Too Damned Fast?

 

Car Crashes Onto Rivergreenway

 

On Sunday afternoon about 2:30 I heard a car skidding. I looked out the window and saw cars pulling over and a couple of people running toward the greenway where it runs between Thieme Drive and Swinney Park. Here's what I found. I don't know how it happened, but a sober driver in a halfway decent car can negotiate the curve at 50mph on dry pavement. The posted limit is 35mph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This section of the greenway is heavily used in good weather; I walk or bike it frequently. Fortunately no one was in that spot at that time.

 

Speeding is rampant on West Washington Boulevard, and in recent years I've seen very little enforcement. The speed limit coming into the curve is 35mph, and west of the curve it increases to 40mph. By the time drivers pass my house, many are going more than 40 and accelerating.

Ouch...  Rob, you have a pretty exciting place nearby, don't you. 

I'm just waiting for someone to whip around the corner in front of my house and end up in our front yard.

Honesht ossifer, I weren't drinkn' nuttin'. 

Not good.

i'm not trying to make you be the old curmudgeon neighbor, but you should send these photos (and the other sets from previous accidents) to city hall and the police and write a strongly worded letter to do something: better enforcement, better signage, guardrails?)

 

Its one thing for people to be hurting themselves, but its another thing with their actions could hurt someone else

 

How many accidents do you see on average a year here?

As the pope says, there seems to be an engineering / enforcement issue at that section of roadway. There are many, many, low cost intersection safety improvements that can be done to ensure that something tragic does not occur when there actually is someone on the greenway. Your photos could open some eyes regarding the safety of the section of roadway for pedestrians, in addition to motorists.

i'm not trying to make you be the old curmudgeon neighbor, but you should send these photos (and the other sets from previous accidents) to city hall and the police and write a strongly worded letter to do something: better enforcement, better signage, guardrails?)

 

Its one thing for people to be hurting themselves, but its another thing with their actions could hurt someone else

 

How many accidents do you see on average a year here?

 

I see/hear one every couple of months on average, I suppose, and there are ones I miss, but I know about them when there's a big, new dent in the guardrail and a new batch of plastic and glass scattered around. The rollover was the third crash in just under a month, though. Might be an entertaining summer.

 

I've been nagging the city about the speeding and weekend drunk drivers for more than twenty years. Two administrations ago I even got face-to-face with the mayor and chief of police to try to get action on the problems. Nothin'.

 

There's signage - big, reflective ones that are hard to miss.

 

 

and guardrails,

 

 

 

 

but I couldn't get any pictures of traffic enforcement in the area because I've never seen any.

 

 

<rant>

FWPD doesn't have a traffic enforcement division. The previous mayor, Graham Richard, disbanded it to reallocate the resources to "more pressing issues." I don't remember if that was before or after he got a ticket for 45 in a 30.

 

Despite not having enough resources to enforce posted limits on Washington Street in the vicinity of Swinney Park, for most of a summer FWPD had enough resources to put plain-clothes cops in that park to cruise the bushes, with a uniformed cop parked for most of a shift on the cross-street a half-block from that intersection, waiting to take custody and transport any unlucky lad who got caught with his pants down.

 

I don't condone sex in public parks; it gives all gay men a black eye. I still have to question, though whether a closet case whacking it in the bushes is a greater threat to public safety than an impaired idiot driving 50+ in a 35 through residential neighborhood and in the vicinity of the park and greenway.

</rant>

How many train, bicycle and walking crashes happen in your area?

How many train, bicycle and walking crashes happen in your area?

 

my money is on zero

^^^Those photos do indeed add perspective to the section of roadway. Perhaps there is not an engineering issue, after all. It would be interesting though to see the crash history at that curve. Incident reports speak volumes about the problems being experienced. They're often rather telling. You could find out that there is a disproportionate number of people driving under the influence, or you could find that people are just being unwise in their choice of speed / control. Of course, that's all speculation, but I'd hope given the apparent number of incidents by your house that Fort Wayne DOT or equivalent is looking at that section of roadway.

How many train, bicycle and walking crashes happen in your area?

 

I'm real curious to see where you're going with this.

Damn this stretch of roadway is dangerous.  Either drop the speed limit or reconstruct/reconfigure the roadway. 

 

We have a bad situation here in Ann Arbor with people not successfully completing a 200 degree turn on a freeway ramp over the years.  Apparently the state will eliminate the ramp entirely to solve the problem.

 

Maybe it's time your road goes too!  j/k.

I guess its apparent when Rob is bored!  :evil:

 

I tell you, that stretch of road should be renamed the Rob_1412 FW International Speedway!

Damn this stretch of roadway is dangerous.  Either drop the speed limit or reconstruct/reconfigure the roadway.

 

The problem isn't with the road; it's perfectly safe at the posted speed limits, 35mph coming out of a residential area and rising to 40mph. Hundreds of drivers pass this way daily, and only a very small number crash. You can't make a road idiot-proof, no matter how much you engineer it.

 

The problem is with the city's position regarding traffic enforcement. They claim that traffic stops are up; but that's because in the areas known for drug dealing, they stop everything that moves in order to check for drugs and probable cause to search cars. I'm not saying that's bad; they make a fair number of drug busts and arrests on outstanding warrants doing that.

 

So far as traffic enforcement in most of the rest of the city, though, it's anarchy. People pretty much do what they want. Speeding and aggressive driving are rampant. I've been given the finger, screamed at and tailgated for driving at the posted limit on a two-lane street. Stop signs and stoplights are suggestions, to be observed at drivers' discretion.

 

This is second-hand, but I was talking with a neighbor about speed limit enforcement. He said he had brought up the subject with a friend of his who's a cop, and his friend said that the judges don't want their courts clogged up with traffic violations. Suppposedly there's an undocumented policy of not ticketing speeders unless they're going at least 16mph over the posted. In a 35, that's 51.

 

The city plans to return on-street parking, gone since the 1950s, to the north side of Washington Boulevard. Traffic engineering emphasizes that that's technically not a traffic-calming device, but I'm hoping it may have some effect other than a lot of parked cars getting hit. I know I won't park there, and I won't recommend it to any visitors.

How many train, bicycle and walking crashes happen in your area?

 

I'm real curious to see where you're going with this.

 

Train accidents (not involving automobiles) don't happen as often, and bicycle crashes and on-foot falls tend to be less dangerous.

Oy!

so, Rob, I have a question.  Do you sneak out at night and cover the road with Murphy's Oil Soap and wait for a car to spin out?  Are you on the payroll of Geico?  Their competitor?  The newspaper?  The Enquirer? 

Seriously, people must know it's a dangerous curve.  Just amazes me that there are so many wrecks when it is clearly marked and so obvious.  Sure makes me feel like a good driver. Car wrecks scare the crap out of me.

Murphy's Oil Soap, eh?

 

Hmmmm.

 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

:wink:

Well, you know those river roads and their curves.  I can expect more crashes.  I guess you are right rob, these roads are most dangerous no matter what you do.