A crumbling stretch of Michigan Avenue in Lansing could take years to fix and a CATA bus project is part of the hold-up.
CATA wants to add a Bus Rapid Transit line from downtown Lansing to Okemos. It would span nearly 8-miles down Michigan Avenue and Grand River.
"Right now the traffic is so bad and the roads are so bad that we don't have customers," said Shirley Decker, Co-Owner of Mertz Meats, where the bus line would run past.
Decker is concerned that's going to get worse, since the city is waiting on the proposed bus project to start road work.
"We have to wait three more years to have one of the worst streets in Ingham County fixed," Decker added.
By Decker's store the project would add a bus lane down the middle of Michigan Avenue, which means eliminating the left turn lane.
"Once you put in a designated lane where nobody can turn left except at certain areas, now that affects the existing businesses," Decker said.
CATA says the project will help create business since it's improving public transportation and getting buses out of the travel lanes.
In a statement to Fox 47 News, it said, "our customers deserve quality transportation which, in many cases, allow them to access life-sustaining services, jobs and an education."
CATA also says the project will make the roads safer. "Studies show that adding medians reduces auto-to-auto accidents by 39 percent and auto-to-pedestrian accidents by 46 percent. Traveling a few tenths of a mile to make a U-turn seems a small price to pay to prevent an accident."
The city of Lansing says it's waiting to fix the stretch of Michigan Avenue from Sparrow Hospital to the East Lansing line since it's easier to coordinate construction with CATA. But if the bus project doesn't go through, Lansing says it will still fix the road.
Something Decker can't wait to see, but she's still hoping there's another solution.
"There's got to be a better way to make this a little better and use the existing mass transit," she added.
Nothing is set in stone but CATA is hoping to start construction in the fall of next year and finish by 2019.
