Street Basketball: Driving the Lane

[XLFD]

For the past 19 years, Ludington has hosted the Gus Macker basketball tournament with great success, making it a premiere stop for 3-on-3 basketball aficionados everywhere.  The 400 people that volunteer their time make this a memorable event for townies and fudgies alike, and it generally goes off with few hitches.

 

 I’m tall and athletic, but I don’t generally get into the game.  I find most players surpass the brashness and cockiness of your normal bicycle rider-- where I find my pleasure.  I usually check the Macker out at least once over the weekend it happens and this year was no exception.  As in past years, I marveled at how they actually get order out of the chaos that occurs on the west side of town, but I also looked at it from the safety standpoint, and took some pics.

 

 They play, and restrict motor traffic, on Stearns Drive and Lakeshore, from about Ludington Avenue up to Tinkham.  Vehicle parking along the streets happens up to William Street to the East, and offer paid parking at Oriole Field, at the Loomis boat launch area, and various other nearby locales.  They detour traffic going from US 10 to M-116 and vice versa by having them use Rath and Tinkham Streets.  This is the routine.

 But the routine has a couple of serious flaws, having the potential to create a serious accident. 

The first flaw is the detour.  A simple switch of making the detour use Bryant Road instead of Tinkham Avenue avoids a lot of congestion and dangerous pedestrian-auto interfaces seen here at Tinkham and Lakeshore. 

 

 

  The Macker folks are nowhere to be seen up on Bryant, and cars can go normal speed without having to dodge and wait for the tons of foot traffic between the Oriole Field parking lot and the games. 

 The second flaw is basic engineering—there are a lot of houses in the Macker parking area that lack sidewalks, many of which are required by local law. 

 

 

 

Just look at that forest!  Some have sidewalks, but have them either blocked by vegetation or vehicles

 

 

 

  Pedestrians are forced into the road, hindering traffic flow and making it unsafe for them.  With sidewalks and marked crosswalks, both of these problems are significantly alleviated; note the right side of the street has a sidewalk in this picture and pedestrians thereon.

 

 The third flaw is makeshift fences and caution lines blocking not only illegal parking, but also perfectly legal pedestrian right-of-ways

 

 

 

  Everywhere these were at the polite Mackers walked on the outside of  the tape/fence.  If you can’t supply a sidewalk, you should at least afford people the use of their legal right-of-way instead of forcing them into the mercy of traffic.

 Hopefully, we can figure out a way to implement some simple changes to make the next Macker safer for our guests, and the rest of us too. 

[Edie Lindsey]

Very good bit of photojournalism. I usually avoid the west end of the city during Macker, but noticed a few years ago the stupidity of putting the detour right in the midst of the action almost. Are we supposed to get a better idea of Ludington while we are waiting for a bunch of basketball hooligans walking down the middle of the street?

Fences across sidewalks too? Good idea, they will save so much wear and tear on them, ROFL.

[XLFD]

It's Macker weekend again, and already the first two flaws are in effect once more.  First, Chief Barnett has routed detour traffic from M-116 to US 10 and vice versa to travel on pedestrian-heavy and pedestrian-unfriendly Tinkham Street.   Second, there are no new sidewalks constructed in the area west of Rath Avenue, or any new street right-of-way openings for foot traffic.  The existing pedestrian walkways are not yet blockaded by fencing, but this too will pass, I'm sure.

If you do make it down to the action, be safe; but take note of the situation, and remark back here whether you see your own dangers or even if you wish to address my concerns as unfounded.

[Sweater Cows!]

Maybe you could volunteer for helping out on the 'traffic and parking committee". Ya know, get the inside scoop, be a part of the solution!(re: sarcasm) Of course that's  a likely  impossibility since I would bet that the CoL handles that and it isn't part of the Macker group themselves. I assume Macker is happy for volunteers, yet the CoL would want nothing to do with anyones opinion but their own.

 

You may want to consider getting in touch with the Macker people and asking them if they have a committee that handles such things as I would guess that they have something to do with it, if at least it is only giving suggestions to the CoL as to how they would like things set up.

 

In reality I think if you took this to the proper Macker people with your pictures after this years event and presented it to them as an issue that they may be concerned about because it is dangerous to THEIR players and fans they would take it very seriously. I would assume that even if they have noticed it they are rather overwhelmed during the weekend and don't give it a second thought. At least not until the next years planning and it is just one of those thongs that gets pushed to the back burner or maybe they feel they have no recourse with CoL. Somebody besides yourself must care, you just need to find that person.

[XLFD]

Our City Traffic Engineer Mark Barnett has the final say in all manners pertaining to the detours ( unless his fellow Oakland University alumnus John Shay overrules him) as well as most of the fences blocking the sidewalks. 

You have an excellent idea in trying to win over the Macker people with some common sense solutions to the problems detailed, I think I may try that.  I think, however, you did a typo when you said "it is just one of those thongs that gets pushed to the back burner...", because now you got me wanting to go check the action out even more down at the beach ; )

[Eye On Ludington]

You might not enjoy volunteering for Macker activities if your heart belongs to cycling. Have you ever considered formng a volunteer group to brainstorm and work toward making it safer for bicylists to traverse around Ludington's busy areas.

[XLFD]

We have a small volunteer group on here called BUMPS, wherein there is a bit of banter about safety issues concerning Bicyclists, Motorcyclists, and Pedestrians, where we put out safety issues that concern these groups in the area and elsewhere.  I would love to have all avid walkers, bicyclists, and motorcyclists add their two cents to these discussions. 

In the normal forum, we have actively discussed traffic control issues in many places, and here are some bicycle and pedestrian safety concerns that I have felt are important to discuss:

http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/sunday-at-the-marina
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/vegetation-control-fo...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/vegetation-control-fo...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/cody-lange-a-remembra...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/priorities-2010
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/a-sunday-in-the-park-...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/the-haight-of-insanit...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/there-snow-angels-in-...

http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/recurring-theme-for-t...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/looking-both-ways-yie...
http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/safe-routes-to-school...

 

If elected to the council, I will work to remove some of the duplicative and useless laws in the local books (most from 2003 and 2004) that have little basis in safety or traffic flow (and just seem to deter Ludington's walkability and bikeability) and look to pass laws in their place which make it more safe for the vulnerable users of the road without putting unduly strict duties on motorists and taxpayers (like a 3-ft. or more minimal passing gap when passing bicyclists and pedestrians on the road, actually having the LPD enforce the local city code on vehicles/objects that block sidewalks and right-of-ways, implementing the new Complete Streets Policy in a wise manner, etc.).    I will also review the existing traffic controls which I feel violate current MUTCD warrants, and all the stop and yield signs which have no traffic control orders. 

If I am not elected, I will still consider this a top priority. 

 

[AQUAMAN]

Funny, I said that Tinkham Ave. usage as a detour was a big mistake years ago, but I see nothing in the least bit for safety has changed yet. Good observation, and take it to the Macker people, as the CoL traffic controller is asleep yet on this issue. Vogle St. north of Oriole Field seems the most likely close detour, then of course Bryant Rd..

[XLFD]

It's common sense more than anything else.  Vogel would be fine too, but Bryant is more of a Complete Street in that it even has bike lanes, slightly faster speeds, and nicer scenery.  Plus, it gives tourists more of an opportunity to check out the new dog park with another slight detour, LOL.

[XLFD]

Checked out some action down Macker-way this weekend, and the safety situations were just like last year.  With one exception, the new Stop Sign at the end of Ludington Avenue was being obscured by the vehicles parked in the parking spaces that haven't changed a lick since the installation.  Didn't really bother to take any more pictures, due to the same-o blocked right of ways, Tinkham Two-stepping, and general clucker-fust of people and cars competing for spaces.  Just checked out the action.