Sometimes You Just Have to Ask the Right Person

A couple of years ago I emailed St. Louis’ Citizens’ Service Bureau asking them to add directional arrows on Hartford at Grand. For years I’ve seen drivers be confused as they leave the Commerce Bank drive-thru/parking area or the parking area behind the commercial strip that contains the St. Louis Bread Co. and Kinkos. Many drivers, it appeared, either forgot or did not realize this was a one-way street heading toward Grand. You would routinely see a driver in the right lane but make a left turn — potentially cutting off someone correctly in the left lane to turn left. I went throught the proper channel but it never got done.

But as you can see above it was recently done. Sometimes it takes the right person asking the right person and good things can happen. Last month I ran into Director of Streets Todd Waeltermann down at City Hall during a meeting of the Board of Aldermen. We had a pleasant conversation but I am certainly not his favorite person after I’ve made such a big deal over valet parking and other issues impacting his department. Still, I think, we both realize a good working relationship is best in the long run. So, during our impromptu chat I mentioned this area and followed up with an email that read, in part:

Hartford in the block east of Grand (next to Commerce Bank) is one-way westbound. People coming out of the bank and Breadco don’t always realize this and stay to the right as they head to Grand and then make a left turn — conflicting with those in the left turning left. I’ll try to get a picture to send you. What is needed is a simple dividing line with the left lane marked as left-turn only and the right lane marked as straight or right. Better signs might help but people often don’t see signs as they exit from these two areas onto westbound Hartford. Better pavement marking would greatly help.

A few days ago, after dinner on the patio at City Diner, I noticed the striping and arrows I had suggested had been done. Needless to say, I was very glad to see this finally in place — I sent Waeltermann a thank you via email that night. I’m not sure when this got done, perhaps at the same time as the intersection up the street at Grand & Magnolia (see post). I went back on Saturday to get photos and observe traffic and it did appear the pavement markings helped people as they were busy driving, putting away cash from the ATM and talking on their cell phone. Only one vehicle out of 25 or so turned left from the right lane, an improvement to be sure.

Other items on my wish list to Waeltermann were a bit more involved so I understand why they are not done. One involves striping along South Broadway between I-55 and I-55 (Cherokee to Osceolla roughly) so that the outside lane is not the current 20ft+ width which encourages people to pass on the right in the parking lane. This type of striping has been done in the 11th Ward section of Broadway further South and it made a big difference. This area is being looked at for bike route planning so I doubt anything will happen until the planning has been done. I’d heard talk of removing on-street parking on one side so that 4-traffic lanes plus bike lanes could be accommodated. I personally would keep the on-street parking and drop the traffic from four lanes down to two but that is a good subject for an entirely different post.

Again, I appreciate the responsiveness of Todd Waeltermann in implementing logical markings to help motorists and hopefully reduce accidents (or at least angry drivers) at this intersection.