The freedom for everyone to move safely

Our focus is to create safe streets for people walking, driving, using mobility devices, biking, pushing strollers, or simply trying to cross the street without fear.

For example, when we talk about adding bike infrastructure, our focus isn’t on the small number of fearless cyclists weaving through traffic—it’s on the many people who want to bike but don’t feel safe doing so. We’re talking about grandma riding with her grandkids, a family heading downtown together, or someone running errands on a bike. If we create streets that work for them, we create streets that work better for everyone.

We use the 8 to 80 principle as a guide — aiming for streets that are safe, comfortable, and convenient whether you're 8 or 80 years old, and no matter how you get around.

Who we are

The Grand Traverse Safe Streets Alliance is a non-partisan, goal focused alliance focused on assisting in the acceleration of and providing support to regional efforts in the development of short-term tactical improvements and long-term planning and execution of safe and effective transportation corridors for all users in Traverse City and the adjacent counties in Northwestern Michigan.

Local advocacy groups enlisted in the alliance include:

Bayfront TART trail - Paved bike path with directional arrow, surrounded by autumn trees and clear blue sky, adjacent to a road.

Building on the legacy of progress

Traverse City is considered by many to be a community that’s easy to get around whether you’re walking, biking, or driving. This is something that attracts visitors and residents alike and is something we should be proud of and build upon.

In fact, Traverse City is considered one of the most bikeable cities in Michigan, while the Traverse City Strategic Plan Survey recently revealed the walkable and bikeable nature of the city is considered one of the best parts about living in Traverse City.

While we have good existing infrastructure to celebrate, there’s still more work to be done to ensure that we are creating a complete network that accommodates all users to get around safely.

Two by four vision map showing directional arrows visualizing the concept of having two east-west corridors and four north-south corridors

FAQs

  • Not yet — all of the projects on our site are conceptual ideas created to start conversations about ways we can improve particular streets or intersections. They aren’t final engineered plans, they’re just ideas to get people thinking and excited about potential improvements.

  • Education is definitely part of the solution, and we fully support efforts to teach people how to walk, bike, and drive safely. But education alone isn’t enough if the streets themselves are unsafe by design.

    People make mistakes. We’re human. That’s why we need streets that are designed in a way where one wrong move doesn’t lead to a serious injury or death. Even the most educated and careful people can end up in unsafe situations without good infrastructure.

    For example, the Bayfront TART trail gives thousands of people a safe, comfortable way to walk and bike parallel to Grandview Parkway. If that trail didn’t exist, no amount of education would make Grandview Parkway a safe place for people walking or biking because the road simply isn’t designed for them.

    Safe infrastructure and education go hand-in-hand: when we pair thoughtful design with community education, we create environments where people can make good choices and feel safe doing so.

    So yes, we’re all in on education. But we also know that the most effective way to prevent crashes and save lives is to build streets that are safe by default.

  • Since we’re an advocacy group, we don’t directly determine what projects actually get implemented. Instead, we aim to be the voice of the community to bring to leaders in government to assist with and push for the development of particular safety improvement project ideas.

    If you have a spot in mind that you’d like to share with us, feel free to do so here. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

  • Absolutely not!

    Driving is a critical way of getting around this region, and our goal is to create safe and efficient roads for everyone—whether you’re driving, walking, biking, or using transit.

    Since our roads already accommodate vehicles by default, there are naturally more opportunities to find quick and easy safety improvements for the most vulnerable road users, like people walking or biking, who face a much higher risk of injury or death in a crash.

    However, there are plenty of roads in this region that should be improved to be safer for drivers, too. While road modifications for vehicles are typically larger investments, it’s absolutely a goal of the alliance to advocate for projects that improve driver safety as well.

  • Bike lanes can actually make the roads safer for everyone, including drivers. When people biking have their own space, it reduces accidents between them and cars, which means less risk for you behind the wheel. Plus, giving more people a safe and comfortable way to get around without a car means less trips taken by car and less traffic on the road for you. It’s a win-win situation!

  • The Grand Traverse Safe Streets Alliance’s initial efforts have focused on quick safety improvements within the Traverse City region as a starting point. This is where we believe we can make the most immediate impact.

    However, our long-term vision is to expand the alliance’s work across the entire Grand Traverse region, working on projects that can benefit all counties in the area. Traverse City is just where we've begun—there’s much more to come!

  • Yes! Fill out the form on our Get Involved page and we’ll be in touch with how you can help create change in our region!