Bustling Canton Retail Corridor Wayne County’s Most Dangerous

CANTON TOWNSHIP, MI — When it comes to municipal problems, this isn’t a horrible one to have. Ford Road is booming and several businesses constructing new or renovating old ones promise new jobs and more entertainment options in Canton, but some residents are worried about the effect of additional traffic on an already dangerous corridor.

Three of the intersections with the most crashes in Wayne County are located in the bustling 2½-mile retail corridor along Ford Road, or M-153. Therein lies Canton Township's conundrum: At least one of the new businesses, Art Van Furniture, said it chose the Canton Township for a store expected in mid-summer 2017 because of the taffic.

“Ford Road is a very busy road,” Diane Charles, vice president of corporate communications for Art Van, told The Detroit News. “It’s a good retail corridor. That was the No. 1 attraction.”

Michigan’s only IKEA store anchors an area that has drawn businesses like Chipotle, which opened last week, and Tom+Cheese, MOD Pizza, World of Beer, T.J. Maxx, Fresh Thyme and Art Van. And they're all near the intersections cited by Michigan Auto Law in a June analysis of Michigan State Police Traffic Crash Reporting Unit data.

Topping the list of dangerous Wayne County intersections is Haggerty and Ford, which was also No. 6 in the state with 116 crashes in 2015. Ford and Lilley was No. 2 in Wayne County with 89 crashes, and M-153 and Canton, with 60 crashes, was No. 6. Accidents have increased over the last three years at each of the intersections, according to the analysis.

Residents interviewed by The Detroit News said they look forward to new shopping and entertainment options, but have reservations.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” said Nicole Runyan, of Canton. “I love the convenience and shopping, but I’m not a fan of the traffic and parking.”

Todd Berg, an attorney for Michigan Auto Law, told The Detroit News that the Canton corridor is “perfect example” of a corridor carrying more traffic than planners imagined.

Some highway improvements have been made to accommodate the additional traffic, and the township has created a boulevard plan with the Michigan Department of Transportation to ease congestion, but a source of the more than $40 million to build it hasn’t been identified.

“Trying to improve the road is key,” Canton Supervisor Phil LaJoy told the newspaper. “It’s one of those things, where, if I were king, it would be fixed, but it’s all about the money.”

» Go to The Detroit News for more on this story.