Last week, when Mayor Jeff Gahan finally emerged from the down low bunker to speak publicly about two-way streets for the first time in months, the News and Tribune’s Elizabeth Beilman recorded a typical potted Gahanism.
“What we don’t want is the volume to turn Spring Street into a raceway,” Gahan said.
I hate to be the one to break the news to a sheltered guy who spends most of his time underground reading his own press clippings, but dude — Spring Street’s been a raceway since about 1960.
Since it was made into a one-way street.
For Gahan to suggest that speeding on New Albany’s one-way street grid won’t become a problem until tolls come into force constitutes a pole-vault beyond delusional, straight to profoundly sad.
Portland Wants to Rethink Speed Limits By Factoring in Walkers and Bikers, by Angie Schmitt (Streetsblog USA)
For cities trying to get a handle on traffic fatalities, dangerous motor vehicle speeds are an enormous problem. Once drivers exceed 20 mph, the chances that someone outside the vehicle will survive a collision plummet.
But even on city streets where many people walk and bike, streets with 35 or 40 mph traffic are common. Cities looking to reduce lethal vehicle speeds face a number of obstacles — including restrictions on how they can set speed limits …
… Street design is a more important safety factor than speed limit signs, of course, but lower speed limits can still send a signal to motorists to proceed more cautiously — and they can set expectations for traffic calming redesigns in the future. If the speed limit is 30 mph but motorists consistently go faster, the design clearly needs to change.
