroit’s federal representatives. This includes US Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin as well as US Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Shri Thanedar.
Johnson told BridgeDetroit Tuesday that the resolution is “recognizing how many fatalities we’ve had on Gratiot, how many incidents we’ve had as well, and really trying to figure out how we can calm traffic, where the federal administration is pushing back on shrinking the road.”
The Trump administration’s Safe Streets and Roads for All program makes it more difficult to receive funding for projects that reduce lane capacity for vehicles, according to a funding notice issued last year. Narrowing city streets through “road diets” is still recognized as a way to improve safety by the US Department of Transportation and Detroit’s street design standards.
“I was just supporting the resolution to identify ways that we can all agree on to help make Gratiot a safer street,” Johnson added, “recognizing that we have dollars to be able to do some of the things that we’ve done to calm traffic on other streets in the city of Detroit, but really advocating for the federal administration to allow those dollars to be used to calm traffic.”
MDOT Metro Region spokesperson Diane Cross said in a statement to BridgeDetroit Tuesday that MDOT is already “actively working” with both the city and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) to improve safety along the M-3/Gratiot area. She said the groups are considering several methods to improve crossings, including shortening pedestrian crossing distances and enhancing bus stops.
Cross said MDOT’s planned 2033 reconstruction project on M‑3/Gratiot from the I‑75 Connector to I‑94 will, “create an opportunity to incorporate some complete streets design elements.”
Cross also addressed MDOT’s limits in this project. She noted the M-3/Gratiot area’s designation as a truck route, and pointed out trucks pushed off the roadway would end up in neighborhoods. She also said, given that MDOT is not an enforcement agency, it ultimately relies on the Detroit Police Department to enforce speeding limits and address jaywalking.
