Big trucks on tiny street
By adamg - Thu, 05/29/2008 - 7:39am.
Third Decade grows weary of the giant trucks and charter buses that use his tiny, narrow, curved downhill street in Roxbury as a shortcut:
It's truck season again. This morning a FedEx truck got stuck trying to make the turn in front of my building. The driver waited around until a pregnant woman waddled out of her home to move her car. ...
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it's a good thing they're so bendy.
and: I live on an extremely narrow street in JP that connects Perkins to the J-way. Cars speed down it (and it is a downhill trip for them) throughout the day because doing so cuts out a light and a long line of traffic. The street is extremely quiet and residential except when a car comes barreling down the hill and around the corner at you, your dog, maybe some children. I am thinking of asking for speed bumps--but I am not sure of the process--?
speed bumps
I asked about having speed humps (that's what the City calls them) installed on my street and apparently they don't build them anymore. The project was experimental when it was first implemented, but I guess the City decided not to pursue it any further.
Process explained:
1. You ask.
2. They laugh.
"experimental"?
they didn't exactly invent speed bumps.
perhaps it's the special speed "hump" that they have abandoned.
I would settle for a bump.
speed hump
speed hump speed humps speed humped speed humping
heh hehe hehehehehehehehe
[/inner preadolescent]
do it yourself, people!
The speed humps in Hyde Square were the result of a multi-year effort by a coalition of neighbors and many, many public meetings to get those things installed, including a complicated and elaborate petition scheme. The city has no "process" for installing them, and really no interest in doing "traffic calming" capital improvements like that -- other than to shut up noisy neighbors.
That said, you can certainly get signs installed! Call and email the Mayor's office and have your neighbors do the same. Call the police station and tell the captain you need enforcement. Install your own signs if the city drags its feet or claims poverty or other priorities. Put up banners, make your own speed humps, have a good time with it and you can bring attention to the problem and maybe even get the city to fix it. Get neighborhood kids involved -- it's summer, so make it into a civics lesson.
Best of luck!
Temporary Sign?
I wonder if it would be possible to make some laminated posters that read NO TRUCKS with "they get stuck" at the bottom, under a large blown-up version of this image. Being terse and graphic might warn off even some who would typically ignore conventional signage. It would make it clear that using that road is not in their best interest.
Of course 3D should talk to the city about permanent signs, but that takes a lot of time to happen.
Drivers using GPS
I saw an article where they were having a problem in England with trucks drivers unfamiliar with local roads depending too much on GPS, which sometimes sent them snaking through narrow, curvy local streets. I wonder if something similar is going on here.
my love hate
my love hate relationship....
with GPS navigation.
On the one hand, my hobby as a geocacher is useless without them. on the other hand, big huge honkin scaryassed trucks have discovered my street is a good cut through to get from Rte 125 to Rte 97 and back and forth to get from Haverhill to Georgetown, and 95 and 495.
it saves them gas, which is nice, but they start rolling down my street at like 4am. Fast. Very fast. When we moved to this street 12 years ago, it was only local car traffic. In the last 5 years? yeah. Trucks trucks trucks trucks. They don't get stuck, but they speed like mothers and it scares the crap out of me when they hit the now totally sunken in because heavy trucks drive over it manhole cover in front of my house. it sounds like a bomb going off.
I always thought there was a law that unless it is a local delivery and no other route is available, big trucks were required to use the numbered state routes?
anyone an expert on transportation rules/laws/etc in MA?
is it really a shortcut if
is it really a shortcut if you get stuck (thus taking more time)?
Big Trucks on Roxbury's Narrow Streets
I've been amazed at how the city tolerates large trash removal trucks on Highland Park, Roxbury's narrow streets. These trucks create problems (potential property damage, damaged sidewalks, streets and signage). In the South End, small trucks are used on side streets to pick up trash. The small trucks then dock with large trucks on a main street to transfer their cargo to the large trucks. Neighbors have contacted the city on this issue, but it seems that the trash removal vendor will not consistantly adhere to this strategy and these hazards and dangers still exist.
It is frightening to have a giant trash removal truck come within a few feet of a house, knock major branches off of a tree, damage sidewalks and sewers, and wreck vital street signs.
Zumbi de Roxbury