Upper Spring work continues as drivers somehow manage to pay attention in spite of their boiling anger.

Not that we don't have comments and questions -- like speculating about the next round of driver complaints?

"WTF? Those are Floyd Central's colors."

More importantly, what's with all the wasted space? Maybe Irv can plant some native grasses there.

A sharrow? Here? Is there any single facet of road design that even approaches a sharrow in terms of Rosenbargerite laziness?

It's a road diet, folks.

Stop your grousing and read about "A Los Angeles Road Diet That Worked."

A road diet like the one being implemented on Upper Spring, in an auto-centric city like Los Angeles?

"This is an encouraging message for other towns considering the viability and impact of a road diet."

Cool. We just might be able to pull it of right here in Nawbany.

A LOS ANGELES ROAD DIET THAT WORKED, by Rachel Quednau (Strong Towns)

... This road diet didn't occur without some pushback. From the article:

Some nearby residents, however, complained that the new street design — though well-intentioned — increased traffic and decreased safety by diverting drivers onto neighboring residential streets. They organized a much-publicized petition calling for the city to provide an alternative solution to its road diet plan.

But the road diet persisted with excellent results. Recent data collection efforts show that average speeds on the street decreased and motor vehicle crashes went down. Unfortunately, speeding and crashes have not been completely eliminated, but it seems the road diet has had an overall positive effect and safety has improved. Most significantly, the data shows that all of this was accomplished while traffic on the street remained at a similar volume. From the article:

We analyzed the average traffic counts on Rowena both before and after the project and found that typical traffic volume was unchanged after the road diet was implemented. [...] These results challenge the perception that Los Angeles is too auto-centric for road diets to work.

This story not only reinforces the value of road diets, it also stresses the need for adequate data collection and analysis both before and after their implementation (or, indeed, the implementation of any project like this) ...

Pre-election striping: By Mayor Gahan's usual standards, this ALMOST qualifies as political courage.

There hasn't been an explanation for why it took so long, but on Tuesday the striping finally began on Spring Street between Beharrell and Vincennes. Weird and confusing, to be sure, but under way.

You could tell it was underway because social media went ballistic. It was entertaining, I must say.

NAC doubted the striping would happen until after the election, because that's been Jeff Gahan's previous default setting; recall that he refused to discuss two-way streets until after last year's re-election campaign, when the race might have served dual purposes as educational opportunity and political mandate.

If the choice is between open communications and bunker, Gahan's headed down those stairs to the down-low almost every time.

But on Tuesday, I was proven wrong.

As usual, the road diet between Beharrell and Vincennes is a cautious compromise that doesn't go far enough. It's being offered as the sole corrective for toll-dodging, and this probably isn't enough. Worse, it's predicated conceptually on automotive considerations alone, and squanders yet another opportunity to teach the community the value of calming, walking, biking and other manifestations of modernity.

But (perennial advocate of a rational street grid sighs wearily) ... it's something, rather than the usual nothing, and a glimmer of political courage coming from a mayor who seldom shows any.

The city's official explanation is here, and when finished, the street is supposed to look like this.

Maybe it even will.

ASK THE BORED: Restripe Upper Spring Street for traffic calming BEFORE the election? And risk an even higher Luddite turnout? Adam has priorities, you know.

Hmm.

In terms of weather, Thursday of last week (October 13) was acceptable, wasn't it?

But it came, and it went ...







... and Upper Spring Street -- our first and only line of defense against pass through toll dodging -- still looked like this (photos taken yesterday).

However, the Green Mouse spotted two Yellow Jackets making hash marks ...

 ... but considering the roadway was only recently repaved, these must be utility company vandals, right?

I mean, isn't that the way it always works? We pave the street, and as soon as the asphalt sets, the water company tears it up again?

In fact, the restriping sloth probably is intentional.

The Green Mouse Says, "If and when the city finishes the job and restripes the street, the mouth breathers will go berserk."

Meanwhile, the new and improved New Albany City Hall agitprop site now includes information on ongoing projects and current street closures -- assuming, of course, that they bother listing a specific project or street closure.

You'll see nothing there about Upper Spring's missing stripes-for-calming, or prospects for a BOW vote on the Downtown Grid Modernization Project (local Orwell-speak for two-way streets), which the mayor continues whispering about even as the bored insists the fix isn't in.

And, still nothing from Keep New Albany Clean and Green about the clear-cutting at Judge Cody's.

All that steeple work -- and now this. You'd think Irv would be entirely apoplectic.

Look it up, Shane.

The Green Mouse Says, "If and when the city finishes the job and restripes the street, the mouth breathers will go berserk."

Another week passes without stripes on Upper Spring -- no narrowing, no calming, but plenty of Irv's speedway tumescence.

The Green Mouse has received a strange e-note, even by the standards of his periodically radioactive clientele.

It sounds at first like another crazy conspiracy theory, but here's rub: Given the way things work hereabouts, it's entirely plausible. You can hear local Democrats talking this way over Bud Light Limes over at the Roadhouse.

Can anyone confirm or deny?

So, you're wondering why the city won't finish the striping and new traffic pattern on Spring Street on both sides of Silver Street -- you remember, our sole line of defense against toll "dodging", as the moron second-tier city planners like to call it.

Let me remind you about the election coming up on November 8.

Seabrook, Stumler and their legion of good old boy fat cats have raised the roof bitching about the two-way street plan, and you may have noticed most of them are Republicans (I know, but Irv's stopped pretending now that Doug's in Florida). Trump's a piece of excrement, but we all know he'll carry Floyd County in a yuuuuge way. In this hellhole, Trump actually helps the local Republicans.

Right now, thanks to Irv's magical mystery tour, the only comments being made aloud about two-way streets are negative. Some of us have caught on, when you said you'd stop talking about streets and said it was someone else's turn, things got quiet fast.

You'd think these other two-way advocates could write letters and raise hell, too, but they don't, do they? Do they exist? You can bet your last TIFF that Dickey's noticed that, and he's running scared. It's the only way he knows how, after all. 

So the city paved Spring Street, and all the redneck speed racers are delighted. If and when the city finishes the job and restripes the street, the mouth breathers will go berserk, and the Democrats are absolutely terrified of this before the election because they know Irv's right -- changing the streets has little popular support, and the mayor doesn't have a backbone, as we all know. All it can do right now is make the Republican beatdown even worse.

It's a comedy, and I figured you'd like to know why. No charge, but you can buy me a beer sometime.

Another week passes without stripes on Upper Spring -- no narrowing, no calming, but plenty of Irv's speedway tumescence.

If this isn't finished soon, John Rosenbarger's nose will reach all the way to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Chronicles of New Gahania, political cowardice edition: Beharrell to Vincennes, or the choke valve from the choke artist.

I'll repeat.

It's an act of political cowardice to predicate these Spring Street grid changes (see article below) entirely on automotive safety, with scant mention of pedestrians and cyclists, because doing so reinforces the plain fact that Jeff Gahan has nothing resembling a go-to civic master plan for walking and bicycling.

Rather, it's auto-centrism, 24-7-365 ... not at all unexpected from a suburban mayor who has shown almost no urban aptitude from the very start.

Just imagine the usefulness of placing these street changes in a context of overall mobility improvement, as opposed to piecemeal band-aids catering to distracted drivers.

There are some in the municipal apparatus who agree with me on this point. Just imagine if they were allowed to deploy their expertise toward progress without fearing the midnight phone call.

Will the road diet between Vincennes and Beharrell help matters?

Yes.

Will it ward off forthcoming pass-through toll evasion all on its own, as Gahan seems to believe?

Unlikely.

Gahan's miserable failure to implement two-way streets in the timely fashion he has promised privately suggests that we're about to be used as guinea pigs when tolling begins, testing the mayor's cherished theory that little dribs and drabs are sufficient in the absence of comprehensive improvements.

Look for a Gahan for State Senate Christmas Bonus come December, 2016, in the form of fireworks, gladiatorial epics, feats of strength and the announcement that Pearl and Bank will be reconverted to two-way traffic, even as another year is lost as Duggins's wife's engineering firm seeks to properly monetize the two-way changes to Spring, Elm and Market for campaign finance, if not real-world success.

It'll be Jeffey's bone to us all. We'll be expected to express delight. Please, sir -- may we have another?

• New signal with exclusive opposing left turn lanes at the Spring and Silver intersection
• A modified 3-lane section with two west bound travel lanes on the east leg of Spring Street (from Beharrell Avenue to Silver Street)
• A two-lane section with buffered bike lanes, parking lanes, and exclusive left turn lanes at key intersections on the west leg of Spring Street (from Silver Street to Vincennes Street)

Spring Street work begins Monday in New Albany, by Chris Morris (News and CNHI Doubloon)

ON THE AVENUES: When the engineer uttered that scandalous word aloud, it was like Christmas in June.

ON THE AVENUES: When the engineer uttered that scandalous word aloud, it was like Christmas in June.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

---

Interpreting streets as places only to move cars instead of people turns cities into uninviting places for people.
-- Janette Sadik-Khan, Street Fight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution

On Tuesday, I had the rotten luck to find myself at a meeting of the Board of Public Works and Safety, but then an unprecedented bit of truthfulness broke out.

Now I’m worried – nay, terrified.

Was it the wrong teleprompter? Did someone spike my gin? Will we ever be the same again?

For those just tuning in, one consistent theme has emerged from four and a half years of Royal Attitudinal Gahanism (RAG): Appearances count for everything -- unless they count for nothing at all.

Nowhere is RAG better illustrated than in the city’s ongoing streets saga, otherwise known as “to complete, or not to complete.”

For two years, the mayor’s minions privately have insisted that even Jeff Speck himself doesn’t understand two-way walkability quite as well as Jeff Gahan, rube suburbanite turned urban savant.

They’ve also acted in concert with their perpetually bunkered boss to prevent any of this stunning expertise from being revealed publicly, where it might lead citizens to understand the stakes of street grid reform – and if information isn’t solely controlled by City Hall, then what?

Amid the ongoing stasis, we turn to the very end of Tuesday’s BOW session, when Pinocchio Rosenbarger bounded forward to inform the bored about what is generally being called the Spring Street/Silver Street intersection project, which includes a “reconfigured” traffic pattern from Beharrell to Vincennes.

After Speck’s plan was handed in 2015 to HWC Engineering's sawdust sausage makers, this Spring/Silver project suddenly was prioritized, becoming the focus of the city’s rice-paper-thin public relations outreach.

Unsurprisingly, talking points have been devoted exclusively to automotive safety issues, with scant mention of a suggested “bonus” for bicyclists in the form of yet another set of bike lanes beginning nowhere and leading to sharrows – surely the laziest concept in the checkered history of American traffic engineering.

But I digress.

On Tuesday the Gods were merciful, and the ever unctuous Rosenbarger quickly yielded the podium to Wes Christmas of Clark-Dietz for the project update.

---

Verily, Christmas is neither Jeff Speck nor Janette Sadik-Khan. He’s a by-the-numbers engineer working for a by-the-numbers engineering firm, and both will continue to derive the greatest portion of their paychecks from the prevailing cancer of auto-centrism, as passed through a prism of by-the-numbers local campaign finance, with a dainty garnish of paving contractor slush for uniform beak wetting.

As Christmas began, there was nothing to suggest a departure from the same tired bromides. The engineer briefed the bored on the project’s July starting date (ending in October), and reiterated the reason for the largely federally-financed reconfiguration: Drivers and their vehicles.

It’s about wrestling this Four-Lane Crash-Generating Death Road to the mat, putting it on a diet, and making it safer for internal combustion, with a few negligible side benefits for those pathetic creatures too poor to own a car.

The yawns were palpable … then Christmas abruptly departed from the script, saying that he wanted to make sure everyone understood what was about to occur as this stretch of asphalt was altered. His tone of voice changed, as though a confession was about to be ventured.

Traffic will be snarled during construction, said Christmas.

(Nods and papers shuffling. Labored cell phones.)

What’s more, continued Christmas, no sooner than the work concludes, Ohio River Bridge tolling begins, and an expected inflow of traffic on Spring Street as drivers from far and wide seek a quick path through New Albany to the toll-free Sherman Minton Bridge.

And ...

There’ll be even more delays, snarls and slowdowns when toll evasion begins, even though INDOT predicts these disruptions will be brief (one month or less), and the overarching point everyone at BOW needs to grasp is this revamped section of Spring between Silver Creek and Vincennes is intended to be a check valve, to do exactly this – this process, this choking off … to willfully cause …

CONGESTION.

Boom, and out it came: CONGESTION, this glorious word finally liberated and unfettered, because as Christmas explained, CONGESTION is the key to coping with an unwanted proliferation of pass-through drivers seeking easy toll avoidance, because while we can do nothing to dissuade them from evading tolls, we can impose costs of added time and unease on those choosing to pass through New Albany.

Hallelujah. A concept, CONGESTION, free at last -- and me, without a hankie.

Christmas might as well have been reading Speck’s Downtown Street Network Proposal verbatim, and boy, it would have been appropriate had he done so, given that many city officials present haven’t ever heard (or read) Speck’s actual words.

It is essential that downtown street networks be designed based upon the amount of traffic that they experience rather than in anticipation of larger volumes. This is particularly the case when a community is threatened by an onslaught of new traffic as is feared from the new INDOT tolling regime. A street system that is designed around higher-volume and higher-speed traffic can be expected to quickly receive this traffic—especially trucks, whose drivers are keenly sensitive to the time and cost of travel.

In contrast, a street system that is designed to accept reasonable volumes at reasonable speeds is likely a city’s only defense against the noxious impacts of pass-through traffic.

CONGESTION. It’s our friend. At long last, this fact was conceded, publicly … by an engineer.

Jeff Gahan hasn’t referenced “CONGESTION” for attribution. Not one peep from the collective Board of Works. Redevelopment? Mum.

But the functionary from Clark Dietz did, and good for him. Now, I’m not sure why this happened. Perhaps Christmas is our Günter Schabowski, the East German media liaison whose confusion over hastily scribbled notes led to an inadvertent announcement that brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989.

So much for the good news. Now, for the bad.

--

With no imminent plan to tame the city’s one-way arterial streets downtown via Speck, and prior to tolling, the Spring/Silver project represents all available eggs of contingency deposited into one tiny basket of "preparation."

Maybe a start, but only minimal. It totally neglects the imperative of dispersing traffic in both directions on multiple reconverted two-way streets.

Obviously, imposed congestion between Beharrell and Vincennes does nothing to address traffic eastbound from the toll-free Sherman Minton Bridge, heading back to Clark County.

These are the helter-skelter, pass-through drivers of cars and trucks who’ll be racing down Market and Elm, making a mockery of what little walkability we enjoy at present and hurting, not helping, downtown businesses.

Does the rube suburban turned urban savant have an answer for this?

Maybe Wes Christmas can interpret Jeff Gahan’s perpetual silence, and do the community a second favor.

---

Fortunately, not all of New Albany’s older white men are clueless, even if it usually seems that way. I bumped into one of the exceptions on Wednesday, and “Sid” asked me what I thought of the paper’s most recent two-way street spotlight article.

“Miserable bilge,” I replied. “Think of it as Chris Morris’s revenge, and it makes perfect sense.”

“That’s about right,” Sid said. “At the same time, it’s not like there's ever been any governing management at the ‘Bune. The article was embarrassing. All the new restaurants and shops, and they didn’t ask a single one of them what they thought about two-way streets.”

Sid smiled teasingly: “So, how’d you like ol’ Bobby Caesar’s testimony?”

My lips formed a sneer.

“Nothing unusual; lots of personal opinions about the lessons he learned, holed up on Pearl Street for 40 years, stewing with mall envy.  No facts from Bob, ever. The thing about Caesar is that he doesn’t even understand his own business career.”

“How so?”

I launched into a familiar rant.

“Bob still thinks his customers came to him only because one-way streets made it easy, but in reality, it never was fast and easy to get to Endris Jewelers. Ever. People always went out of their way to come to downtown New Albany, and still do.

“For all those years, his store was a destination business – and with destination businesses, speed and location don’t matter. People come to see you because you provide them with valued service, just like when we started the pub.

“Bob looks in the mirror, and he still can’t grasp that people went out of their way to see him not because a one-way street saved them 45 seconds of transit time, but because Bob was good at what he did.”

Sid rubbed the gray stubble on his chin.

“Well, his dad – maybe.”

---

June 9: ON THE AVENUES: High atop Summit Springs with friends (and relatives) in low places.

June 2: ON THE AVENUES: A few beers at Vladimir’s local in Ostrava in June, 1989.

May 26: ON THE AVENUES: On the crass exploitation and politicization of tragedy.

May 19: ON THE AVENUES: Requiem for the bored.

May 12: ON THE AVENUES: A design for life.

The Bud Lighting of Jeff Speck (2): Silver to Vincennes, as we survey the Rosenbarger Automotive Enhancement Plan for Spring Street.

Previously: Part 1: The Bud Lighting of Jeff Speck (1): The Rosenbarger Automotive Enhancement Plan for Spring, from Beharrel to Silver.

Above is the Clark Dietz rendering of the changes in store for Spring Street (between Silver and Vincennes), looking west at the intersection of Spring and Thomas. Below is what Jeff Speck proposed in his study for this corridor.

As noted in Part 1, Tuesday's (February 2) Board of Works conversation represented the first (and to date only) public airing of the details of this latest Spring Street "improvement" plan as it pertains to the Beharrel to Vincennes corridor. It came up in the newspaper last Friday.

Because this "safety for cars" planning began in 2010, and the Speck study was not finished until very late in 2014, Wes Christmas of Clark Dietz could only acknowledge to me his firm's awareness of Speck's general research, while maintaining the overall objective of phrasing the work currently proposed in purely auto-centric terms -- since, after all, the 90-10 federal match depends on using the right language.

Lane widths: Although four lanes shrink to three with turn lanes at Thomas, City Hall cannot bring itself to cut the flab all the way down to ten feet. The lanes will be eleven feet.

Parking: Apart from the Thomas intersection, there will be on-street parking for this segment.

Walkers: As the Clark Dietz drawing illustrates, no crosswalk access is projected for these blocks between Silver and Vincennes. Recalling that the speed limit is to remain unchanged, with city engineer Larry Summers suggesting that design will lower speeds so as to make life better for pedestrians, it remains that no specific point was made on Tuesday to offer an engineering solution for people wishing to cross Spring Street, from one side to the other, from Beharrel to Vincennes, except at Silver -- and City Hall insists this plan is a boon for walkers.

Bicycle lanes: With regard to bicycle lanes, we now understand what councilman Greg Phipps and ESNA president Greg Roberts were referring to when, on Sunday during a Fb conversation, Roberts wrote these words:

After reviewing the Speck plan again, this project is following his recommendations almost to the letter, except for having both bike plans on one side. the unveiled plan shows one bike lane on each side. I think Greg is fighting for his district with a new rental registration proposed ordinance, two way streets project, getting street lamps fixed, housing, etc... In my opinion, some of Speck's study was over kill on the bike lanes!!

Yes, it appears that City Hall was spooked by Speck; specifically, Speck's proposal of an innovative and integrity-laced two-way cycle facility on one side of the street, buffered by parked cars, as opposed to the more conventional integrated lane approach (see below for Speck's explanations of both).

A digression: During public speaking time at Tuesday's BOW meeting, I requested an explanation of the "environmental study" letter being circulated to property owners on Market, Spring and Elm.

RQAW's letter to property owners: The "street improvements" project that dare not speak its name.

John Rosenbarger, wizard of all planning, was called to explain. He publicly agreed with my assertion that it stands to confuse people to refer to a project (New Albany Downtown Street Improvements) that as yet remains in mysterious backroom planning stages, cannot be researched on-line, and which city officials tend to refer to only in vague terms of double-speak.

Rosenbarger said something else publicly, which is cataclysmic by New Gahania's down-low standards: The New Albany Downtown Street Improvements euphemism does refer to one- to two-way street reversions. 

It's on the record ... unless it's already been erased, and we've always been at war with Oceania. I felt like I'd cracked the code. Do I get a medal ... or a plaque?

If I am misinterpreting anything herein, please, someone, correct me.

Prognosis: It's better than the de facto interstate that will, as yet, be maintained from Beharrel to Silver. It is impossible to predict what will happen on those streets now one-way, when (if) they're reverted to two-way traffic. My guess would be the least innovative bastardization of Speck possible, if that. It's how New Gahania rolls.

The quoted cost of the auto-centric project from Beharrel to Vincennes is somewhere around $650,000 (90-10 split, with the feds bearing the 90). To restore the remainder of the street grid to ruddy two-way health, and once the inevitable campaign contributions are factored into the mix ... folks, we're looking at millions.

Best hope that water slide makes lots of money this summer. Trust me: They'll find a way to screw this up.

Following is what Speck says (page 62-64 of his study):

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Current Condition
This next segment of Spring Street also consists of four lanes in a roadway that is over 50 feet wide. This segment carries considerably less traffic, with daily counts in the 16,000 to 18,000 range. It also presents less motivation for left-hand turns, with only Thomas Street serving a significant network (grid) function. Cars often travel at excessive speeds along this segment’s wide driving lanes.

Analysis
The same 3-lane road-diet section can be provided here, but the small demand for left-hand turn motions suggests that the center lane need only be provided at Silver, Thomas, and Vincennes Streets, and can be eliminated elsewhere. Eliminating this facility where it is not needed provides additional space in the roadway that can be dedicated to other use, and here it makes sense to introduce a cycle facility that reaches into downtown.

The roadway’s 50-foot width can amply hold two travel lanes, two parking lanes, and a two-way cycle facility. At the intersections noted above, one parking lane would drop away in order to provide space for a center turn lane. It is essential that this turn lane not be any longer than needed. It is anticipated that a combined storage area and lane chamfer of 80 feet will be sufficient.

The cycle facility could take two different forms. As already discussed, protected cycle tracks have been demonstrated to provide the greatest safety and encouragement to cyclists while also improving the driving experience. Because of their success and popularity in the dozens of states in which they have been tested, it is recommended that one significant-length cycle track be introduced to New Albany, and Spring Street provides the ideal corridor.

Such a cycle track earns its “protected status by being located principally between the curb and parked cars. One flank of curb parking is pulled off the curb, in order to create this corridor, and a small striped buffer separates bicyclists from opening car doors. At corners, the parked cars drop away in order to improve cyclists’ visibility.

However, if there is community resistance to this facility, a more conventional solution of two integrated cycle lanes, similar to the current condition west of Vincennes, could be applied instead to this two-way segment. To welcome bikes and encourage slower driving speeds, driving lanes should be 10 feet wide rather than 12, so that bike lanes may be 6 feet wide rather than 5. This extra foot is important to cyclists, who are squeezed between moving traffic on one side and car doors on the other.

Recommendation
From Silver to Vincennes, restripe Spring Street to one of the following configurations:

Cycle Track Solution:Place an 8-foot two-way cycle track against the south curb, with a 6-foot striped buffer separating it from a 36-foot roadway containing two 10-foot travel lanes flanked by two 8-foot parking lanes (striped). At Silver, Thomas, and Vincennes, provide 10-foot left-hand turn lanes by eliminating one flank of parallel parking and narrowing the buffer to 4 feet. The left-hand turn lane facility should be no longer than needed, ideally 80 feet or less total, including chamfer.

Integrated Lane Solution: Reconfigure the roadway to include two 11-foot driving lanes flanked by two 6-foot cycle lanes and two 8-foot parking lanes. At Silver, Thomas, and Vincennes, provide 10-foot left-hand turn lanes by eliminating one flank of parallel parking and narrowing the travel lanes to 10 feet. The left-hand turn lane facility should be no longer than needed, ideally 80 feet or less total, including chamfer.