After a hectic day of school the last thing you want is a stressful drive home, but that’s not always avoidable, especially with a congestion hotspot like the corner of Plainfield and Hunsberger.
“I remember when I first started to drive I would get stressed because I didn’t know when to turn, but it got easier overtime,” senior Nicole Barto said. “The backup is still pretty long and sometimes it would take up to 20 minutes to be able to turn onto Hunsberger.”
With the traffic being so busy, one might assume that there would be a traffic light at the corner of Plainfield and Hunsberger, but Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Assistant Operations Engineer Jason Cole says otherwise.
“The simple answer is there’s not enough traffic on Hunsberger to warrant a signal at the intersection with Plainfield,” Cole said.
On March 18 The Roar monitored the traffic that drove through the intersection from 2:35 – 3:00 pm. A total of 183 cars used the intersection. The cars started to back up at around 2:40, and took about 10 minutes to clear.
Roughly 180 cars drive through that intersection every day after school during the weekdays. In 2017 two crashes occurred, and one in 2018.
Senior Kaleigh Hendricks uses the intersection daily.
“I often see people pull out onto Plainfield and turn into the turn lane and wait till it’s clear to merge into the flow of traffic. This is dangerous and cautioned against by driving instructors,” Hendricks said.
Despite the reported accidents and the heavy traffic, a light will not be added because of the light at Woodworth.
“Those signals [Woodworth St. to the south and Jupiter Ave. to the north] provide access to Plainfield, especially for vehicles making left turns,” Cole said.
Senior Jared Cromwell, along with many others think that a traffic light would be helpful only if ran for a couple of hours.
“In terms of the afternoon [have it blinking] red or yellow to keep people aware,” Cromwell said, “Just so traffic can flow through there.”