Opinion: Say No to the Road Diet

A response to Mr. Robson

The following op-ed was written and submitted by City Councilman Matthew Bentley of Ward 2 in response to Luke Robson’s op-ed from last week.

Luke Robson is an important man of Hillsdale. I am glad he has chosen to make this area his home. I do not relish being his opponent on this or any other issue. I have known Luke since before I got into local politics. The town at large—and I, personally—benefit from his generosity, and I consider him a friend. Unfortunately, we find ourselves at odds over a fundamental question concerning the town we both love: the M-99 Road Diet. The issue is likely approaching its final vote. One side will win, and the other will lose.

The proposed “Road Diet” is the most sensitive, and therefore the most political issue that I expect to encounter. It involves the whole of the people. The costs and benefits of such a fundamental change would be distributed unevenly. In no sense is this a “Win-Win.” Most of the people remain unsuspecting that such a radical change is being considered by the powers-that-be. That in no way means that their opinions do not matter. Naturally, people will not have the same information, the same participation, the same interests. It is therefore necessary that elected representatives be conscientious and vigilant against special interests and busybodies, who, in the name of the “Common Good,” encroach upon the rights and interests of the people as a whole.

Proponents of the Road Diet argue that Hillsdale’s downtown is hostile to pedestrians. But in my opinion it is a disservice to our community to exaggerate the tensions between motorists and pedestrians. The vast majority of us are both good drivers and careful pedestrians. Most of us consider ourselves competent at navigating the streets of Hillsdale safely, both walking and driving. We know that wherever there is street traffic, danger lurks. No one should be lulled into complacency that crosswalks or bike lanes confer any real security. Vigilance around moving vehicles will always be indispensible.

Road logistics aside, the process leading up to this is critical to my opposition. The people did not initiate this change, remain largely unaware of the plans or the process, and will be outraged if it were ever to become a reality. They did not request to have the major artery through town arbitrarily constricted for the imagined benefit of an arrogant few who mean to impose their vision of a bright, beautiful, boutique future, regardless of the lives of the actual current residents of the Hillsdale area. The people who will be most affected—who live south of town—have not been informed of what may be stolen from them. Hundreds from Ash Te Wette, Pittsford and Osseo use Broad Street on a daily basis. They will be burdened with much longer commutes. The Chief of Police was not consulted; was the fairgrounds? Imagine a dieted Broad Street during Fair Week.

Nor did the people’s so-called representatives on council oversee the decision-making beyond the occasional rubberstamp vote to allow staff and the bureaucrats and the experts to plow ahead behind closed doors. The current understanding is that MDOT will repave from Hallett to City Hall, using only state money, regardless whether City council votes. So what exactly will the one million additional dollars be spent on? What can it be spent on? No one has yet explained.

And so the entire process has been obscured. I do not believe city council held even one committee meeting during the year and a half since they voted to pay $13,000 for a “placemaking” study. While Zoning Administrator Alan Beeker gave occasional updates to the planning commission,¹ there is no indication that that board pushed this along in any substantive way.

I propose tabling the vote and forming an ad hoc committee to consider if the timing of the traffic lights could accomplish much of the calming. A traffic light, a left turn lane at Hallett, and perhaps even at Steamburg might go a long way toward deterring excessive speed. Another proposal is to open a big, beautiful corridor between Oak Street and McCollum. Though there may be many obstacles to such an undertaking, the litany of benefits is too long to enumerate here.

For too long the participation of the public and their representatives has been, at best, ignored, and at worst, shunned. The process, had it been driven by representatives, would have been very different. MDOT mandates and parameters would have been clear to all concerned. The financial incentives and budget projections would be made clear. Citizens and stakeholders would have been asked for feedback at every step.

Instead, staff has been hiding the ball while trying to ram it into the endzone for five months. Council, for the most part, has been passive in its oversight. Now we are told that there is no ability to make changes and no more time—though MDOT repudiated staff’s timeline: there is no deadline looming. The repaving will begin in 2027. Mr. Beeker considers his work to have culminated. Very well then: now let’s give interested councilmen the time and space to dig into this “final” product. Let us finally engage in some due diligence concerning this issue which is of concern to the whole of the people. Table the vote!

Matthew Bentley

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1. See just one example of the minutes from a 2024 planning commission meeting below: