Downtown Grand Rapids has had several traffic closures due to construction. With Lyon Street, Fountain Street and most recently College Avenue undering going construction, many students have had to take detours and make changes to their daily commute to Grand Rapids Community College’s main campus.
On March 15, GRCC Communications sent out a press release stating that they would no longer provide updates on traffic closures.
“Rather than filling your inbox every time there is a new closing, we encourage you to regularly check road closure updates on the local news and city websites and plan your route accordingly,” stated GRCC Communications on GRCC Today
For months now, GRCC has sent emails alerting students on closures and what detours to take when driving to campus. The Collegiate asked students what they thought about this change and if they had found the updates helpful.
“I like the updates a lot, but I wish they would give them out in advance instead of the day of. I want more time for space before going to school,” said Kayla Fieles, 19, of Middleville.
Divine Irankunda, 19, also agreed that the emails are useful for everyone that comes to campus. “Too many emails but it’s very helpful, even for people who don’t drive.”
“When it first started it took me like 30 minutes just to find a parking spot and to get here,” said Pedro Gutierrez, 21. When he was asked if getting an email alert helps,” Gutierrez said. “Honestly, it does. It just alerts me for when things are going to happen.”
Odin Snowdeal, 19, of Grand Rapids, said that the emails are helpful and asked why the amount of emails matters when students already deal with a ton of emails.
“Yeah, I think it would be really helpful, I mean especially if you can look to see if it affects you or not,” said Snowdeal. “We get a lot of emails anyways, what does it matter, especially if they’re helpful? It seems strange that they would take that away.”
Several GPS apps such as Inrix, Waze, Google Maps and Maps (Apple) notify drivers when there are traffic closures. The City of Grand Rapids also has a Road Closure Map that allows drivers to look at what road closures are currently being worked on as well as future closures and when they are scheduled to begin.
So that’s just a GIS updated map that shows all the road closure or road construction projects and their detours on it,” said Communications and Outreach Analyst at The City of Grand Rapids Max Gilles. “It has some individual pages for larger construction projects, things that are probably impacting you over a couple of months.”
Drivers can also sign up to receive construction email notices and updates. Gilles explained that the city is looking to be able to send alerts via text to drivers on closures more specific to their daily commute hopefully by the summer.
“We’re working with the same company (as the city’s emergency system) to try to have something so folks can get text notifications for road closures because obviously email is a little bit cumbersome,” Gilles said. “ Some people don’t check it very often at all and text is a little bit more convenient for some people…before we do that we’re trying to figure out a way to localize the road closure notifications.”
Gilles said that the most important thing to do when on the road with closures is to take your time and get to your destination safely.
“Sometimes the road closures can be frustrating, but it’s never ok to speed around or do something dangerous to try to avoid one or save some time…At the end of the day, the most important thing is getting to where you’re trying to go safely.”
Logan Goralski and Sydnee Bennett contributed to this story.
