This is the speed of a food delivery truck moving through a 25 mph zone on Spring Street, but there's more: The 20 mph yellow lights were flashing by the former St. Mary's school.
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My Valentine Day's gift is dedicated to Warren Naps and the Bored of Public Works.
Bushnell Velocity Speed Gun (Colors may vary), by Bushnell
- An easy point-and-shoot speed gun with +/- 1.0 MPH accuracy.
- Can track speed from 10 feet up to 110 MPH.
- Large, clear LCD display.
- Displays fastest speed once trigger is released.
- Measures 4.3 x 8.4 x 6 inches (W x H x D); 2-year warranty
See, they're not all bad. What you begin to notice are general patterns. For instance, traffic coming across the railroad tracks at 15th Street when the light there is green tend to travel at 5 - 7 mph higher than waves of cars stopped by the light.
The same goes for the biggest trucks, although so far, it appears that the smaller delivery trucks and dump trucks travel faster, all around.
If a vehicle crosses Vincennes eastbound on Spring and misses the stop light at 15th, it's another eight blocks before another stop light is encountered. It means they're reaching maximum speed as they approach St. Mary's.
This convoy of state vehicles was moving at moderate speeds. You'd think government vehicles would always be in compliance.
It's a different reading than the one shown at top, recorded in a 38 mph zone. We might plausibly ask: If the Bored of Works took care to fluff Main Street sensibilities with a 25 mph limit ... then why not 25 mph in THIS residential area?
Or, better yet: SPEEDING IS A DESIGN ISSUE, NOT AN ENFORCEMENT ISSUE. Two-way streets and traffic calming NOW, not later.
Ah, yes; the temper tantrums of our trucking cadres.
Whether Tiger, Padgett, J & J, CCE or so many others, the simple fact remains that for decades, they've run roughshod as they pleased. Thanks to cheap downtown properties, they've remained stuck in an industrial manufacturing economic model, which is utterly incompatible with any economic model designed to provide New Albany with a viable future in this day and age. As with slum lords, we've let them have their way, because we were too dense to conceive of other futures.
They're now behaving like bawling children. Speck's gonna take their extractive rattles away -- and someone's gonna pay, damn it!
Except that Speck barely mentions trucks.
There has been no suggestion of bans or truck routes. Rather, it has been suggested that we reconfigure our streets for the benefit of all users, not just a few. Trucks would have to move more slowly. That's about it.
And these companies are mad as hell that anyone would so much as suggest that they share responsibility for a civil society.
New Albany.
Are we about trucks -- or are we about people?
1 comment:
Those two school crossing lights still working (!)by the closed St. Mary's School are a quarter of the "so expensive our poor little city of New Albany can't afford to replace them" light bulbs at the currently open S. Ellen Jones Elementary School.
Small school children crossing the street to go to school at a four-way / six-way stop deserve protection, don't they?
What will the price be if a child is struck by a car or a truck?
Can't the city ultimately be found responsible if they haven't maintained mandated crossing equipment?
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