Midland to End Road Diet

Midland’s City Council has voted to end the road diet on Buttles Street early.

For the past 18 months, Buttles has been reduced to two lanes from three. The Michigan Department of Transportation study was supposed to take three years to complete, but after numerous complaints from city residents, the road diet will wrap up at the end of the year. The study’s purpose was to see how reducing the lanes would impact the flow of traffic, the safety of pedestrians and more.

While MDOT says the data will be incomplete, it has remained neutral throughout the process, with all decisions regarding the road diet resting with the council. City Clerk Selena Tisdale says the council will look at the available data and make a decision on whether to keep the road at three lanes or change it to two.