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Delayed Reduction of Lanes on Manchester Delayed Safety Benefits of Road Diet

July 11, 2011 Midtown, Planning & Design 21 Comments

ABOVE: Mayor Slay cuts the ribbon on the unfinished Manchester Rd on May 19, 2011

The official ribbon cutting for the new Manchester Rd. streetscape in The Grove Commercial District was held back on May 19th, 2011. I was there for the event, arriving via the MetroBus shown below.

ABOVE: Widened sidewalk at Manchester & Sarah MetroBus stop

After reading of the status of the streetscape on April 27th I thought it would be very complete:

From the new pedestrian street lights to the widened sidewalks, the Manchester streetscape is shaping up nicely and quickly becoming a modern, attractive pedestrian-oriented street. The older style “Cobra” street lights will be removed soon, and the trash cans, bike racks, modern planters, and other street furniture will be all that is left to install. (source)

ABOVE: Crosswalk Location at Manchester & Boyle not yet marked on May 19, 2011. Four travel lanes are still marked even though, in places, there is insufficient room.

Upon arrival, I was disappointed the crosswalks and new lane configuration had not yet been repainted. I talked to several people that morning about the danger this posed. Later that day I got an email from Neighborhood Development Specialist, Chris Colizza, of Park Central Development (The Development Corporation for the 17th ward).  He wrote:

We met this morning at the Manchester streetscape ribbon-cutting. I confirmed with the Board of Public Service that restriping is scheduled for the week of May 30th, and the restriping will place crosswalks in line with the curb ramps, moving traffic farther from the center of intersections. Please let me know if you have any questions.

I was waiting to blog about my impressions of the changes until after the pavement markings had been completed. June began without any changes.  Waiting.  Then June was gone and July was here, still waiting.  And then tragedy on the 4th:

Police say John Foster Courtney was standing outside the St. Louis bar [Novak’s] when Justin Kramarczyk, 24, hit him in a Hyundai Sante Fe. Kramarczyk then allegedly sped away from the scene.

Courtney died that evening. The very next afternoon the following was posted on the 17th Ward blog:

Attention Manchester Residents and Business Owners,

Restriping of Manchester will occur on Wednesday July 6 and Thursday July 7, weather permitting. Cars parked on the street between 6 a.m. 6 p.m. will be towed.

Restriping Manchester is a critical component of making the street more attractive to businesses and residents. Traffic lanes will be reduced, leading to slower traffic and more pedestrian activity, as well as becoming safer for all users. Some parking will be lost to accommodate such changes, but following the restriping, the City will be eliminating some of the “No Parking” signs to help alleviate some unnecessary “No Parking” areas. (link)

It’s impossible to say if Foster Courtney would be alive today if the “critical component” had been completed after all the construction cones & signs had been removed?  It certainly looks to me like the city had an “oh shit” moment and quickly got on to the work that should have been done by the end of May. But any liability will be up to a jury as was the case with Elizabeth Bansen and Susie Stephens.

ABOVE: On the Grove Facebook page the restriping was announced before a note of sympathy.

I never met Foster Courtney, or the suspect in the hit-and-run, Justin Kramarczyk. I have eight and seven mutual friends, respectively, with each on Facebook. Some are very close to one or the other.

ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis LGBT community is reeling following a tragic accident in the early morning hours of July 4th which has left one community member dead and another’s life in ruin.

John Foster Courtney, 29, of St. Louis was struck at about 12:30 a.m. Monday as he crossed Manchester Avenue outside of Novak’s in the heart of The Grove. He succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital at about 11:30 p.m. that night.

Charged with a felony count of leaving the scene of an accident is Justin Kramarczyk, 24, also of the city. Kramarczyk was observed drinking prior to the incident, according to a probable cause statement from police investigators. Additional charges are expected in the case. (The Vital Voice)

Alcohol can impair the judgement and reaction time of drivers, as well as pedestrians. I was not there and have no knowledge of alcohol consumption by either. My thing is planning & design and the more I thought about it the more angry I got.

 

ABOVE: Concrete curb is chipped and marked from drivers that hit it before stripping. Note the old dashed line between lanes now covered.Photo date July 7th.

The new lane configuration from four to two lanes shouldn’t have been done the week of May 30th, the reduction in speed and the number of lanes should have been done before the start of the construction on the $2.8 million road diet project. Waiting until after a fatality was negligence on the part of the city.

ABOVE: View of Novac's from Just John's after restripping

It also doesn’t take a genius to know that when you have more than one gay bar in an area that patrons will hop from one to the other. Not placing a direct crosswalk means people will jaywalk late at night after they, and others, have been drinking.  Motorists are naturally more likely to see pedestrians when they are in places where we expect them to be, crosswalks.

Two days after Courtney was struck, another accident happened:

A second wreck happened near the site of a deadly hit and run in the Grove neighborhood on July 4.

The latest crash happened around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday [July 6]. A vehicle was heading eastbound on Manchester when it clipped the back of a cab. The vehicle then hit a parked car and went up onto the sidewalk. (source)

Courtney’s rugby teammates, the St. Louis Crusaders, are selling $20 memorial t-shirts “with all proceeds going to the Courtney Scholarship at Culver-Stockton College.”

Foster gave us many gifts when he was here, including his humor, warmth, kindness, and athletic ability. His final gift was as an organ donor.

Contributions can also be made to Mid-America Transplant Services.  My heart goes out to everyone impacted by the loss of Foster Courtney.

- Steve Patterson

 

  • Anonymous

    Agree the city screwed up royally by not restriping in a timely manner.  I was confused in mid-June, during daylight hours, by the new signs and curbs that didn’t match the old stripes.  Disagree with the comment that “It also doesn’t take a genius to know that when you have more than one gay bar in an area that patrons will hop from one to the other. Not placing a direct crosswalk means people will jaywalk late at night after they, and others, have been drinking.  Motorists are naturally more likely to see pedestrians when they are in places where we expect them to be, crosswalks.”  One, being gay doesn’t give anyone special rights (jaywalking is illegal for a reason).  Two, a crosswalk doesn’t cloak anyone in Kryptonite.  And three, drinking increases the risk of doing something stupid, whether one is driving, walking or crawling.  That taxi was likely stopped in a traffic lane, picking up a fare.  If the hit-and-run driver couldn’t “see” a big red Ford, why do you expect them to have been able to “see” a pedestrian?!

    Adding painted crosswalks at non-signalized intersections or mid-block will do little to make things safer in a bar-saturated area.  Yes, they will give pedestrians more legal rights, but they will also create a false sense of security since many motorists around here are clueless on how to respect or respond to one!  We need to look no further than the Delmar Loop to see how effective those were.  Yes, the new bulb-outs shorten the distance between curbs, but pedestrians will still need to “look both ways before crossing”.  Until we get more than just sparodic and symbolic enforcement of our existing yield-to-pedestrian laws, pedestrians will continue to be hit.  Engineering solutions help, but the real problem is enforcement.  And what may need to happen here is what happens on Beale Street in Memphis – close the street when the bars are hopping, and let drivers find another way through the Grove!

  • JZ71

    Agree the city screwed up royally by not restriping in a timely manner.  I was confused in mid-June, during daylight hours, by the new signs and curbs that didn’t match the old stripes.  Disagree with the comment that “It also doesn’t take a genius to know that when you have more than one gay bar in an area that patrons will hop from one to the other. Not placing a direct crosswalk means people will jaywalk late at night after they, and others, have been drinking.  Motorists are naturally more likely to see pedestrians when they are in places where we expect them to be, crosswalks.”  One, being gay doesn’t give anyone special rights (jaywalking is illegal for a reason).  Two, a crosswalk doesn’t cloak anyone in Kryptonite.  And three, drinking increases the risk of doing something stupid, whether one is driving, walking or crawling.  That taxi was likely stopped in a traffic lane, picking up a fare.  If the hit-and-run driver couldn’t “see” a big red Ford, why do you expect them to have been able to “see” a pedestrian?!

    Adding painted crosswalks at non-signalized intersections or mid-block will do little to make things safer in a bar-saturated area.  Yes, they will give pedestrians more legal rights, but they will also create a false sense of security since many motorists around here are clueless on how to respect or respond to one!  We need to look no further than the Delmar Loop to see how effective those were.  Yes, the new bulb-outs shorten the distance between curbs, but pedestrians will still need to “look both ways before crossing”.  Until we get more than just sparodic and symbolic enforcement of our existing yield-to-pedestrian laws, pedestrians will continue to be hit.  Engineering solutions help, but the real problem is enforcement.  And what may need to happen here is what happens on Beale Street in Memphis – close the street when the bars are hopping, and let drivers find another way through the Grove!

    • http://urbanreviewstl.com/ Steve Patterson

      Yes, the situation was highly confusing. I agree jaywalking is illegal and dangerous, but people gay & straight do it all the time. Beale is a poor analogy because it isn’t a major through street. Manchester Rd served a time as Route 66, closing it isn’t realistic.

      I was impressed with Toronto. There mid-block crossings have flashing yellow lights over the road to alert motorist of the crosswalk. All motorists stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, should be that way here.

      • JZ71

        I find it interesting that just because people “do it all the time” (jaywalking) that you think we need to make major changes to something that has/had worked well for decades.  People also do many other illegal things all the time – run stop signs, don’t pick up after their dogs, commandeer parking spaces for valet parking - yet we do little to conform our built environment to their bad behaviors (nor do you advocate that we do so).
         
        I do agree that other areas have a much stronger culture of respecting pedestrian rights.  Flashing lights help, but it really takes drivers paying attention to truly “protect” pedestrians.  Otherwise, it’s incumbent on pedestrians around here to watch out for themselves since they’ll never win an argument with an SUV.  Until we have a group like http://peds.org/ or a culture like California’s http://youtu.be/dZ_XYBjN3NY we're going to be stuck with little respect in the Lou.

        And don’t be so quick to dismiss the idea of closing Manchester – when it was part of Route 66, neither 64 nor 44 existed – they carry the bulk of the traffic these days, along with Vandevetter and Kingshighway.  Plus, you need to decide if Manchester is, or shoud be, a “major” street any more.  The current “road diet” is going to send some (much?) of its current traffic to other corridors, since non-local drivers usually want the quickest route, not the most scenic one.

        The old Chain of Rocks Bridge also used to be part of Route 66 – should we reopen it to traffic?  Or is its current use as a pedestrian amenity its best option?  50 years ago, Beale Street was very much comparable to this stretch of Manchester (primarily fine-grain retail).  I know it doesn’t fit your paradigm, but keeping it closed, without “malling it” seems to have worked extrordinarily well for the people of Memphis.

      • Douglas Duckworth

        I’ve almost been hit at those lights. They’re an improvement but I think they need to do a lot more to calm traffic in
        Toronto.

    • http://www.facebook.com/jredmond Jim Redmond

      I doubt Steve was implying that gays have special jaywalking rights.  I think his point was more that many of the bars along Manchester cater to a specific clientele – in this case, gays and lesbians – and that, as a result, we should expect bar-hopping in that area.  It’s a similar situation along Laclede near SLU, with several bars that cater to students.

  • http://urbanreviewstl.com/ Steve Patterson

    Yes, the situation was highly confusing. I agree jaywalking is illegal and dangerous, but people gay & straight do it all the time. Beale is a poor analogy because it isn’t a major through street. Manchester Rd served a time as Route 66, closing it isn’t realistic.

    I was impressed with Toronto. There mid-block crossings have flashing yellow lights over the road to alert motorist of the crosswalk. All motorists stop for pedestrians in crosswalks, should be that way here.

  • http://www.facebook.com/davidwoodruff David A. Woodruff

    When McDonald’s isn’t smart enough to not serve searing hot coffee, they get sued.  All the other companies take note, and a more temperate coffee too.  It’s a matter of using the legal system for the greater good.  

    Maybe an organization needs to step forward and ensure that public safety and construction projects don’t scream “Mission Accomplished” too soon.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/davidwoodruff David A. Woodruff

    When McDonald’s isn’t smart enough to not serve searing hot coffee, they get sued.  All the other companies take note, and a more temperate coffee too.  It’s a matter of using the legal system for the greater good.  

    Maybe an organization needs to step forward and ensure that public safety and construction projects don’t scream “Mission Accomplished” too soon.  

    • samizdat

      Not only was McDonald’s not smart enough–some would say they were negligent, hence the lawsuit–to reduce the temp of the coffee served in their stores, they refused to do so even after at least two hundred other incidents of serious scalding due to the unnecessarily high temperature of their coffee. This was, of course, before the famous incident which lead to the lawsuit.
         Re: your second point, I agree. Perhaps a Pedestrians United group should form. Sometimes, the decisions regarding “completion” shouldn’t be left to those who actually do the work. The small details often get lost within the larger context of the project. 

  • samizdat

    Not only was McDonald’s not smart enough–some would say they were negligent, hence the lawsuit–to reduce the temp of the coffee served in their stores, they refused to do so even after at least two hundred other incidents of serious scalding due to the unnecessarily high temperature of their coffee. This was, of course, before the famous incident which lead to the lawsuit.
       Re: your second point, I agree. Perhaps a Pedestrians United group should form. Sometimes, the decisions regarding “completion” shouldn’t be left to those who actually do the work. The small details often get lost within the larger context of the project. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/jredmond Jim Redmond

    I doubt Steve was implying that gays have special jaywalking rights.  I think his point was more that many of the bars along Manchester cater to a specific clientele – in this case, gays and lesbians – and that, as a result, we should expect bar-hopping in that area.  It’s a similar situation along Laclede near SLU, with several bars that cater to students.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jredmond Jim Redmond

    I doubt Steve was implying that gays have special jaywalking rights.  I think his point was more that many of the bars along Manchester cater to a specific clientele – in this case, gays and lesbians – and that, as a result, we should expect bar-hopping in that area.  It’s a similar situation along Laclede near SLU, with several bars that cater to students.

  • Anonymous

    I find it interesting that just because people “do it all the time” (jaywalking) that you think we need to make major changes to something that has/had worked well for decades.  People also do many other illegal things all the time – run stop signs, don’t pick up after their dogs, commandeer parking spaces for valet parking - yet we do little to conform our built environment to their bad behaviors (nor do you advocate that we do so).
     
    I do agree that other areas have a much stronger culture of respecting pedestrian rights.  Flashing lights help, but it really takes drivers paying attention to truly “protect” pedestrians.  Otherwise, it’s incumbent on pedestrians around here to watch out for themselves since they’ll never win an argument with an SUV.  Until we have a group like http://peds.org/ or a culture like California’s http://youtu.be/dZ_XYBjN3NY we're going to be stuck with little respect in the Lou.

    And don’t be so quick to dismiss the idea of closing Manchester – when it was part of Route 66, neither 64 nor 44 existed – they carry the bulk of the traffic these days, along with Vandevetter and Kingshighway.  Plus, you need to decide if Manchester is, or shoud be, a “major” street any more.  The current “road diet” is going to send some (much?) of its current traffic to other corridors, since non-local drivers usually want the quickest route, not the most scenic one.

    The old Chain of Rocks Bridge also used to be part of Route 66 – should we reopen it to traffic?  Or is its current use as a pedestrian amenity its best option?  50 years ago, Beale Street was very much comparable to this stretch of Manchester (primarily fine-grain retail).  I know it doesn’t fit your paradigm, but keeping it closed, without “malling it” seems to have worked extrordinarily well for the people of Memphis.

  • Douglas Duckworth

    Why the hell are our traffic people drunk or on LSD when striping our lanes? Who in their right mind would stripe roads like this? I guess our city employees never drive otherwise they would have seen the problem.

  • Douglas Duckworth

    Why the hell are our traffic people drunk or on LSD when striping our lanes? Who in their right mind would stripe roads like this? I guess our city employees never drive otherwise they would have seen the problem.

  • Douglas Duckworth

    Why the hell are our traffic people drunk or on LSD when striping our lanes? Who in their right mind would stripe roads like this? I guess our city employees never drive otherwise they would have seen the problem.

    • samizdat

      Drunk? Dougie, it’s always 4:20 in the City. ‘Course, that’s just the crews. I can’t explain away the idiots who designed the striping. Coke?

  • Douglas Duckworth

    Why the hell are our traffic people drunk or on LSD when striping our lanes? Who in their right mind would stripe roads like this? I guess our city employees never drive otherwise they would have seen the problem.

  • Douglas Duckworth

    I’ve almost been hit at those lights. They’re an improvement but I think they need to do a lot more to calm traffic in
    Toronto.

  • samizdat

    Drunk? Dougie, it’s always 4:20 in the City. ‘Course, that’s just the crews. I can’t explain away the idiots who designed the striping. Coke?

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