Tractor trailer tradeoff? After all, we want trucks to visit and spend time here in New Albany.

Thanks again to AG for the photo.

Uh oh.

"They" are at it again.

They have made New Albany where it is almost impossible to drive a truck in there I had a lady one day say what we don't want any trucks in New Albany why do you think you're going to get your fancy coffee if it was up to me it wouldn't be a single truck come into downtown New Albany they can come and pick up their own stuff and see how people would like it then

That's 77 words, no punctuation; I have preserved this primal scream in its original form. We turn now to Charles Marohn for an opposing point of view: "No, semis are not a valid reason to build dangerously wide streets."

TRACTOR TRAILER TRADEOFF, by Charles Marohn

... During Big Box Stores Week, I received the proverbial semi-trailer comment. Chuck, I agree that we need to look at street design, but we can only change things so much because we need to accommodate semis.

So logical yet so wrong ...

... To receive federal and state transportation dollars, your city may be forced to design local streets so as to accommodate semi tractor trailers. For streets funded with local dollars, however, that decision is a local one. If you choose not to make accommodating the efficiency of tractor trailers your primary design criteria and perhaps decide that wealth creation, solvency and safety of residents are more important, just know that – while there will be some wailing and gnashing of teeth – nobody in your city will starve.

Then there is our friend Ted, in a classic Facebook post from March 18, 2015.

"We want trucks to visit and spend time here in New Albany."

We are a community of trucks. Trucks that invest time and money in local business. Trucks that invest time and money in our neighborhoods. We want trucks to visit and spend time here in New Albany. We want more trucks to move here. So of course we should take actions in our street grid that makes the downtown more truck friendly. Easier for trucks to walk. Safer for trucks to ride bikes. There is a preponderance of factual data to support the benefits to trucks and communities that embrace the changes in the Speck study.

Oh wait. I meant people not trucks. My bad. Because you would be a dumb ass to think otherwise. Or you might own a bunch of trucks. I support the full implementation of the Speck study at the earliest opportunity. Meaning freaking now.

Alas, Jeff Gahan didn't implement Speck's study. He implemented an alternative on the part of favored contractor HWC Engineering, one that stripped Speck's layout of significant portions of its future merits so as to appease Luddite Democrats and trucking magnates.

It was an incredible opportunity lost to timidity, cupidity and outright stupidity. At least in 2019, there'll be a chance to #FireGahan.

"We want trucks to visit and spend time here in New Albany."

Thanks again to AG for the photo.

Our friend Ted, in a bona fide classic on Fb this morning:

We are a community of trucks. Trucks that invest time and money in local business. Trucks that invest time and money in our neighborhoods. We want trucks to visit and spend time here in New Albany. We want more trucks to move here. So of course we should take actions in our street grid that makes the downtown more truck friendly. Easier for trucks to walk. Safer for trucks to ride bikes. There is a preponderance of factual data to support the benefits to trucks and communities that embrace the changes in the Speck study.

Oh wait. I meant people not trucks. My bad. Because you would be a dumb ass to think otherwise. Or you might own a bunch of trucks. I support the full implementation of the Speck study at the earliest opportunity. Meaning freaking now.

Photo essay: What NA's robber barons want, versus what NA's future really needs.

The robber barons are set in their ways. They have trouble with changing times, and they want to keep things the way they are.

Thes best way to keep things the same is to make people afraid. The robber barons are good at that.

But the robber barons are stuck in the past. Young people in New Albany want the city to be livable, and if it isn't, they'll take their talents somewhere else.

For the generations to come, our streets are designed to be used by all of the city's residents, not just the robber barons.

It's all about this relentlessly factual document. Not unexpectedly, not many of the robber barons have bothered reading it.

Maybe, for once, it's time for the robber barons to bone up and think ahead.

Street abuse by design? Then change the design.

Recently I had a meeting at Wick's, and we sat outside to accommodate the smokers among us.

At frequent intervals, all conversation halted as huge trucks passed on State Street at ear-splitting volume. Almost all of them turned right onto Main, and judging from their markings, most were from out of town vehicles in route to the recycling company.

We construct streets to create problems, and then expect problems not to materialize, in part from a forlorn hope that human nature will result in restraint, but if not, then a few speed traps will treat the symptoms without a commensurate need to diagnose the disease, and bring a few farthings jangling into the coffers.

Speed traps are vile, and I don't condone city police targeting trucks any more than I defend the state police's practice of poaching outside taverns. Of course, the best answer is for the city to take back its streets now, before speeding, truck abuse and  (eventually) toll evasion get worse, by creating a new "complete streets" paradigm  that recognizes these problems as design issues, not enforcement issues.

New Albany’s East Main Street residents complain about shaking from semi trucks, by Daniel Suddeath at News and Tribune

... David Schickel, founder of Schickel Masonry Restoration in Floyds Knobs, said he also examined Hawkins’ house at his request. He said he “couldn’t believe” how much the sidewalk shook when heavy trucks drove by, and that vibrations aren’t good for historic houses.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the speed of vehicles on Main Street,” Schickel said.

The issue will be tabled until the traffic study is performed, Wilkinson said. The speed limit is 30 miles per hour for that area of Main Street. NAPD Chief Sherri Knight said the fastest patrol officers clocked a semi truck driving in the stretch during recent weeks was 36 miles per hour.

She said police can’t just target trucks.