MAUMEE, Ohio — Kathleen O'Connell has lived in south Toledo her whole life. Traffic has always been a part of her life, but the occasional standstill traffic on the Anthony Wayne Trail is on a different level.
"You never know from day to day what's going to be blocked off," O'Connell said. "You go down Detroit (Avenue), you turn and then everything is blocked off. I feel bad for the businesses over there."
One of those businesses is Biggby Coffee, right on the corner of Anthony Wayne and Detroit. Owner Gary Dible always had plenty of business until the traffic changes made it harder to get to the store. Dible said he's lost a sizable chunk of customers because of the construction.
"It's significantly impacted our sales," Dible said. "As a result of that, we've had to back off on our staffing, which I just hate doing."
Dible is still holding out hope that when crews are done, the business will return to what it was before.
"Time will tell," Dible said. "There's nothing I can do about it. Just wait and see."
According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, the city of Maumee conducted a study in 2017 that determined eliminating the intersection would make drivers use the light down at Town Street. But O'Connell and others wonder if all the construction will make that much of a difference.
"I don't think it was bad to begin with," O'Connell said. "You can kind of get set in your ways. I'm older so I'm pretty well set the way things were. I think all the new roundabouts and drive-arounds, I don't know if they've really achieved their goal or not."