Cars FAST, speed testing slooooow as Deaf Gahan looks forward to the year 2026 for traffic calming measures downtown.

The bookseller filed a report midday on Friday.

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.

The Jeff Gahan Money Machine, Part 1: Mysterious CRS Marketing and the inevitable HWC Engineering tie-in.

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.

The four-way stop at Elm & 13th, and why openness and transparency matter.

Previously, back at the beginning of December, 2018, we took a closer look at how unreal this simple process can be in Anchor City.

Speed Thought Control: Board of Works, city engineer still unable to grasp reality when it comes to speedway street grid dangers, so they spout meaningless drivel.

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.

The ways most states and cities set speed limits? A study shows "how these standard practices may actually lead to more speeding-related fatalities and injuries."

Jeeebus, what a week. I believe there are a substantial number of people locally who are willing to assert that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east -- to give up their first born to the French Foreign Legion and eat durian fruit on their toast for breakfast -- just so long as they can avoid admitting that I'm right about something.

This is priceless, and it pleases me to no end.

But enough of that.

Let's talk about how speed kills. The report in question deals strictly with passenger vehicles, but the correlations with other road users are clear. Here are two excerpts.

NTSB RELEASES FULL REPORT ON SPEEDING-RELATED CRASH STUDY, by Nimotalai Azeez (Smart Growth America)

The safe system approach introduced in the report considers the vulnerability of all road users. How will the recommendations make streets safer for people like you who commute by bike, and those who walk, bicycle, use transit, and drive?

We can’t talk about speeding without talking about people who walk, bike or use transit, younger and older road users, and people with disabilities. The safe system approach, discussed in the report, incorporates the needs of all road users, especially vulnerable ones. Although this report focuses on passenger vehicles, some recommendations apply to all road users by ensuring that appropriate speeds are maintained and enforced.

How does the study treat the influence of road design on traffic crashes?

The report focuses on countermeasures that are considered less widely accepted. But it is important to note that [changing] road design to address speed-related crashes is not yet widely implemented, even if it is generally accepted as good practice. Some jurisdictions are already addressing speed-related crashes using road design, by using Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data related to infrastructure and other data-driven measures. Some states, as I have seen firsthand, are already including speed as an emphasis area in their Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP). Some jurisdictions are using design manuals with features that enhance compliance for lower speed limits rather than simply lowering speed limits.

"The Ideology of Traffic" moves traffic, but creating wealth is something else entirely.

Which ideology is it? Traffic or wealth creation? Charles Marohn breaks it down: The Ideology of Traffic (Strong Towns).

Folks like Irv Stumler and David Aebersold should be reading. They might learn something.

They won't ... so they don't.

This weekend, there was an article that appeared in the NY Post titled The Real Reason for New York City’s Traffic Nightmare. I know the Post is tabloidy; the story contained all anonymous sources and lacked even a rudimentary level of fact checking that you’d find in an actual news story. Still, it fits the ideology of the traffic engineering profession and I saw the piece widely distributed. Here’s a quote:

“The traffic is being engineered,” a former top NYPD official told The Post, explaining a long-term plan that began under Mayor Mike Bloomberg and hasn’t slowed with Mayor de Blasio.

“The city streets are being engineered to create traffic congestion, to slow traffic down, to favor bikers and pedestrians,” the former official said.

“There’s a reduction in capacity through the introduction of bike lanes and streets and lanes being closed down.”

Let’s apply a contrasting value system to this quote, not one based on moving traffic but one based on building wealth. Here’s how each of these statements could be rewritten:

Ideology of Traffic: The city streets are being engineered to create traffic congestion.

Ideology of Wealth Creation: The city streets are being engineered to make property more valuable, encourage investment and improve the city’s tax base while reducing its overall costs.

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Ideology of Traffic: The city streets are being engineered to slow traffic.

Ideology of Wealth Creation: The city streets are being engineered to improve the quality of the space for the people who live, work and own property there.

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Ideology of Traffic: The city streets are being engineered to favor bikers and pedestrians.

Ideology of Wealth Creation: The city streets are being engineered to favor the access of high volumes of people over the movement of comparatively small volumes of automobiles.

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Ideology of Traffic: There’s a reduction in capacity through the introduction of bike lanes and streets and lanes being closed down.

Ideology of Wealth Creation: There’s an improvement in the quality of the place and it’s corresponding value through the introduction of bike lanes and the closing of some streets and lanes.

Before the Suburban Experiment, cities were built with an ideology of wealth creation.