Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Grid Control, Vol. 2: Southsiders get six more parking inches, but you gotta love those 10-foot traffic lanes on Spring.


On Spring Street from Vincennes Street to 4th Street, the parking spaces on the south side of the street vary hardly at all in depth. They're consistently an inch or two shy of 7 feet deep from curb to white stripe.

By the way, the white stripes themselves are 4 inches wide.

On this same stretch of Spring, from Vincennes to 4th, the parking spaces on the north side of the street consistently run 6 and 1/2 feet, curb to stripe, give or take an inch.

At 4th Street, the bike lanes end so as to facilitate the Great Padgett Compromise, wherein the 24-hours-a-day interests of downtown must yield to the necessity of one company having a major street to use for its vehicles during working hours.

In fairness, and perhaps even more annoyingly, the lane pattern must change so it will take a few minutes less for drivers to reach the interstate during one morning and one afternoon hour each day. Meanwhile, value is extracted from downtown the other 22 hours, though this isn't the point right now.

As such, without bike lanes or buffers, from 4th to State on Spring, there remains one eastbound traffic lane, with a second one added for westbound traffic. At this point, the parking lanes on the south side of Spring expand to a consistent 8 feet, while the ones on the north side again fluctuate at around 7 to 7 and 1/2 feet.

Conclusion: From Vincennes to State on Spring, if you park on the north side of the street, you get 6 to 8 inches less in terms of parking depth. Expect to see tires on curbs.

But here's the kicker.

After being told last year that the downtown two-way grid would have 11-foot traffic lanes, only the ones between 4th and State are 11 feet.

Between Vincennes and 4th, the lanes are 10 feet.

Not that I'm complaining. It appears that in the final analysis, grid designer HWC Engineering (favored city contractor and employer of the public housing authority's completely unqualified interim director's spouse) both giveth AND taketh away.

Or maybe it was MAC Construction. And now, to taketh more gin, but don't worry.

I'm not driving, just dodging errant trucks while walking.

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

No comments: