Essential reading for HWC's Jim Rice: "Four Ways Traffic Engineers Thwart Public Will."

Marohn dissects a situation in Springfield, Massachusetts; it's about traffic in front of a library, and a clueless board of works, and ... you'll just have to read the whole essay.

Please read it.

Four Ways Traffic Engineers Thwart Public Will, by Charles Marohn (Strong Towns)

 ... There are four common methods traffic engineers use assert their power and thwart the will of elected officials and the public those officials represent. They are all unbecoming of a profession that is supposed to be about public service. The August 6 letter from the Springfield Director of Public Works contains all four. I’m going to review those today in the hopes that, if we can’t affect change in Springfield, at least other cities can learn from their (repeated and ongoing) mistakes.

#1: A Focus on Process, Not Outcomes
Time and again I’ve watched engineers talk down to public officials, minimizing their concerns, by pretending there is some long and dignified legacy of deliberation that goes into every action taken by an engineer ... I touch on this first because the arrogance deeply bothers me. This issue keeps coming up because people keep getting hit, getting killed, and those responsible for the dangerous situation—those who could do something about it—seem unwilling to do anything. People have been elected because they said they would find answers. To fall back on process—silly councilors, we’ve already considered this many times—when it’s clearly not working is tone deaf, at best.

#2: A Reliance on Standards, Not Observation
An engineer working for their own priorities, instead of the priorities of the elected officials or the public at large, will quote industry standards as if they are inviolable laws instead of what they really are: guidelines for the typical scenario. This letter includes plenty of that. Here’s one example ... the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is a favorite for engineers to cite, but in a unique situation like that being examined along State Street in Springfield, the rote standards don’t easily apply. That’s why we have professional engineers, not merely technicians. Engineers are supposed to think, to use their professional judgement in places where it is warranted.


#3: Elevating Engineering Values Over Human Values
I’ve written about how engineers assert their own values into design decisions, holding them up as truth when in fact they are a subjective ordering that should be made by elected officials. The decision to prioritize traffic flow over safety, for example. Another is the decision to establish a design speed incompatible with the neighborhood. These decisions are made without presenting them as options to elected officials, even though they are an assertion of values, not truth. This letter is full of the engineer’s values being asserted as truth ... the letter talks about “traffic queues” and “Level of Service” as if they were commandments handed down from a divine authority, not merely a set of values being asserted by the Public Works Department.

#4: Pretending to be Powerless Due to a Higher Authority
The fourth way engineers thwart the will of elected officials and the public is to assert that they are powerless, that ultimate authority resides elsewhere. Layered on this assertion of powerlessness is the implied threat that the real governing authority is not very nice, that they are likely to react poorly if provoked by such silly requests.

This is the kind of thing I did when I was a kid and used to babysit. You know, I would let you stay up late, but your mom said I needed to get you to bed on time and we don’t want her mad at us, do we. It’s juvenile, but as part of the broader conversation, it provides the final knockout blow. There is a false sense of empathy projected while simultaneously deflecting any responsibility from the engineer ... of all people, politicians should understand this to be false. None of these decisions are absolutely technical; they are all somewhat political. This is especially true in a unique situation like State Street, where multiple deaths have occurred. It’s a stretch to suggest that reasonable action here might require state board to provide some type of waiver, but it’s absurd to suggest the city could not make a compelling case.

Cities are not powerless. Great local engineers that want to assert the values of the community (instead of opposing them) can become strong advocates for the community with state appeals boards. 

GREEN MOUSE SAYS: Both Jeff Gahan and Warren Nash believe that driver convenience far outranks considerations of human life.

The Green Mouse has learned that in response to Midtown neighborhood resident concerns about speeding and recklessness in the aftermath of skateboarder Matt Brewer's death at the hands of a irresponsible driver, both Mayor Jeff Gahan and Board of Public Works president Warren Nash have commented privately and repeatedly that drivers using the Spring Street corridor cannot possibly be inconvenienced by further traffic calming measures.

I trust the Mouse's multiple sources on this matter. If mayor and mentor disagree, then perhaps they'd like to submit a correction.

Of course, they've both lied repeatedly in the past, and it isn't the first time these two execrable human beings slouch before you, exposed as charlatans.

Isn't it about time that Gahan and Nash went on record, publicly, with these "drivers as permanent privileged class" sentiments? Surely Adam Dickey would slobber servile veneration in response.

In reality, Jeffrey's and Warren's street grid "modernization" sham was a campaign-finance impelled paving project, and now their innate cowardice has turned deadly.

So come right out and say it, gentlemen.

Perhaps HWC Engineering already has quantified an acceptable level of pedestrian, bicyclist, skateboarder and handicapped user attrition before anyone need be concerned about the vital flow of money into the mayoral re-election campaign account.

Just remember that when I asked HWC's Jim Rice about the effectiveness of the street grid reversion, he replied that well, they'd sure kept the heavy trucks moving.

How many bodies are underneath those wheels, Jeffrey, Warren and James -- and how many more before you're able to muster a human response?

#FireGahan2019
#FlushTheClique

Neither City Hall nor HWC Engineering sees a problem with this mishap-plagued intersection. Maybe we should appeal to Floyd County government for help.

Photo by AGB.

Insightful observer AGB photographed the scene on Sunday afternoon after a driver deposited his car in the yard of the home on the southwest corner of Elm and 13th.

Yet another wreck at Elm and 13th. This time the cars hit and one went into the yard and hit the house. But those flashing pedestrian walkway lights that nobody pays attention to were a much better choice than 4 way stops ... there is only a 2-way stop here and you can't see around the cars parked. So there's often wrecks/near wrecks at this intersection.

Ironically, it was precisely this intersection that I mentioned last week to Jim Rice of HWC Engineering, the mayor’s preferred contractor for street design, as worthy of added study owing to sight lines and the completely ineffective solar-powered "high visibility" pedestrian crossings.

Rice quickly brushed me off, asking how I knew for a fact these crosswalks don't work. I replied that as a frequent walker, a couple hundred hours of direct experience is something not to be ignored; he answered by denigrating real-life observation as opposed to the sheer brilliance of that segment of the populace which has chosen to become engineers.

Sorry, Jim. If the choice is believing you or my own two eyes, you can hurriedly beat a retreat back to suburban Indianapolis (by car, of course) while as a walker, I'll continue crossing in the middle of the block -- because this is safer than the prevailing reality following your de-Specked abortion of a two-way street grid plan, which your presumably flawless firm of flunkies conjured between amassing campaign donations to a failed mayor who ordered the car-centric butchery in the first place.

As an aside, the idiocy of these "high irrelevancy" pedestrian crossing lights is so blatantly obvious that even 3rd district councilman Greg Phipps noticed it, and made at least one appeal to the somnolent Bored of Works, maybe two.

To no one's surprise, BOW has been completely unresponsive -- and as fatigued city engineer Larry Summers informed council just a few weeks ago, he's so busy coordinating campaign donations from paving companies that there's no time for the consideration of other matters.

Unfortunately, Phipps has a history of stopping short of useful action that might offend Dear Leader, so here we are. Perhaps it's time for residents of the 3rd district to learn from the instructive experience of Vulcan, West Virginia in the late 1980s. There's a crucial and delightful twist, seeing as the USSR and the GDR no longer exist.

Let's ask the Floyd County commissioners for help with this intersection, seeing as we're getting none from the Anchor Regime.

Feeling forsaken by their own government, after repeated pleas to have a new bridge constructed, the people of this West Virginia community made an unprecedented move which soon garnered international headlines. At the height of the Cold War, residents of Vulcan wrote to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, as well as to communist officials in East Germany, detailing their plight and requesting foreign aid from the nations.

Sensing an opportunity to shame the American government, the Kremlin immediately dispatched journalists to the United States.

Interviewing the residents of Vulcan and broadcasting their troubles to the rest of the world, the government in Moscow did what the residents of Vulcan had been attempting to do for years, bring attention to their transportation nightmare.

By mid-December 1977, newspaper headlines around the country were announcing, “Small Town Seeks Russ Foreign Aid” (Spokane Daily Chronicle).

The Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote, “Soviet officials were amused today by reports that the small town of Vulcan, W.Va. has appealed to the Kremlin for foreign aid… The town, with a population of 200, asked the Soviet government for financial help to build a bridge after the town was turned down by the U.S. and West Virginia governments.”

Embarrassed by the attention their lack of assistance was receiving, state officials wasted no time in committing $1.3 million and built a bridge for the tiny community.

I'll just leave this video clip right here ... in case I need it at some point much, much later.

Astonishment: Some caveats, some exceptions, but HWC Engineering recommends two-way street reversions for Spring, Elm, Market, Pearl and Bank.

Astonishment: Some caveats, some exceptions, but HWC Engineering recommends two-way street reversions for Spring, Elm, Market, Pearl and Bank.

UPDATE: The News and Tribune has published a longer version of the link below.

It has taken us a half-century to get to this point, and it would be impossible for me to comprehensively describe in a single post this morning's presentation to the Board of Public Works and Safety by Jim Rice of HWC Engineering, during which substantive two-way street reversion was officially recommended.

Engineering firm recommends two-way street conversion in downtown New Albany ... Public presentation next Monday at NAHS, by Elizabeth Beilman (News and Tribune)

... The city should be ready to bid any construction changes by March, Rice said. These changes could be finished in September 2017.

Seemingly, the world is turned upside down, although when we look outside, it's still New Albany. A stopped clock is right twice a day. Is this finally an alignment, or just another prelude to Lucy pulling away the football?

I believe you'll understand that after advocating for something this rational for so long, and seeing the creative ways we've managed to avoid action, I simply cannot get too excited about this development until I see actual stripes being painted and angry truckers flipping the bird.

And yet, for the second time in less than a month, it felt as though my own words on behalf of a modern two-way street grid, designed and maintained for all users, were being read back to me. I'll concede that it was a strange sensation to hear Rice repeat aloud the principles (familiar to NAC devotees, if not the general public) we've discussed here so often.

It was even more bizarre to hear one city official after the other agree, although it will surprise no one to learn that Mayor Jeff Gahan did not attend this morning's meeting.

Briefly, subject to a closer reading, please know that while the recommended reversion is indeed substantive, it is not total.

There are exceptions: The one-way portion of Oak is not included. Also, the current interstate approaches are to stay as they are, as one-way sections, as with Spring Street west of State and Elm from the ramp to State.

There is a sad cave-in of a compromise for the 800-lb gorilla: Padgett Inc. gets a big turn radius on Spring at 4th (which we already proposed) but also a widened gateway to the interstate; from 4th to State there'll be three lanes on Spring, not two; two westbound, one eastbound, and all of them 12-feet wide (nothing was said about the return route on Elm).

For the record, I'm opposed to this compromise. It contradicts the stated walkability aims on a crucial snippet of Spring. When I mentioned this to Rice, he said that traffic will be slowed in this stretch. I think it's still a problem, and I'd like to see it addressed on Monday.

Another compromise: While Jeff Speck suggested 10-foot traffic lanes citywide, HWC recommends 11-foot lanes everywhere except the 4th-to-State lanes described above.

I'm wary about this, too, although we must remember that when Doug England took office in 2008, there were three 12-foot lanes running on Spring all the way from Vincennes to State. Two 11-foot lanes would be a big improvement, though stopping short of the ideal of 10-feet.

Nothing was said this morning about problems previously cited at 15th Street with the railroad track signals; we must assume these have been resolved.

Nothing was said about issues with cross streets, as with Tiger Truck Lines' ongoing abuse of 13th, or where bicycles will go when knocked off Spring Street at 4th owing to the Padgett Compromise.

In fact, pending another look at Speck's plan, it appears that much of his more comprehensive bicycle-friendly approach has been jettisoned.

However, many reassuring comments were made by Rice with regard to pedestrian safety and walkability. Rice even demonstrated how crosswalks can be beautified and made more noticeable -- something we've constantly been told isn't feasible.

Indeed, wonders never cease.

My guess is that all such details will be explained to us like this: Once we've tackled the first 75% and see how it goes, the next 25% will be easier, and these unresolved areas can be addressed one by one.

This may even be reasonable. Right now, I'm combing the area for land mines and candid cameras, because when things seem too good to be true ... anyway, I hope to see many readers on Monday evening.

HWC will give the same presentation Monday, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. in New Albany High School's auditorium. That open session will allow residents, business owners and others to voice their concerns, just one night before the city will make a decision.

"To me, I've got questions still, but it looks great," board of works president Warren Nash said of HWC's recommendation. "Long time coming."

In other news, my liquor cabinet is set for doubling. Ciao for now.