The installation of a traffic light at the scene of an accident
last Sunday’s that killed two University students would cost
the city $100,000.

But costs weren’t the subject of last night’s City
Council meeting, where council members and Mayor John Hieftje
listened to Ann Arbor residents debate the merits of installing the
traffic light.

Last Sunday, Engineering students Teh Nannie Roshema Roslan and
Norhananim Zainol attended a Ramadan iftar, or meal for breaking
the fast, at the Islamic Center of Ann Arbor.

Officials at the Ann Arbor Police Department said Roslan and
Zainol were possibly walking back to their dorm on North Campus and
were crossing the center lane of the five-lane road, when an
oncoming truck hit them. The two women died after arriving at the
University Hospital.

The mosque and an Islamic school are located near the Plymouth
intersection.

The traffic incident has prompted discussions between Ann Arbor
Muslim leaders and city officials. The two groups held a meeting
last Monday and then a follow-up meeting last Thursday.

According to Kristine Abouzahr, spokeswoman for the Muslim
Community Association of Ann Arbor, leaders from the mosque have
been trying to convince city officials to put in a traffic light at
the junction since 1988. The Islamic Center was built in 1985.

“It hurts me deeply that the political capital that got us
here had to be this tragic accident,” she said.

Abouzahr, who used to teach at the Michigan Islamic Academy,
said that she and another teacher took their concerns to the
city’s School Safety Commission in 1990.

“We called and visited three private schools and three
public schools in Ann Arbor to ask them about the safety measures
they instituted for their students, and we also took pictures of
their intersections and our intersection,” she said.

The city conducted a survey in response to their concerns but
after the survey, officials said they couldn’t disrupt
traffic flow, Abouzahr said.

Non-Muslim Ann Arbor residents also spoke at the meeting in
favor of and against the installation of a traffic light.

“The streets and highways of America are littered with
signs and signals that were the product of hasty, emotional
decisions,” Ann Arbor resident David Sponseller said. He said
Ann Arbor drivers depend on Plymouth Road to reach downtown.

He added he considers it strange that the Muslim community built
their mosque in an area where visitors would need to cross North
Campus to reach it.

But Abouzahr said when the Islamic Center was built, Plymouth
Road was a country road and had only two lanes.

Instead of a traffic light, Sponseller proposed that the city
install a pedestrian island and crosswalk, adding large warning
signs, a floodlight and a crossguard for school children if
needed.

Nazih Hassan, former president of the Muslim Community
Association, said new signs have been added for drivers heading
east on Plymouth, as well as flashing lights and floodlights.

“We are strongly urging the city to add a traffic light
there because the road is curved and sloped, and people turning
left from either direction will not see pedestrians crossing until
they are near the mosque entrance,” Hassan said.

The AAPD has provided temporary police patrols to safeguard the
Islamic Center area and intersection during iftar time and on
Friday afternoons, when Muslims come to the mosque to attend a
communal prayer.

Hassan said there have been other accidents in the past at that
intersection, but not fatal ones. Most residents who spoke in favor
of the traffic light at the City Council meeting agree that it is a
busy road and discussed fatal accidents that occurred at other
Plymouth Road intersections.

Councilwoman Kim Groome (D-1st Ward) said she did not attend the
meetings with Muslim community leaders but had hoped a proposal
would be drafted for a traffic light installation.

“I think we need something on our agenda and we need to
make known our hopes to the Muslim community,” Groome said.
She added that she is concerned about students’ safety in the
North Campus area because the development of two private housing
structures for students have been approved for that area.

Groome said city transportation staff decided to do a traffic
flow study of the intersection to assess whether a traffic light
should be installed.

Initially, the study was supposed to take 24 hours but the
deadline for that report has now been extended to the week of Nov.
24, Groome said.

A separate resolution to convert the Dhu Varren and Omlesaad
junction into a four-way stop intersection was on yesterday’s
agenda.