On trucking safety.

Now that the extractive trucking lobby has its own anonymous apologist, perhaps we can have that long overdue discussion about what "trucking safety" really means for the rest of us.

Bluegill wins serve.

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It's interesting to hear and read so much sudden concern about trucking safety, particularly regarding oversized loads. The state department of transportation has very clear rules about special permits, restricted hauling hours, the need for escort vehicles, etc., when hauling such loads. It's anecdotal but, in nearly a decade of living and working in Downtown and Midtown New Albany, neither my wife nor I have never seen an escort vehicle and certainly not the state police escort required for extremely large loads. How is that possible if oversized loads are so prevalent for these companies? Are they overstating their case or just ignoring the rules as is? If large loads are happening so frequently, is the City doing anything to enforce those safety rules?

As a corollary, I had a conversation a few days ago with someone who, until very recently, was employed by a New Albany trucking firm. He, too, lamented the Main Street Project, making it very clear that truck traffic had been diverted to other streets, especially oversized loads. He further explained, saying that "all it's going to do is tear up the other streets, because they're not built for that". So, if trucking companies are regularly using and damaging streets not built for their rigors, who pays to repair them? And why are they allowed to use them in the first place?

Main Street IS the truck route. It's City Hall that's the problem.

A question: "Are semi-trailers 'officially' not allowed to be using streets like 13th (and Spring) now, and if no, then is anyone in city government trying to get an ordinance passed or address the problem?

My answer:

As far as the city is concerned, at least in terms of its public pronouncements -- these being almost non-existent -- there is no problem that needs solving.

According to the city, Main Street was "improved," but not so as to divert truck traffic. According to the city, the intent of the project is now the reality of the project.

Obviously, those of us residing on or near these streets know from daily observation that the city's "no diversion" intent represented strained credulity from the outset, and that reality has been quite different from Adam's world-according-to-Disneyland for the past ten months, or more.

We know that (a) in one specific instance, this being Tiger Trucking, heavy truck traffic HAS been diverted, and (b) this diversion has been worsened by daily cavalcades of dump truck traffic passing through NA from Jeff bridge construction sites to the I-64 interstate ramps.

I've taken hundreds of photographs to document this phenomenon, to which City Hall has "replied" with a pose like this:

I'm not devoid of human feelings, and I understand that it must be difficult to be caught so openly in a lie. The majority of people in New Albany over the age of puberty know that historically, all of this truck traffic was supposed to be using Main Street, period. Now, since the supposedly non-diversionary beautification project, much of it is not, and if the city concedes this fact, then it must also concede that it has spent the past year lying about the Main Street project.

So, nothing has been proposed to deal with the heavy truck problem, precisely because the city won't admit to there being a problem, at least publicly.

To me, a solution is the essence of simplicity: Reaffirm the historic travel pattern, restore the old "truck route" signage that used to stand at Spring & Vincennes, and use the NAPD to enforce the truck route, rather than pretend it ever will write speeding tickets to truck drivers -- because it won't.

Yes, this puts pass-through trucks back on Main Street, and yes, this means the city lied to Main Street residents all along about its beautification intent.

But do you know what?

City Hall didn't take the remainder of downtown into consideration when the Main Street fluff-back boondoggle was initiated, and what's more, went ahead with a $2 million-plus construction project diametrically opposed to the interest of the street grid as a whole. Consequently, City Hall's lies to the good folks on Main Street are their problem, not ours. Hopefully, Main Streeters will recall the ill-considered treatment they've gotten when election time rolls around.

Geppetto wept as Rosenbarger seized the microphone.

As we posit the potential for John Rosenbarger's ever-growing nose to bridge Silver Creek for the Greenway, students in England have already performed the necessary load-bearing studies.

Pinocchio would have broken neck after 13 lies, by Sarah Knapton (Telegraph)

Science students at the University of Leicester have found that Pinocchio could only have told 13 lies before the weight of his nose would have cause his neck to break.

Divert them: Does a truck this size have any place in a walkable downtown street grid?

Spanning Elm Street, headed for a right hand turn onto Spring.