The City of Ludington's Safety Issue at AndyS

[XLFD]

The City of Ludington imposed a stop work order on the AndyS building construction on August 6th, offering a press release that effectively said the main point of contention were the columns:  "the stop work order was necessary to address a serious health and safety issue, involving the columns that support the second-floor overhang.  These columns have been constructed approximately one foot too close to Rath Avenue – in violation of the approved site plan – such that they pose a risk of collision with city snowplow blades and are also likely to cause impacts with vehicle doors that open toward the columns, when a vehicle is parked out front. The city has requested that the developer submit a corrective action plan... We remain committed to supporting responsible development and ensuring that all construction projects prioritize public safety and adhere to approved standards.”

For a city committed to prioritizing public safety, we have noticed in the past that they have a weird way of showing that, the most obvious one to come to mind was in approving the non-conforming overhang structure for this building which has become a point of controversy that has subjected the city to hiring outside legal counsel (albeit illegally) and charges of irregular enforcement of similar safety issues throughout the downtown area, as famously explored in this recap of the last city council meeting.  

We can understand the city's position, they have snowplows and other big trucks that over the course of time will need to use the lane adjacent to these columns, and I saw why they would be concerned in a recent trip downtown at night, when I saw a double tanker truck finish their unloading of gasoline at Wesco and take off to the south, do two left turns so that they could use that right-turn lane on Rath, while taking over half of the adjacent lane. 

It struck me shortly thereafter about what the real safety issue is for that street section, but it requires a display and discussion of the rest of the right-turn lanes in Ludington's three downtown stoplights, stoplights necessary due not only to traffic density but also to businesses abutting the city's right-of-way interfering greatly with sight lines.  The Ludington Torch went out the next day to take some pictures showing these five right-turn lanes (not six, because North James has been turned into a pocket park), we started at South James and went counterclockwise in order to build up our point about safety on South Rath's right-turn lane.

Allowing parking and outdoor dining down most of the length of South James is unsafe enough, as witnessed by anybody trying to look up or down the street from any intersection along it.  But even the city has set up a no parking sign (as seen above) controlling the outside lane from the alley to Ludington Avenue, leaving over 160 feet for vehicles to get in and stabilize their movement before the stop bar.  

Then you have South Harrison, which effectively allows for two lanes across the full block from Loomis leading up to the stoplight, this allows for around 350 feet for a big truck to get comfortably into the right-turn lane.  The properties along this length have off-street parking for their facilities, while also allowing for sidewalks.

Across the street, you have roughly the same issue, with the church offering handicap parking on the street, but only to special permit holders.  Almost 100% of the time, a vehicle would have a full block for a right-turn lane.  On parts of Sunday and special church events where permit holders show up, you would still have the same distance as South James, around 160 feet.

On the north side of Rath, the right-turn lane goes the whole length of the block, with parking spots to the far right along it.  Like North Harrison, this allows around 350 feet on the lane's approach to Ludington Avenue.

Not so on the other side of Rath, where the city has an issue with the columns from AndyS being too close to the curb, when that difference is maybe an inch from their prior location in respect to the curb.  Unlike South James, there is no parking controls along the lane and supposedly safety-concerned city officials have approved two sizable and dedicated parking spaces after the alley. 

If city planners would take out these two parking spots, they would have a 160-foot approach to Ludington Avenue on that lane, as it is, the right-turn lane on South Rath is 70 feet from where the lane is defined and where it hits the stop bar.  Seventy feet!?  That's less than the length of a typical double tanker, and a lot less than atypical ones.

The width of such trucks also matters here, since the lanes on Rath are slightly over 9 feet wide, leaving only about 4 inches on each side of the lane to spare if the tanker has the opportunity to straighten out, which would never be the case here if there was someone parked in either of those two spaces.  You don't need a degree in geometry to figure out these 75-98 X 8.5 ft. double tankers can't ever make it into this 70 X 9 ft. right-turn lane.  

Likewise other smaller-length semis and city trucks/equipment would have great difficulty getting into this 70-foot lane without contortions that would necessarily have them be partway into the other lane or partway across the curb.  Even though the city keeps secret their deliberations over this topic, I would bet that's why our DPW Supervisor Andy Larr was invited into the city council's recently closed session.  Those two parking spaces, if occupied, would force larger trucks to temporarily put the right sides of their vehicle front over the curbs and too close for comfort to these columns, just in order to straighten themselves out.  

AndyS' current column configuration is not an actual safety issue when we take care of this problem.   Our police chief (who doubles as our traffic engineer) needs to recognize those two spaces as a traffic safety hazard and issue a temporary traffic control order that removes them, followed by the city council making that order permanent.  Safety issue solved.  Moving the columns a couple of inches east will not alleviate this safety hazard, is utterly impractical, and will wind up with legal challenges, guaranteed.

[RK Hubbard]

NO large truck is going to make a right turn from the right lane next to Andy'S. Large trucks are legally allowed to straddle lanes if necessary to safely make a turn. They do it all the time. This is a non-issue. 

[AnxiousGuy]

This might be the only time everyone that reads has agreed on something.