Main Street intersections at Bank and 4th are hazardous for pedestrians. Where's City Hall, apart from a state of denial?

An increased number of businesses are on the north side of Main Street. More are on the south side (Underground Station) as well as one of the larger expanses of surface parking (by the levee).

Notice the crosswalks and other means of making pedestrian passage across this wide street easier.

That's right. There are none. 

The intersection of Bank and Main also is bad for drivers, especially those northbound from the surface lot. It's been two and a half years since this was first pointed out to BOW (reprint below).

Now the situation is worsening at 4th and Main, where Hull & High Water is generating a great deal of foot traffic, both from area parking and the beautified corridor.

Jeff Speck had thoughts about this. These are 17-foot traffic lanes and 8-foot parking depths. That's a whole 50 feet from one side to another, without any effort to slow traffic or assist pedestrians. 

Until city officials do something about this, anything they say about "walkability" is to be taken as an insult. After all, it's "not an option," is it?

---

May 13, 2015

Board of Works approves new city slogan for new city seal: "It's not an option."

There were many curiosities at yesterday's Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, held at the usual 10:00 a.m. slot which precludes so very much in the way of attendance and public input.

We learned that some folks can temporarily close streets with little effort, while others must assemble a petition. We noticed that when it comes to communications, it doesn't. It was reported that John "Human Chainsaw" Rosenbarger will be felling 30+ trees on Thomas Street, and planting 50 more ... and so on.

However, let's focus on just one of the items.

At a previous meeting, local businesses occupying the evolving Underground Station property on the corner of Main and Bank had asked the Board of Works to refit the intersection in front of their building (Main and Bank) into a 4-way stop, and to add a handicapped parking space on Main.

It wasn't surprising to hear street department commissioner Mickey Thompson speak for the board in waving away these requests, but his justifications (and his tone) were puzzling.

As for the handicapped space, Thompson feared establishing a harmful precedent, as though to say that if one business seeks a handicapped space, all of them would. Left unsaid was whether people with handicaps would find this useful.

But isn't the real question this: Why doesn't the city, through its Board of Works, proactively address parking issues and enforce parking ordinances? Why be troubled by a solitary handicapped space when no laws presently are enforced? After all, don't just do something -- stand there.

As for the 4-way stop request, which was made owing to steadily increasing traffic probably resulting from the simple fact that finally there is commercial traffic where before there was none, Thompson could do no better than grunt: "It's not an option." 

The obvious question that should have been asked and answered: "Why Not? Why isn't it an option?" 

We already know that through the top-down marionette otherwise known as the Board of Works and Safety (that word again), the Democratic municipal machine is delaying all movement toward street grid reform for 18 months or more. However, as the intersection of Main and Bank attests, the grid already is unsafe, and in the regrettable vacuum created by Jeff Gahan's politically-inspired and plainly cowardly deferrals, our streets are becoming more unsafe by the day.

Jeff, Warren, Adam ... yo, guys, can we at least have a Band-Aid to staunch the bleeding?

Even a wooden clothespin in place of the necessary tourniquet might help us to stay alive and watch you ineffectually fiddle.

Following are some fair and balanced pros and cons of the 4-way stop.

The Great Stop Sign Experiment, by Sam Newberg (Streets MN)

... In the big picture my personal hope and goal is for my neighborhood (and city) to be a safer place for all ages to walk and bike. If that means cars have to drive slower or there is more congestion in places or at certain times of the day, I’m willing to accept that. If we build and manage our roads to accommodate rush-hour traffic, the livability of our city will suffer at all hours.

ASK THE BORED: BoW's fantasy world? Talk is cheap, and pedestrians likely will be sitting ducks at intersections that aren't "stop controlled."

Bored minutes from July 25 are hot off the presses. Let's begin with the city engineer's testimony about high-visibility crosswalks.

"At intersections that aren't stop controlled," there'll be "high-visibility crosswalks," rather than a fruitful discussion of why an intersection that merits this extra expense, one undertaken primarily to fool pedestrians into believing they're being protected, isn't being subjected to the logical step ... of being stop controlled.  

Be still my throbbing ticker, because someone mentioned the future bicycle/pedestrian meat grinder at Spring & 10th. Wait ... here comes a truck now!

See how the driver of this improperly speeding heavy truck blithely cuts off the bike lane, and has very nearly strayed into the weird detached parking space? At 40 m.p.h., this driver might strike a walker, biker and parked car, all at once.

Given that the cone is marking the spot where a pedestrian pedestal probably will be erected to (a) block handicapped access, because that's what the city routinely does, and (b) contribute to a false sense of security for pedestrians at a crosswalk that isn't stop controlled ... alas, I suspect Lincks refers merely to the task of implementing whatever smoke and mirrors atop pedestals are available to make this intersection somehow seem safe, when the logical solution ... is to make it stop controlled.

Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Rice of HWC Engineering (dude -- the cross hatching fix?) once stated to me that INDOT simply won't allow 4-way stops and stop lights to be planted for the purpose of slowing traffic.

That's a shame, Jim, because the intersection of Spring & 10th is so potentially dangerous that someone probably will be hurt, and soon, and this injury will then be used to justify the logical and belated fix ... you know, making it stop controlled.

Because, my dear Jim, it's about safety, eh? Wouldn't you rather be pro-active than reactive, or does this require an extra campaign contribution?

Meanwhile, chairman of the bored Warren Nash -- still struggling to keep his story straight about the University of Michigan door-to-door canvassing, which he's convinced is somehow connected to fluoridated water and street pianos -- indulges in a bit of surreal and self-congratulatory reasoning.

Really? Allow me to walk you through it, Warren.

But of course you knew how long the project was going to take. You're the consummate insider, who knows everything so that you can conceal it.

Perhaps the reason you're hearing confusion from the public about the duration of the McDonald Lane project is that Team Gahan does an exceedingly poor job of telling others what it intends to do -- and by others, I refer to those folks who work days and cannot attend your BoW meetings at 10:00 a.m.

It comes as no surprise that something like this would even be said aloud.

Okay, kids -- the Green Mouse is "bored" to tears, so join us again next week as we sift the wreckage of Gahanism for a few ephemeral nuggets of entertainment.

NAC Editorial Board: Stop signs as manhole covers makes so much sense that it needs to become official city policy.

Photo credit: WDRB

As we await the mayor's official comment on the matter, which is slated to arrive in Navajo code after the election, as conveyed by an extinct breed of carrier pigeon, the use of a stop sign to cover a manhole after last Friday's flash floods has been the target of considerable mirth, allowing Louisville metro residents yet another opportunity to laugh at us.

WDRB reports on the situation here.

City Hall trots out an employee to rationalize here, as Warren typically Naps.

However, as Monty Python once advised, we need to look at the bright side of life. Whomever decided to recycle a stop sign by substituting it for a manhole cover actually showed rare improvisational skill as it pertains to problem solving, especially if it was torn from an adjacent signpost, because after all -- who even pays attention to warped, faded stop signs when navigating New Albany's one-way, high-speed street grid?

Surely the employee reasoned: How can it be bad to appropriate emergency band-aids from one shambolic use of the city's neglected infrastructure to temporarily address another?

Far from vilifying the practice, we need to adapt it as standard procedure. Dan Coffey can head the Department of  Patching Crap with Crap.

He'd simply nail it -- and not at all metaphorically.

Much as we never knew we were being rebranded as a city with a marketing tactic in the form of a new civic logo, the recreation of this symbolic manhole-cum-stop sign act might top future Harvest Homecoming parade floats, and go viral on YouTube. It could be re-enacted at every Mayor's Prayer Breakfast.

The current occupant might even borrow it as yet another indication of his city being Fundamentally Better (at self-serving propaganda).

Verily, the sky's the limit, folks. Let's not waste this gift.

What can you repair with the stop sign on YOUR corner?

Board of Works approves new city slogan for new city seal: "It's not an option."

There were many curiosities at yesterday's Board of Public Works and Safety meeting, held at the usual 10:00 a.m. slot which precludes so very much in the way of attendance and public input.

We learned that some folks can temporarily close streets with little effort, while others must assemble a petition. We noticed that when it comes to communications, it doesn't. It was reported that John "Human Chainsaw" Rosenbarger will be felling 30+ trees on Thomas Street, and planting 50 more ... and so on.

However, let's focus on just one of the items.

At a previous meeting, local businesses occupying the evolving Underground Station property on the corner of Main and Bank had asked the Board of Works to refit the intersection in front of their building (Main and Bank) into a 4-way stop, and to add a handicapped parking space on Main.

It wasn't surprising to hear street department commissioner Mickey Thompson speak for the board in waving away these requests, but his justifications (and his tone) were puzzling.

As for the handicapped space, Thompson feared establishing a harmful precedent, as though to say that if one business seeks a handicapped space, all of them would. Left unsaid was whether people with handicaps would find this useful.

But isn't the real question this: Why doesn't the city, through its Board of Works, proactively address parking issues and enforce parking ordinances? Why be troubled by a solitary handicapped space when no laws presently are enforced? After all, don't just do something -- stand there.

As for the 4-way stop request, which was made owing to steadily increasing traffic probably resulting from the simple fact that finally there is commercial traffic where before there was none, Thompson could do no better than grunt: "It's not an option." 

The obvious question that should have been asked and answered: "Why Not? Why isn't it an option?" 

We already know that through the top-down marionette otherwise known as the Board of Works and Safety (that word again), the Democratic municipal machine is delaying all movement toward street grid reform for 18 months or more. However, as the intersection of Main and Bank attests, the grid already is unsafe, and in the regrettable vacuum created by Jeff Gahan's politically-inspired and plainly cowardly deferrals, our streets are becoming more unsafe by the day.

Jeff, Warren, Adam ... yo, guys, can we at least have a Band-Aid to staunch the bleeding?

Even a wooden clothespin in place of the necessary tourniquet might help us to stay alive and watch you ineffectually fiddle.

Following are some fair and balanced pros and cons of the 4-way stop.

The Great Stop Sign Experiment, by Sam Newberg (Streets MN)

... In the big picture my personal hope and goal is for my neighborhood (and city) to be a safer place for all ages to walk and bike. If that means cars have to drive slower or there is more congestion in places or at certain times of the day, I’m willing to accept that. If we build and manage our roads to accommodate rush-hour traffic, the livability of our city will suffer at all hours.

City Hall snorts: "But if we have two-way streets, we'll have to replace all these crappy old faded street signs."

Viewed from the southwest.

Viewed from the northeast.

So ... which city entity is responsible for restoring luster to faded signage? It's that elusive Traffic Commission ... in fact, so very elusive that we don't have one.

Did you know that in New Albany, a Traffic Commission is stipulated by ordinance?

So, who's taken over the job?

§ 70.27  ERECTION OF SIGNS.

   (A)   Whenever any ordinance of the city designates and describes a through street, it shall be the duty of the Traffic Commission to place and maintain a stop sign on each and every street intersecting the through street or that portion thereof described and designated as such by any ordinance of the city.

   (B)   The Traffic Commission is hereby authorized to determine and designate intersections where particular hazards exist upon other than through streets and to determine whether vehicles shall stop at one or more entrances to any such stop intersection, shall erect a stop sign at every such place where a stop is required, or in the event the Traffic Commission determines that reduced speed rather than a stop is adequate for safe operation of any such intersection, it shall erect signs upon the approach to the intersection, giving notice of the speed.

   (C)   Every stop sign shall bear the word "stop" in letters of not less than six inches in height, shall be provided with reflector button or, if not, then shall be self-illuminated at night. Every stop sign shall be located as near as practicable at the proper line of the street at the entrance to which the stop must be made, or at the nearest line of the crosswalk thereat or, if not, at a limit line to be indicated by the Traffic Commission.

   (D)   Whenever, by any ordinance of the city, a one-way street is described or any time-limit parking is imposed, it shall be the duty of the Traffic Commission to erect appropriate signs giving notice thereof.

(Ord. 4139, passed 11-27-1939)