Changes Coming to Summit Street

Lauren Mazza

Anchor Intro: The city of Kent is planning on making many changes to Summit Street, as we previously reported here at TV2. While details for many of the plans haven’t been decided, there is one plan that is pretty developed. TV2’s Lauren Mazza has the story.

Ask any student who drives on Summit Street, and it’s pretty certain they will tell you how frustrating it is.

SOT (Katy Brown, KSU Student): YOU LITERALLY CAN’T GET THROUGH… IT TAKES YOU LIKE TEN MINUTES TO GO TWO BLOCKS.

SOT (Todd Wendorf, KSU Student: IT’S TERRIBLE. YOU CAN’T GO ANYWHERE, YOU JUST SIT AT AN INTERSECTION FOR HOURS AND YOU JUST NEVER GET WHERE YOU NEED TO GO.

One particularly bad part of Summit Street is the stretch between Lincoln and Morris/Janik.

There are no left turn lanes or thru lanes and the road only has two lanes.

City Engineer Jim Bowling realizes the dangers of these intersections and has plans to change it.

SOT (Jim Bowling, City Engineer): IF WE CAN FIND A SOLUTION THAT MAKES IT SAFER FOR THEM TO EXIT WITHOUT BEING OVERLY COSTLY, THEN WE WOULD TRY AND DO THAT.

So what is his primary plan?

That stretch of Summit will be widened to four lanes.

A left and right turn lane will be added at the intersection of Summit and Lincoln.

There will also be a thru lane to greatly improve traffic flow.

SOT (Lauren Mazza, TV2 Reporter) KENT STATE UNIVERSITY POLICE ALSO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS STRETCH OF ROAD. THEY HAVE A HARD TIME GETTING IN AND OUT OF STOCKDALE DRIVE.

SOT (James Peach, KSU Cheif of Police): WE DON’T HAVE THE COOPERATION WE WOULD LIKE FROM MOST PEOPLE THAT ARE ON SUMMIT STREET. THERE’S JUST TOO MANY CARS IN AND OUT STOPPING TRAFFIC.

To fix this problem, the driveway will become right turn in right turn out.

This will also hold true for the back entrance that leads to the geology building.

Remember, these changes will not cost students or residents any additional money.

For TV2 news, I’m Lauren Mazza.