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2395 W. 12 Mile Road
Berkley, MI 48072

For General Police or Fire Inquiries: 248.658.3380 

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Fire Lane and Sign Consistency Update Project

Fire Lane and Sign Consistency Update Project

From 2020-2021, a comprehensive inventory was completed by traffic engineers from the City’s engineering firm, Hubbel, Roth, and Clark (HRC); Public Safety; and Public Works to examine all current traffic, fire lane, and “no parking” signs on the City of Berkley streets. Safety was the number one priority of the inventory, whose goal was to determine which signs were out-of-date and needed to be either removed or updated to create consistency and follow safety recommendations. 

The sign inventory confirmed that there were numerous signs placed years ago (sometimes up to 50 years) to alleviate issues that may no longer exist, and that many Traffic Control Orders (TCOs) were temporary in nature and never meant to be permanent. This lack of consistency and variation throughout the City left residents and business owners confused and frustrated in the past. 

The inventory provided our Department of Public Safety with data to make an informed decision about which roads can allow parking on both sides, which can allow parking on one side, and which cannot allow on-street parking at all. Based on the requirement of fitting emergency vehicles on any road, HRC recommended, and the City adopted, the below standards:

  • Roads less than 20 feet wide: No parking allowed on either side of the road; fire lane
  • Roads 20-25 feet wide: No parking allowed on the fire hydrant side; fire lane
  • Roads greater than 25 feet wide: No parking restrictions

Public Safety needs to access all locations at all times, so every road needs to accommodate emergency vehicles. The inventory allowed our Public Works department to remove “no parking” signs on numerous roads with widths of at least 25 feet, giving back parking spaces in front of residences that did not need to be restricted. These roads had been unnecessarily labeled as fire lanes in the past and the inventory found that they did not need this designation in order for emergency vehicles to pass through. An additional committee involving HRC, Public Safety, Public Works, and Berkley Schools administration and principals examined the traffic flow and parking around all five schools in the City and implemented safety changes in September of 2022.

The process of updating, removing, and adding traffic and “no parking” signs has been ongoing over the past few years, with plans for completion in 2024.

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