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Showing posts with label East Spring Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label East Spring Street. Show all posts
This truck managed the impossible; its presence parked in the middle of Spring Street on Monday morning objectively slowed traffic.
It was fun watching cars pass on all sides.
The suck truck's success in slowing traffic at Spring and 10th has so impressed Dear Leader that he's commissioned a permanent fix -- without the suck truck, but with a nice homage to his shimmering reign.
It's the Jeff M. Gahan Presents the Spring Street Roundabout.
Although maybe he should be facing east to discourage visitors.
I just realized that the City County Building doesn’t even have a crosswalk on Spring Street! They don’t value any pedestrian’s right of way, do they?
Or, here:
Yes, it's the enduringly hazardous spot where West 1st Street crosses E. Spring to become Hauss (but there is no) Square (there).
Jeff Speck suggested a possible way to reformat one-way streets near the interstate interchange into two-ways, but Jeff Gahan chose to ignore this advice owing to his abject terror of offending drivers who race through this area on a daily basis. You see, Gahan and his team want New Albany to be walkable, though for only so long as drivers aren't inconvenienced.
If westbound drivers not increasing speeds to beat the light at Spring and State, they're doing it to avoid a stop at Scribner Drive -- precisely at the spot where a dozen legal offices and the public library lie directly across the street from both local and federal government buildings.
There is not even the pretense of a crosswalk at West 1st, and some of the most amusing (as well as harrowing) spectacles I've ever witnessed are government employees -- up to and including city council members -- precariously balancing their Big Gulps as they dodge flying cars and trucks to try to cross to the City County Building.
You can't help thinking: They see the problem, they experience the problem, years go past ... and absolutely nothing is done. Then, as we talk to them about walkability, the topic is greeted with blank faces.
I'll make it easy: if you fear for your life then no, it isn't walkable, no matter how many times Pinocchio Rosenbarger insists it is. Verily, If not for dysfunction, we'd have no function at all.
But this week on Friday, Gahan will meet Speck again -- and the lies will flow like cash-stuffed envelopes from HWC Engineering.
As many of us had expected the speed test on Spring Street has ended 3 days after the primary.
It took six months for HWC Engineering's deliberate abacus to register sufficient "results" which may or may not correspond with what we see with our own two eyes each day.
These "results" now will be compared to precinct vote totals to ensure Jeff Gahan's dwindling support isn't compromised by drivers infuriated at a two-minute delay to cross town.
But even as we speak, the speed pandering test has being shifted to Market and Elm Streets.
Came a follow-up over the wires yesterday.
I asked 'is the test over' and the contractor smirkingly said 'on THIS street.' It was as if he was counting his gold and shopping for a new bass boat.
But wait a minute. HWC Engineering surely is synonymous with gold in the mind of our wheeler-dealer Bunker Elvis.
So, if a speed test is to be run simultaneously on both Market and Elm, that's another six months, which coincidentally takes us past the fall mayoral contest and into a presidential election year, when nothing further will happen because everyone's busy arming for the culture war.
Add on six month increments for another dozen streets, and we're far into Veneer King's fourth term -- he'll be drawing social security, we'll still be testing streets, the cars won't be moving any slower but every HWC Engineering employee, sub-contractor and their grandchildren will have copped a new bass boat.
Don't look at me, 3rd district "progressive."
I sure as hell didn't vote for him; you did -- and now you're getting exactly what you deserve, good and hard. Stick around until 2023, just before the primary, and 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps might be allowed by his handler to produce another miracle just like this one.
Shouldn't they be fighting to implement safety measures, rather than making the sort of "we can't do nuthin' at all" excuses, just like this oldie but still goodie:
Summers said he does not think a stop sign or signal can be installed at Fourth and Spring because a traffic count would not warrant one. He said there is not enough traffic on any of the side streets, off of Spring, that would require a stop sign.
Jeeebus, Larry: then conduct the fucking traffic count as a prelude, and if the state's cars-first standards aren't serving the cause of walkable street grid safety, can't we fight against THEM, to do what's right for US, rather than dismissing safety because enhancing safety is too much trouble?
The verdict is fairly clear. Jeff Gahan has no intention of slowing cars downtown if doing so inconveniences drivers.
He's a dull-witted, car-centric suburbanite, and that's that.
Back in 1991 when I was teaching English in Kosice (then Czechoslovakia, subsequently Slovakia) I accompanied my boss the hospital administrator to Bratislava; it was something like a five-hour drive each way so he could attend an hour-long meeting. Such was life during pre-internet, post-communism.
I wandered around the future capital city and later met him (and his driver) to eat a meal before departing for the long journey home. The venue was a fantastic old-school beer hall called Mammut (sic -- "Mammoth"), which had been repurposed from use as a malthouse.
The beer hall had multiple levels, like mezzanines clustered around a central open space, with beer from several breweries pouring alongside hearty food. It was very Central European.
I liked it so much that while passing through Bratislava a few years later, I made a time-consuming detour just to go have a beer there. Much to my surprise and disappointment, the beer hall had been transformed into a plasticized modern eatery like a sports bar, with only one brewery's beers on tap and a gaudy plastic casino upstairs.
It was absolutely clear to me that new capitalist owners could do as they pleased with the structure. Their marketplace was local, not a lone traveler from afar, and yet it was depressing all the same.
Humor me and listen to a song from many years later.
A couple of days ago I recalled the scene in the photo at the top of this page. It's the residence of Matt and Brook Brewer, seven houses down from our home, with the date being Harvest Homecoming parade Saturday in 2015.
The late Matt Brewer is standing front left, brandishing a beer. Matt always will be remembered as the city's pre-eminent skateboard dude, and he was a laid-back, good-natured, sweetheart of a guy who died eight months ago after being stuck by a driver only a block from the residence pictured here.
As is customary in America, the driver was not charged with anything.
I first met Matt a long time ago when he took the non-credit IUS beer course that I used to teach. The Brewers arrived down the street in 2013, and then I got to know Matt far better.
Matt was fairly apolitical in the beginning, and his wife Brook surely paid closer attention to these goings-on, but the more we talked, the more interested he became. He let me get to him. Instead of asking what new beer to try, he started making inquiries about local politics.
And, to put it succinctly, Matt was no fan of the incumbent mayor. While remaining far too nice of a guy to address the situation in the rollicking polemical style I typically deploy, he left no doubt as to his feelings. He regarded Jeff Gahan as a joke -- and this helps contextualize the photo.
I was running for mayor in 2015, Matt and Brook were supporters, and coincidentally I'd been precluded from walking in the parade because the parade rules were and are, well, plain stupid.
Look, kids, it's the walkability platform candidate, forced to ride in a car (or push a bicycle without mounting it).
Matt and Brook volunteered to post the Baylor pirate banner and wave some signs around as the parade passed. Eventually I walked down and had a beer with them, and it was a fine day all around.
Afterward Diana and I commented about how fun we'd have during many years to come being their neighbors.
I never wanted it to change, and it did anyway. Now it's 2019. Matt's gone, and their house changed hands earlier this month. Naturally I don't begrudge Brook for selling and moving, and wish the very best to her. She's tops.
I also sincerely and heartily welcome the buyers, our new neighbors seven houses west. Seemingly their first official act was to erect a large Gahan sign in the front yard -- and, of course, that's their absolute right. After all, I have a same-sized David White sign out front in our yard. Political signs are a temporary, seasonal kind of thing, and that's that.
It isn't anger or petulance I'm feeling today, but something akin to discomfort. It's probably another bout of sadness and sorrow at Matt's passing, admittedly accompanied by a measure of enduring frustration at the way car-centrism in America is de facto imperialism, enabling one privileged class of humanity to trample the rights of another segment, as all the while the political class snoozes -- when not self-monetizing from those corporations that benefit the most from car-centrism.
It's merely garden-variety melancholy on an overcast day, thinking back to that awesome autumn Saturday and beers with the Brewers, who wanted to even the playing field by displaying my banner when the parade was being recalcitrant in its officiousness.
As for change, it isn't just a slogan. Change is inevitable. Change often is good. My dispirited mood will change soon enough, and the change will be conducive. I may even accomplish something, for a change.
Marohn's description (link below) of Wise Road in his hometown of Brainerd can be easily visualized in the context of Spring Street in New Albany.
Over a space of car-centric decades, Spring Street was engineered to be a highway zipping traffic through populated areas. The idea was to move cars from one side of the city to the interstate ramp on the other side, as quickly as possible.
Then it became evident that the goal of revitalizing neighborhoods was plainly incompatible with the continued use of this street as a highway. It took more than a decade to convince community pillars of this obvious fact, but finally a handful grudgingly did their homework and concluded something needed to be done -- less about the design, more about silencing dissidents.
We know what happened next. Mayor Jeff Gahan took control of street grid reform not as a means of doing what was needed to slow drivers, but to loudly and garishly pretend he'd done so.
Traffic calming became another grandiose paving project, with the usual cash-laden fruit baskets passed around. Victory was declared, and yet of all the ways Spring Street might have been altered by purposeful design, only the barest minimums were deployed. Accordingly, we were urged to venerate politicians who'd "solved" 20% of the problem.
Now the same pay-to-play engineering firm that gleefully sabotaged Jeff Speck's masterly street grid reform plan at Gahan's behest is conducting yet another round of speed studies.
Does anyone really think HWC Engineering will conclude that the company's Speck retrofit was fundamentally mistaken?
We don't need a mayor who responds to every emerging situation by commissioning another taxpayer-funded study from the same old suspects, who promptly deposit tithes in the re-election fund before producing the pre-determined result.
Rather, we need a mayor who leads. As it stands, we have a vacuous cult of personality.
#FireGahan2019
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Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn lives just a few miles from one of the deadliest roads in Central Minnesota. But no one in his town seems to be particularly worried about it. And we bet you have a road just like it in your town. How have our communities become so apathetic about the deaths of their citizens? And more importantly, what can we do about it? Today, Chuck is taking a hard look at Wise Road, and using it as an object lesson for breaking through the inertia around traffic deaths. It won't be easy. There aren't many options—according to Chuck, there's really only two. But it's the hard work we need to do if we want our towns to be strong. How will you help #slowthecars? -Kea and the rest of the Strong Towns Team.
Team Gahan can be like a pile of wet rags. It can also be like a cat.
There are a number of reasons cats arch their backs, but here are the three main ones ... first is that of the fear aggressor. In this classic Halloween pose, a cat arches his back and shows piloerection (i.e., his hair stands straight up) as a way of making himself look bigger when confronted with danger. When a cat looks like this, he is basically saying, “I’m scared of you but I’m ready to defend myself if you come any closer.” The cat may also make it clear that he’s ready to defend himself by doing things like growling, hissing, spitting and showing his teeth. If you encounter a cat giving this display, the best response is to slowly back away and give the cat his space.
Just like at this week's Bored with Public Works and Safety meeting, from which we learn that one whole year after erecting completely useless, HWC Engineering-inspired crosswalk signals-to-drivers-to-maim-pedestrians, the city now proposes to make a helpful instructional video. Let's hope drivers watch it BEFORE hopping into their speeding cars.
Does HWC get the contract for the video, too?
It's awesome the way the city's expert functionaries are questioned, and ZOOM -- up go their backs. Meanwhile, the stenographer Chris Morris still refuses to question the bilge spewed at him from all directions.
Please, Bill, may we have a reporter who possesses a minuscule iota of intellectual curiosity about the planet?
Seriously, can it get any dumber than this?
I'm not sure whose eyeballs city engineers Larry Summers is using when he surveys supposedly obvious "reduction in speed" on Spring Street, but isn't it inadvertently hilarious that in the immediate aftermath of the story related here ...
... we now have "evidence" in the form of droll claims that fewer speeding tickets have been issued, when in fact the police department vastly curtailed its usual downtown speed traps after two-way streets were implemented -- and rightly so, this being one objective of proper design to reduce speed, which we largely failed to put into place out of political squeamishness, if not stupidity.
Yes: the cops can't write tickets when they're not monitoring speed, can they?
The police presence became noticeable only AFTER neighborhood residents complained to BOW, only to be told smugly that city officials who never walk the streets are a far better judge of such matters than people who live astride them.
Anyone seen my pitchfork?
It's been an utter fiasco, and City Hall remains in a Orwellian state of institutional denial and serial tone deafness. The only sensible thought uttered by any of the officials quoted in the article below is this, from Al Knable:
"I am for whatever works to slow traffic.
Exactly. Shouldn't each of them, mayor and minions, begin any instance of commenting about speed and safety with an affirmation of this simple, single objective?
Shouldn't they be fighting to implement safety measures, rather than making the sort of "we can't do nuthin' at all" excuses, just like this oldie but still goodie:
Summers said he does not think a stop sign or signal can be installed at Fourth and Spring because a traffic count would not warrant one. He said there is not enough traffic on any of the side streets, off of Spring, that would require a stop sign.
Jeeebus, Larry: then conduct the fucking traffic count as a prelude, and if the state's cars-first standards aren't serving the cause of walkable street grid safety, can't we fight against THEM, to do what's right for US, rather than dismissing safety because enhancing safety is too much trouble?
Ah, but wait.
We'd have to consult with Republicans like Ed Clere to do that, wouldn't we?
And that's why we don't bother fighting for safe streets, isn't it?
Our New Gahanian milieu may be comprised of counter-productive anti-intellectual squalor, but it's our DEMOCRATIC PARTY's counter-productive anti-intellectual squalor. If New Albany can only be as bright as its leading elements, then literally, we're a place where the sun don't shine.
NEW ALBANY — One of the reasons the city of New Albany converted Spring Street to two-way traffic last year was to control speed. And for the most part, it has worked.
Instead of three lanes of traffic heading in one direction, Spring Street was cut down to two lanes going east and west. It's obvious traffic moves at a slower pace from Vincennes to State Street.
"I know from talking to the police chief that traffic tickets along there are down significantly. People are not going as fast as they used to," Larry Summers, New Albany city engineer, said. "If you just eyeball it you can see a marked reduction in speed."
But there are still issues with speed along that stretch of Spring, and following the death of skateboarder Matthew Brewer, who was struck by a minivan at Spring and Ninth streets in August, residents came before the New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety pleading that something be done to make the street safer.
The city decided to collect speed data to see if more needs to be done.
This week, crews will begin setting up six radar detector signs, three in each direction. Data will be collected for a month and motorists will be able to see how fast they are traveling once the signs are turned on. Summers hopes it's a wakeup call for some motorists who drive down Spring without paying attention to speed limit signs. Once the data is analyzed, the city will decide its next move.
"When we did the two-way conversion project we said we wanted to do further analysis on the grid," Summers said. "This is a continuation of that in some regards. Speed reduction is very important. We want to make this more of a walkable community."
The radar detector signs will be similar to the ones along McDonald Lane. Paul Lincks, with HWC Engineering, said signs will be placed eastbound near Fourth and Ninth streets, and between 11th and 13th streets. Westbound, signs also will go up between 11th and 13th streets, beyond Ninth Street and before Fifth Street.
Lincks said the radar detector signs should produce results city officials are hoping to achieve when it comes to analyzing speed.
"Let's get the data, look at it, and go from there," he said. "We will be able to compare the speeds cars are traveling to the speed limit to see what is going on."
New Albany City Councilman Al Knable said converting Spring Street to two-way traffic was done to make it less of a thoroughfare, and more of a neighborhood street.
"At times people are still treating it like a thoroughfare," Knable said. "I am for whatever works to slow traffic. I hope this will give us meaningful data to see what the next step might be."
Summers, who lives along Spring Street, believes motorists will pay attention to the speed signs.
"People drive distracted. I hope this is something that gets their attention," he said.
POSSIBLE FOUR-WAY STOPS
Ron Howard knows exactly how to make Spring Street safer, he said. For starters, he would place a four-way stop at Fourth and Spring, at the New Albany Fire Headquarters and Sweet Stuff Bakery. He said motorists on Fourth, looking to cross Spring Street, can not see traffic in either direction when cars are parked along the street. He said they have to cover the crosswalk and almost get out into Spring Street to see if it's safe to cross.
"Your direct line of sight is blocked when cars are parked along the street," he said. "You would have to do away with parking there. It would take a minimum of four spaces and I don't think the bakery would like that. I don't see any other way but to put a stop sign there unless you put up a traffic signal."
Howard said making Fourth and Spring a four-way stop would cost "next to nothing."
"The only way to get out there [on Spring] is to ignore the crosswalk," he said. "You are blind in both directions. It seems to me the safest thing to do."
Others have also suggested putting in a four-way stop and 13th and Elm streets to slow traffic.
Summers said he does not think a stop sign or signal can be installed at Fourth and Spring because a traffic count would not warrant one. He said there is not enough traffic on any of the side streets, off of Spring, that would require a stop sign.
EDUCATING DRIVERS
Summers said the city plans to release a video on its website to educate the public on the new crosswalk signals that were put in when Spring Street was converted to two-way.
... (The police officer) comes to the window and says “Ma’am, you were going 36.” After I said ok, he said he has to give me a ticket because the chief of police for Floyd County told him he had to write 5 tickets in that spot tonight.
A regular reader raises this interesting point.
Interesting story. Are we supposed to be sympathetic for a woman who was traveling at 144% of the speed limit? I realize that's not the point, at all. But, still. 144%?
When I was tagged onto the driver's original Facebook post, it occurred to me that (a) when the police monitor traffic on Spring Street, they generally do so from one or the other location, and (b) one of these locations is situated where the posted speed is 25 m.p.h., not 30 m.p.h.
It occurred to me to gently make this point on the driver's post, but before I could get back to it, the post had disappeared. Now we know why; the chief of police intervened and the whole matter was swept safely under the rug.
Still, our reader's point is valid: 144%?
36 m.p.h. in a 25 m.p.h. zone works out to 144% higher. Speed kills, and the case we've made time and again in these pages is that in densely populated areas, the very least we can do is have uniform 25 mph speeds, because with the requisite traffic calming measures as suggested by Jeff Speck and others, speeds might be brought far closer to the safer, lower m.p.h. than what passes for safety now.
By the way, when's the last time you saw a semi or a wrecker being ticketed for speeding on Spring Street? Yeah, me either.
Unfortunately, another undisputed fact we've reported time and again in these pages is Mayor Jeff Gahan's complete inability to understand any of this. His interpretation of the two-way streets project was to affix a shoddy veneer of action atop an underlying "business-as-usual" version of nothingness.
Or, to claim victory, monetize, rinse and repeat.
We can fix this in 2019.
Until then, yes, it is fairly common to receive speeding tickets when you're traveling 11 m.p.h. above the limit, whatever the source of the police officer's political directives.
Back down here in the flood plain, City Hall's two-way grid design changed nothing apart from direction; the new street design continues to produce traffic speeds that are unsafe -- people actually die from it and not a soul employed by the city will address this fact -- and now we erect speed radar detector signs as some sort of compensation, presumably in the hope that the sight of these detectors will itself reduce speeds enough to declare victory ... or give another contract to HWC.
I'll repeat again: every bit of this is perfectly obvious to anyone who spends 15 minutes on foot or riding a bicycle in the vicinity of Spring Street. And yet something this simple continues to elude the professional monetization class in this city.
NEW ALBANY — Motorists soon will notice something a little different along Spring Street.
Radar detector signs, similar to the ones on McDonald Lane, are scheduled to be installed the first week of December. There will be six signs, three in each direction spaced along Spring from Vincennes Street to State Street.
City Engineer Larry Summers said the signs will tell drivers how fast they are traveling, and well as collect data on speeds through particular areas of the street.
While the street conversion from one-way to two-way traffic last year slowed traffic, residents along Spring still say other measures need to be taken to keep motorists from exceeding the speed limit. Following the death of skateboarder Matthew Brewer, who was struck by a minivan at Spring and Ninth streets in August, residents came before the New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety pleading that something be done to make the street safer.
The same firm channeling thousands of dollars into the mayor's re-election fund is hired to conduct an insincere two-month speed study on the same street it redesigned for the explicit purpose of NOT hindering speedy pass-through traffic, having previously repeated on numerous occasions that nothing can be done to reduce speeds, and the newest study to determine what any of them -- city officials or contractors alike -- could learn just by walking by Spring Street for a little while, watching and feeling the mayhem.
This is the way your city rigs things.
It doesn't have to be this way, you know. Follow the money ... and in 2019, FLUSH the clique.
NEW ALBANY — HWC Engineering, under the direction of the city of New Albany, is preparing to conduct a speed study along Spring Street, from Vincennes to State Street.
While officials say speed has decreased on Spring since the street was converted to two-way traffic last year, they want to collect data and see if there are areas that may need more signage or other mechanisms to slow speed.
Sally Hughes, with HWC Engineering, told the New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety Tuesday that radar detection will be placed on poles along Spring "in the next few weeks" to measure traffic for two months. Once data is collected, she will report back to the board of works.
"This will allow us to get a better understanding [of speed] and see if there are additional areas that may need a little more help," Larry Summers, city engineer, said.
These three photos were taken sequentially at around 9:25 p.m. on Thursday, September 6. In the first photo, from a vantage point on the north side of Spring, a driver approaches the intersection of 9th and Spring, traveling eastbound.
But where'd he go?
There he is again, whizzing past at a speed I'd estimate as a minimum of 35 mph, maybe a bit more ... in a 25 mph zone, coming off a hazardous curve at 10th.
Here's the relevant speed table.
Here's the ordinance which plainly forbids the Williams Plumbing truck ("any other commercial vehicle") from being parked where it is.
And here is the memorial to Matt on the utility pole.
I'm not sure if I can illustrate these problems any more clearly than this, although as in the past, I honestly believe it would be helpful for those city officials in charge of such matters to come outside for once and view the scene from the ground, as so many of us do every day.
Perhaps only then will this combination of danger and neglect make the necessary impression.
Jeff Speck conducted a street grid study with a mind toward incorporating two-way streets within the context of a larger mandate to redesign downtown streets for the improvement of navigation by all users, not just drivers, and to make them friendlier for non-drivers -- cyclists, walkers, handicapped users, and so on, in a future tense.
Jeff Gahan chortled and handed this plan to HWC Engineering bearing a post-it note: Apart from the directional shift to two-way traffic -- even Phipps might notice if we don't do at least that much -- do absolutely nothing to inconvenience a driver, or to improve the experience for non-drivers. This shit's for show only, and nothing more. After all, the Feds are paying for it, and we can spin the paving project if nothing else.
The traffic engineers at HWC were happy to obey the mayor's orders. They got paid, another few thousand bucks passed into Gahan's re-election fund, and just as neighborhood activists were gearing up yet again to picket City Hall for ignoring its obligation to make streets safe, skateboarder Matt Brewer was killed by a driver where a dangerous curve at 10th and Spring feeds into an intersection at 9th, with vision chronically blocked by commercial vehicles that have been illegally parked on the street for the past 15 years without a single peep from ordinance enforcement.
Team Gahan subsequently has ducked, covered and emitted robotic, gurgling and bureaucratic non-answers.
NA Confidential: Brief question: has the accident report about Matt Brewer been released? I’m particularly interested in the role of those Williams Plumbing trucks forever parked illegally on the street, blocking the view. Thank you.
Chief Todd Bailey: All crash investigations handled by the Combined Accident Reconstruction Team are maintained by the Floyd County Prosecutor’s Office. I can tell you the case is still under investigation but if you’re looking for specific information you’ll need to inquire with the Prosecutor.
It's just another reason of too many that Nanny Barksdale got the Reisz-stag all wrong: It isn't the working conditions which are inhumane at City Hall. It's the ruling clique itself.
As if to highlight the gesture of thumbing his nose at critics, Gahan quickly appointed superannuated mafioso wannabe Warren Nash to the Human Rights Commission, and Nash just as rapidly engineered the hiring of his son the councilman to a job with the housing authority.
Jeffrey and the DemoDisnyDixiecrats looked out upon the carnage and found it good. That snoring you hear? It's the News and Tribune, eagerly defending the right of mayors to advertise.
Meanwhile, if you want to know exactly how Gahan botched the Speck plan for two-way streets, read this article. It's one of the best Strong Town pieces I've ever read on the topic:
"Instead of helping connect people to the places they need to go, our city has built expensive public facilities that are both life-threatening and insulting to folks who don’t drive. We have effectively removed much of the public from the public right-of-way. And that's not fair."
Fair, schmair. Deaf Gahan and baseball hall of famer Jim Rice don't give a rat's ass about fair. It's all about the money for them, as the rest of us push the beg button at the dysfunctional-by-design "crosswalks" and hope drivers don't mow us down.
In cities throughout America, traffic studies are conducted to determine the Level of Service (LOS) for cars. This scientific-sounding metric basically looks at the busiest 15 minutes of the busiest hour of the day, and determines how well auto traffic flows through a given intersection.
Traffic engineers use this data to justify road expansion projects. It’s a bit like showing up during that one holiday meal when you’re hosting every leaf on your family tree, and declaring that the dining room is cramped, so you should add a second story to your house.
Despite its limitations, LOS remains popular because it’s simple. When a street is clogged with traffic during peak use (i.e. supply equals demand), it earns an LOS grade of F. When there’s not another car between you and the horizon? Congratulations! You get an A!
By overemphasizing LOS, we justify expensive, overbuilt streets that are dangerously inhospitable to people—just so folks who use the least efficient form of transportation (single-occupancy cars) won’t be inconvenienced during peak travel times. In doing so, we ignore the many variables that influence the transportation system as a whole: land use and zoning, pedestrian comfort, bike safety, viable transit, trip generation, etc.
But what about the Level of Service for people who walk and bike? Enter the Multi-Modal Level of Service (MMLOS), brought to you by the Highway Capacity Manual. (Because nobody understands the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users like the dudes who design the highways.)
Because it's easy to measure, the Pedestrian Level of Service (PLOS) focuses on four main variables: existence of a sidewalk, separation of pedestrians from motorized vehicles, motorized vehicle volumes, and motorized vehicle speeds.
If you want insight into the mind of a traffic engineer, consider “space per pedestrian,” a key metric based on the width of the sidewalk and pedestrian volumes. I love this because it’s so ridiculous.
All that “space” is not a sign of success. Much of our public right-of-way is so hostile to cyclists and pedestrians that only the most desperate people—the folks with no other alternative—even attempt to walk or bike. If there’s a lot of space on a sidewalk, it’s usually because it’s a lousy or impractical place to walk; it's not comfortable or useful to people on foot. There are a lot of sidewalks like that in America ...
Social media can be confusing. Last night in response to reports of a pedestrian struck by a driver and being badly injured, just two blocks away from my house, someone sent me a photo of Matt Brewer. It wasn't clear to me what this meant, and I actually thought Matt himself was telling me he was safe.
His wife wrote this. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
As many of you may have heard, my husband passed away last night. Matt was struck by a vehicle and suffered massive head trauma. He was rushed to U of L and they did absolutely everything they could. Thank you everyone who has reached out. I appreciate all your kind words.
The hardest thing in the world right now for me is to suppress my anger. I know there'll be time to channel this anger into something useful; it's just awfully difficult to avoid lashing out.
My friend Ryan Hammel wrote this at Facebook, and it is spot on. Matt was everyone's friend, and a valued neighbor of ours on Spring Street.
In this life you meet very few people who have the gift of having zero enemies. If you’re lucky, you’ll meet someone of whom no one can can speak negatively.
Matt lived for other people. When we started River City Craft Wear, Matt bought every shirt (especially the tank top). When Be a Better Dude started, Matt was the first one to join. When I had a tasting at Keg or Bridge, Matt was ten minutes early just to hang out and talk beer before the crowd showed up.
Matt loved and believed in New Albany and the people here. When he was around you, you were in a good mood whether you wanted to be or not.
To know Matt was to know you had a true friend. We owe a favor to him today and every day to try and be the absolute best person we can be...because Matt was the absolute best of us. I consider myself lucky to be a part of Matt’s family, and he will be remembered for all of the good he did for other people.
I went for a walk last night around 7:00 p.m., using the south sidewalk on Spring, where traffic was moving fast.
At least the police were out, and ironically, my first of three near hits came as a driver traveling eastbound abruptly turned in front of me as I was crossing 10th.
He was being pulled over by a policeman because he was speeding, and he was still speeding when he made the decision not to pull over on Spring, but on the side street. He was paying attention to nothing else.
A few blocks later, a westbound driver turned left onto 4th from Spring. Once again I had entered the intersection, once again the driver elected to make a last-second turn, and once again, he wasn't looking at all.
I made the loop and was returning home via the north sidewalk on Spring. There was a crowd at the funeral home on 13th, and as I passed eastbound, drivers were parking their cars two abreast, protruding into the westbound traffic lane on Spring, evidently picking up attendees.
For the third time in thirty minutes, a driver came straight at me. He'd been westbound and made a last-second choice to turn into the funeral home lot, weaving past the illegally parked cars and their oblivious drivers, and not looking to see if anything else was in his path.
Jeff Gahan tells us how safe he's making downtown for all users. He's completely full of shit, and he'd realize this if ever he walked or tried to ride a bike.
The lighting downtown needs to be better, but the crux of the matter is that traffic must move more slowly. Two-way friction has made a dent, but that's all. Pretty much the entirety of the grid "modernization" plan (two-way streets) was implemented as an utter sham, one designed to give the appearance of change without really changing anything. Heaven forbid we inconvenience a driver.
That's not leadership. It's cowardice. We've missed a colossal opportunity, and yes, eventually it can be fixed.
... The American obsession with the automobile has opened our world to the magnificence of personal transportation. In a country where our desire to express our free will overpowers virtually any alternative, it is fitting that our cars, our trucks, and yes, our coveted SUVs have taken center stage in the definition of who we are for nearly a century. The future of our hometowns, the safety of our families, the infrastructure we cannot maintain… all of these considerations have taken a “back seat” to our unwavering addiction… the 2500 pound vehicles of mobility we inhabit every day.
Let me take a step back for a moment. Believe it or not, this is not an indictment of the American automobile. We live in a country built on free choice, and who am I to question this American right to personal freedom?
Rather, my motive here is to ask everyone who’s gotten this far without clicking the “x” in the top corner of your screen to have a conversation with yourself. My hope is that anyone who is reading this stops, just for a moment, and really questions what we have given up for the proliferation of one of the most iconic symbol of American freedom. It’s not the American flag that sets us apart from the rest of the world… it’s the automobile. We drive more than any other country in the world despite growing data that shows that this fact likely has more detrimental long term consequences than positive ones. Here’s why we need to ask ourselves… was it worth it? ...
By chance, did anyone notice that Friday on Spring Street the city closed the single eastbound lane for a stage? I want to say we have a nice big stage somewhere already -- it's yellow?
Yes, sir. That'd be the Bicentennial Concert Series blocking a traffic lane, and the Riverfront Amphitheater three blocks away, perched by the Ohio.
For me, the question is two-part.
Why are we closing the two-way street we (JUST) made, and during Friday evening rush hour?
Why are we paying for this stage when we have a larger stage with an area that can facilitate more people?
Also, I seem to remember we renovated the amphitheater fairly recently. It's like buying a new car and then putting it in the garage and driving a rental to work.
The first question only now arose. The second one has been unanswered for almost six years.
... New Albany Planning Director Scott Wood acknowledged there will likely be a "battle" for on-street parking, but added that's a concern Flaherty and Collins will have to address if it becomes a problem.
Residents moving into a higher market-rate facility will expect adequate parking, and if it's not provided, the apartment owner will hear about it, Wood continued.
"It's going to regulate itself," he said.
He added the apartments constructed adjacent to Sam Peden Community Park were also approved with a parking unit ration of just more than one-to-one per unit, and that the proposed development downtown is in a more pedestrian-friendly environment.
AT&T, which has a location across from the development, donated a 24-space lot to the city to be utilizes specifically for the development.
Flaherty and Collins — which had initially announced a $16 million project before additional features were added bringing the cost to $26 million — also has plans for a 1,600 square foot retail space on the site.
It will likely be occupied by a coffee shop or small restaurant, and would only require eight spaces under city ordinance, representatives with the development team said.
The New Albany City Council approved in July a financing package that will allow Flaherty and Collins to payoff up to $4.9 million in debt for the development utilizing tax dollars earned through the project. The developer will be allowed to use tax-increment financing, or TIF, funds raised through the increased property values from the site to pay back the debt.
The New Albany Redevelopment Commission voted to include the Coyle property in a TIF district prior to the bond vote by the council.
So, if Breakwater residents park across Spring Street amid one of the most poorly maintained corporate structures in the city, the most direct path to their cars does not involve walking one or two blocks east or west, then doubling back, but heading right across the street -- a street recently rebuilt without crosswalks in this spot.
But didn't we just vanquish one-way streets for the stated purpose (among others) of eliminating unnecessary "round the block" trips for drivers?
What about walkers?
Moreover, shouldn't the stop light (or four-way stop) be at 8th Street, not 7th, and shouldn't there be an "enhanced" (hint: enforced) crosswalk opposite Breakwater?
Mark my words: two-way calming effects aside, vehicular speed once again will become an issue on Spring Street from 15th to 7th, and from 7th to 4th, and as high speeds pertains to the latter, it will be on a stretch of street running between 200 - 300 apartment residents and the most direct route both to parking and downtown amenities.
It makes very little sense, though it probably testifies to Jeff Gahan's befuddled desire to do the impossible by making the city walkable without inconveniencing drivers.
---
Previously: Grid Control, Vol. 24: Deliver me this.
Thirteen years later, it's the end of the beginning.
Speaking personally, I think the Spring Street conversion announcement should have been made at roughly 2:30 p.m. on Monday, when the combination of a solar eclipse and impending two-way-street rationality (finally) would have sent the Luddites streaming panic-stricken toward Birdseye.
NEW ALBANY — After years of talk and months of work, Spring Street is ready to be converted to two-way traffic.
Paul Lincks, project manager with HWC Engineering, informed the New Albany Board of Public Works & Safety Tuesday that Spring Street will be switched to two-way traffic some time on Aug. 29. The exact time has not yet been determined, but Lincks said it would likely be after morning rush hour.
HWC is installing message boards throughout the downtown area to inform drivers of the conversion. Bank and Pearl streets will be converted to two-way traffic on Aug. 30. Those streets are currently being striped ...
I'm both pleased and depressed.
Yes, we'll enjoy many of the benefits of two-way traffic, albeit severely neutered by an institutionalized absence of imagination.
With the long overdue modernization of the street grid, Jeff Gahan had the chance to be what he earnestly believes himself to be, but isn't and won't ever come close to being: a progressive and transformational mayor.
Jeff Speck handed Gahan top sirloin, and unfortunately the mayor rendered it into Sloppy Joes drowning in auto-centric sauce. The sandwiches will be borderline edible, but my oh my, what might have been in the hands of a knowledgeable kitchen pro.
It never was about two-way traffic in and of itself. It was about recognizing the numerous good outcomes of two-way traffic and maximizing them by design, as with Speck's discarded bicycle infrastructure.
Alas, Gahan wasn't the only bad student. Far too many of the two-way street grid reform package's backers also never understood the ancillaries; as a result, they were far too quick to abandon them to the usual engineering suspects, imagining that if they uttered a peep, Dear Leader would ignore preferred pet projects.
Now that Gahan has half-assed the grid, getting it right is an opportunity lost, one that won't come around again until downtown streets are ready to be milled and repaved according to the usual maintenance cycle.
Maybe by then there'll be someone in City Hall capable of grasping the squandered possibilities and acting according to genuinely felt principle, not the perpetual campaign monetization of Gahanism.
Perhaps the best we can do at this point is hope that the perennial low bidder MAC's 2017 paving job within the grid project's boundaries is as wretched as what the company managed during the Main Street beautification effort less than four years ago -- because then, we'll be repaving sooner rather than later, and can rectify Gahan's faulty vision.
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