Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Grid Control, Vol. 1: You people drive so freaking horribly that someone's going to die at Spring and 10th.

The crosswalk is just below camera range.

Today I stood for a while on the northwest corner of Spring and 10th, watching traffic navigate the bend.

In point of fact, perhaps only 10 out of 50 drivers managed to do so without intruding on all or part of the buffer and bike lane. I didn't have the radar gun, but an educated guess is that most were at or just above 35 mph. Later I had an errand that required me to drive, and I approached at 30 mph ... and found it hard to stay in my lane.

Yesterday I watched the driver of a semi rig roar through the bend at a guesstimated speed of 40 mph. He almost brushed the curb. Meanwhile, the police tell me they never ticket truck drivers -- like this rig parked on the sidewalk by Elm Street.


I understand it's early, and the engineers will cite various reasons why this admittedly small sampling at Spring and 10th shouldn't be a cause for concern.

However, I persist in thinking that a four-way stop is merited here for the sake of safety. Glib and condescending HWC Engineering excuses notwithstanding, there needs to be a way to achieve this.

Greg Phipps, are you reading?





Never mind. I didn't think so.

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