What in the world is the City of Alpena trying to prove? The flow of traffic downtown has been smooth and logical. Parking, if not plentiful, has been adequate and accessible with no need for unconventional plans that are not quite self explanatory. What is the impetus for moving to a congested, narrow laned, conflict laden system that will allow every left turn and parking maneuver to block and hinder thru vehicles and give pedestrians an opportunity to practice their dodging skills as they cross the street? The revised system will not well sync up with the M-32 one-way system west of Chisholm and it will not allow westbound traffic to proceed without making a series of right/left turns.

Traffic flow is often a matter of how left turns are handled and several of these “opportunities” are being unnecessarily introduced. The Alpena News has not had any illuminating articles as to why this change was justified and it is certainly not evident from compliance with any traffic engineering principles that I have been exposed to.

Next year maybe try a “roundabout”?

Wayne Gunderman

Alpena