GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Traffic at a Grand Rapids intersection has become a nightmare for people who shop and work there.
On Monday the Fuller Avenue and Michigan Street intersection closed for construction. The city says it will be like this for three or four weeks.
The city has provided a number of detours but that's not stopping people from creating their own routes. Often, those routes go right through business parking lots.
"We sat for about 35 minutes because of the traffic," said Arielle Kolb, who was waiting in the pharmacy line at Walgreens. "People are pulling in and trying to cut in through the lot, which is highly frustrating to get around the traffic."
It's a potentially dangerous situation playing out around the construction zone. It's happening so much so that GRPD is targeting the area and writing tickets for perpetrators.
A GRPD spokesperson sent this reminder:
"Using parking lots as a detour to avoid construction is illegal. This is for everyone's safety. Parking lots are not designed for heavy traffic volumes, especially at higher speeds, which can endanger patrons and employees of the businesses who use the lots, construction workers in and around the area, and other pedestrians. There is also a high risk of traffic crashes."
Our cameras saw it firsthand:
GRPD has started targeted enforcement and issuing tickets.
It says their message is simple: "use posted detours, not parking lots, to get around construction."
GRPD said that behavior violates a number of traffic laws but most specifically one vehicle code. It's posted below.
MICHIGAN VEHICLE CODE (EXCERPT)
Act 300 of 1949
257.611 Traffic control devices; obedience required; exception; avoiding obedience by driving on public or private property; violation as civil infraction.
Sec. 611.
(1) The driver of a vehicle or operator of a streetcar shall not disobey the instructions of a traffic control device placed in accordance with this chapter unless at the time otherwise directed by a police officer.
(2) The driver of a vehicle shall not, for the purpose of avoiding obedience to a traffic control device placed in accordance with this chapter, drive upon or through private property, or upon or through public property which is not a street or highway.
(3) A person who violates this section is responsible for a civil infraction.
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