MAUMEE, Ohio —
If you drive on Conant Street, you may notice how busy it is during rush hour. As a traffic study is in the works for the city of Maumee, Conant Street will soon be reduced to a one lane street each way.
A engineer firm will study the traffic over the next two to three months to make recommendations to the city.
"And so we're trying to make changes and see if we can better the uptown businesses in Maumee,” said Mayor Richard Carr of Maumee.
Ohio department of transportation estimated about 33,000 vehicles drive on Conant Street a day which raises a lot of concerns for the safety and tourism aspect of the community.
"We also have to remember the old uptown business area in Maumee needs our attention too. So you have to look at different alternatives keep an open mind to make it a little bit less traffic on Conant Street, they say max is about 18-25 thousand we are at 33 and it's growing,” said Carr.
Carr is encouraging the citizens and semi-truck drivers to keep an open mind and find alternative routes to preserve the beauty and history of the city.
"But as the population continues to grow traffic continues to increase the problem is going to get worse and eventually we will lose our uptown business district Because of how heavy that traffic is and then you lose a little bit of the history of Maumee because that's where the community all started is right up on Conant Street right across the bridge,” added Carr.
Carr said that this plan will also include on street parking on both sides of Conant. Council members will ultimately make the final decision about what happens with uptown traffic.