It’s good to see that parking ticket non-enforcement, i.e., the curious Open Air practice of specifying which infractions will not be fined and where they won’t be, even as other violations in other places are ticketed with a expectation of payment, is on the agenda for Tuesday’s Merchant Mixer meeting.Next Merchant Mixer gathering is Tuesday morning, July 26.
Permit me to suggest that the dormant status of two-way street conversions is another potential topic for Tuesday’s breakfast meeting at Preston’s. Curious as to how long we've been talking about two-way traffic, I did a brief search of NAC postings, which revealed that we’ve been considering it at least since 2005.
The classic thread surely was this one from 2009: Open thread: Entitled to one's own opinions on two-way streets, but not one's own facts?
Around the same time, I devoted a whole Tribune column to the pressing need for two-way retrofitting: BAYLOR: Two-way, better way.
Ah, but it wasn't just the malcontents and toxic wastrals at NAC who spoke of the need to go both ways. During his successful 2007 campaign for mayor, Doug England said on more than one occasion that two-way street conversions were his number one priority. Four years later ... well, it's four years later.
As I’ve written previously, if our downtown streets ran both ways, I could give these simple directions (from Louisville) to the Bank Street Brewhouse:
"Take the I-64 (west) exit ramp onto Elm Street, and turn right on Bank Street."
As it stands, I must say:
"Take the I-64 (west) ramp onto Elm Street, turn right on 3rd Street, turn right on Spring Street, then turn right on Bank Street."
Plainly, our confusing one-way streets are bad for a revitalized downtown's businesses, so if every downtown merchant signed a petition of support for two-way streets, what would the argument against it be?
That no one wants it?
In which case, who wants a rational street grid, and who does not? Perhaps the polling can begin at Tuesday's meeting.
Yo, Councilman CeeSaw ... just a moment of your time, sir ...
2 comments:
I realize this has little bearing on the overall issue but Mrs. Bayern and I were in a traffic accident Friday evening at the intersection of Market and State. The other car was in the right hand lane of Market while we were in the left hand lane. The other driver tried to turn left on State St and smacked into the passenger side of our car. Fortunately, Mrs. B was driving so I took the brunt of the impact (no one was hurt). The other driver got out and said he had never been to New Albany before and said at least 5 times that he didn't realize it was one-way and he was just trying to get back to I-64, so he was turning left where he thought it was appropriate.
I know accidents happen every day, but this one was personal and if not for the confusing streets, might not have happened.
Living fairly close to Vincennes, it's pretty common to see cars going the wrong way on Market, having just turned. I've flagged or stopped several just in the past couple years. There are lots of turnarounds in Tommy's parking lot but it's especially bad if they make it to the split at the veterans memorial. It creates a blind curve.
As evidenced by the earlier thread, I continued to communicate the need for two-way reclamation post election and was assured by the England administration that it remained a priority. That simply wasn't true.
The mayor can attempt to blame the council for the failure as he's done many times, but he's never made much of a case for two-ways after using feigned support to get elected. All huff, no puff.
Anyone considering voting for England for an at-large council seat would do well to consider that what he says as a matter of electioneering is suspect at best. It makes me wonder if some of the other favors are an attempt to counteract the self-engendered mistrust.
I wanted to believe him and argued in favor of giving him time to pursue two-ways and other stated goals before being too critical. Both the time and my breath were wasted.
In fairness, though, I've not heard the council pressing the matter, either. Most of them are still running for reelection; two for mayor.
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