Kalamazoo road diets: crashes fell 39% on three converted streets, the city says, and Cork Street is next in 2027

KALAMAZOO — Three Kalamazoo streets that were cut from four lanes to three are seeing far fewer crashes, according to a new city review.

The city compared crashes on Portage Street, Whites Road and Oakland Drive before and after their “road diets.” The three corridors averaged 92 crashes a year from 2017 through 2019 and had 56 in 2025, a 39% drop, the City of Kalamazoo said in an Oct. 23 release.

Reading the numbers

Part of that drop came from lighter traffic. The city said traffic on those streets was about 13% lower in 2025 than in 2019. Measured as crashes per million vehicle miles traveled, the rate still fell about 30%, from 5.64 to 3.96.

The biggest change was away from traffic lights. When crashes within 250 feet of a signal are left out, the 2025 crash rate was about 59% lower than before the conversions.

This year’s gain is smaller. Through Sept. 11, the three corridors had 56 crashes, 13% below the 2017-to-2019 average of 64.7 for the same stretch of the year. Away from signals, 2026 shows 13 crashes so far, compared with an average of 23.

Citywide, Kalamazoo recorded 2,808 crashes in 2025, compared with an average of about 3,627 a year from 2016 through 2019, a drop of about 22.6%, the release said.

“Road diets work,” said Dennis Randolph, the city’s public works manager and traffic engineer. He said left turns on four-lane streets block the inside lanes and cause weaving and lane changes.

Portage Street now

City crews just finished the Portage Street lane conversion from Stockbridge Avenue south to East Cork Street. The street now has one lane each way, a center turn lane, bike lanes on both sides, pedestrian islands, marked bus stops and white “optical speed markers” painted in the turn lane near Alcott Street.

Before the change, average speeds on that stretch ran in the mid-30s, and the 85th-percentile speed was near 40 mph, the city said. It expects drivers to need two to three weeks to adjust and trips to take about one to two minutes longer. “The trade-off,” Randolph said, “is a much safer street.”

Cork Street is next

The next conversion will turn Cork Street between Westnedge Avenue and Portage Street into a three-lane road, starting next spring and running through fall. The $1.15 million project is backed by a $750,000 federal highway safety grant the City Commission just approved.

It will add pedestrian islands, bike lanes and rectangular rapid flashing beacons at crossings at Park, Rose, Ash and Burke streets. The work is part of the city’s Safe Streets for All Safety Action Plan, which the city says also opens the door to more federal money for street safety.

Sources:
City of Kalamazoo, “Kalamazoo Road Diets Show Safety Benefits on City Streets,” Oct. 23, 2026 (corridor crash table, exposure and rate figures, citywide totals, Randolph quotes, Portage Street features and speeds, Cork Street cost, grant and scope), https://www.kalamazoocity.org/News-articles/Kalamazoo-Road-Diets-Show-Safety-Benefits-on-City-Streets
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, “The Art Deco-style city hall, completed in 1930 in Kalamazoo, Michigan.jpg,” Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons, public domain, cropped, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Art_Deco-style_city_hall,_completed_in_1930_in_Kalamazoo,_Michigan.jpg

Kalamazoo

Tags: Kalamazoo · Road Diet · Traffic Safety · Portage Street · Cork Street · Safe Streets for All