Ludington Daily Nuisance

[XLFD]

Today, I happened upon a scene I occasionally have run across before and dealt with it by cursing under my breath, and unnecessarily risking my life in going around it.  I speak of travelling up North Rath Street past a certain local newspaper situated on the northeast corner of Court Street, and coming upon this:

Today (Thursday June 7), I was riding my bike back from the north while this truck was lumbering into this position.  This was at 12:40 PM, during the lunch hour.  You will notice the truck's front is halfway across the street, on the fairly well travelled Rath Avenue.  It would be parked like this until after 3:00 PM.  The unloading of paper rolls from the back did not start until 2:20 PM.  The reason why the truck stood there idle for 100 minutes is unknown, but apparently the personnel for unloading weren't around during that time. 

As I said, I have seen such trucks parked like this several times in the past year, and I can't understand how the LDN is able to get away with it.  It is very unsafe and it is very illegal.  MCL 257.676b clearly states:  "A person, without authority, shall not block, obstruct, impede, or otherwise interfere with the normal flow of vehicular or pedestrian traffic upon a public street or highway in this state, by means of a barricade, object, or device, or with his or her person."  A semi driver hauling paper rolls has no authority to do so. 

It also violates MCL 257.674 (1a) for parking on a sidewalk.  Ludington local laws include the above by reference and goes further-- Sec 58-168 puts it thus:  "During the hour between noon and 1:00 p.m no person shall park any vehicle in the streets of the business district... for the purpose of loading or unloading"  Section 34-103 also adds:  "No person shall willfully obstruct free or uninterrupted passage in any street, on any sidewalk, in any public place or in any other place to which the public is admitted."  All four of these related laws are civil infractions. 

The law is quite plainly against parking halfway across the road and over the sidewalk, and safety is the reason why.  If this semi was not parked where it's at, traffic could move freely up and down Rath Avenue.  But half the road is blocked so cars need to go around.  Furthermore, it forces pedestrians to walk around the semi on to the restricted one lane of roadway to get past.  Vehicles going west on Court Street could not see very far up Rath Street to turn left or go straight, while if they turned north, they would have to commit to going on the left side of the lane blindly and very unsafely.

But enough yammering, let's see some of the pictures I took, most during the 100 minutes the semi just stood there in the road, and only a few for the hour it took to unload it eventually.  These express the true danger of having such a truck obstructing the east lane of Rath Avenue for hours on end. 

Here the north going car is forced to wait in the intersection while the south going vehicles pass by. 

Here a van prepared to turn up Rath from Court Street has to go way into the left lane in order to get around the semi.

Another truck does a dangerous looking maneuver in doing that same type of turn

This one shows a massive gridlock caused by the semi blocking the road.  Notice the pedestrians, the one crossing from the west is Managing Editor Steve Begnoche, coming back from lunch I presume.  He's okay with this:

This poor motorcyclist has to deal with a blind leap of faith to turn up Rath:

Here go a couple vehicles into the left lane.  The last one will have virtually no visibility up the road, and they can't see him either until the crash-- which didn't happen today.

Here's a scary brush between a bicyclist and a car trying to share the left lane, because of this semi blocking the right lane.

There was not a lot of space between this pedestrian and the car forced to use the opposite lane:

That small passing distance may have upset the baby carriage of this pedestrian forced to use the opposite lane of the road to pass.

This could have been a big truck triple crash with the UPS truck double parked a few feet into the left lane in order to deliver to the LDN, after turning up Rath from Court Street. 

And here's a scary view if you're riding the LMTA bus, a blind turn due to the obstruction by the semi.

But believe it or not, this photo gallery is not exhaustive, I have about 100 more pictures posted over in Facebook taken in the two hours plus I observed featuring more safety hazards that are totally unnecessary.  For the full effect take a look at those here:  Ludington Daily News Truck Creates Traffic Hazard for Hours. 

Did the Ludington Police Department's public safety officer know about this?  Well, about 5 minutes into my vigil I saw Sue from the LPD pass by in her LPD Tahoe, notice her take command of the left lane.

Did she stop and issue a citation for these parking/obstruction offenses?  Are you kidding, she just drove around the semi, taking the other cars' right of way and continued on while the semi stayed there another two hours plus. 

Well, I am concerned enough about my community's safety to do something about such gross negligence.  I am contacting several agencies with the hopes that the LDN can either get smaller supply trucks for their loading dock or develop some other unloading system so that hundreds of motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, etc. are not subjected to the dangers that having a semi block a full lane of a major avenue for hours entails.  It may someday save Steve Begnoche's life when he crosses the street.

[Sargent Pepper]

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to laugh or not? If I were you, I would avoid downtown Grand Rapids for a while. ;)

[april]

You couldn't do this in downtown GR, would have caused way too many accidents, which I am glad this truck did not do. clearly it is not safe to park half way in the street.

[XLFD]

I've seen situations in bigger cities where they may need to block traffic for a few minutes to position a truck to go to a loading dock, but I have never seen any sit out in a major road for hours creating such a big hazard.  I doubt it would be tolerated, as April notes.  Even for the Grand Rapids Press.

 

I also find it kind of odd, that the Ludington Police Dept. would ticket another downtown business for unloading material in an alley on Saturday without totally blocking it, and then go "hum-de-dum-dum-deedle" when they see this happening all the time on Rath Avenue during the middle of the day.  This was reported here about a month ago, where the business was the AGS Store, a business that does not have the readership of the LDN.

[AQUAMAN]

I do hope Mr. Lemere from AGS sees this thread, snapshots your pictures, and gives them to his attorney for reference on his case. Surely the LPD has authority and showed negligence in this case to not give a ticket to that trucker, or at least a warning to get moved. I guess we know where allegiances are when it comes to the LDN and LPD, in bed together for many episodes of transgressions and such as this clearly illustrates now all too blatantly. But the LPD does have time to issue lose dog tickets and other such petty issues these days........sad, but true.

[XLFD]

The case for consolidating the LPD into the MCSO will hopefully one day be strongly considered.  The budgets for each are almost equal, yet the MCSO covers the whole 500 sq. mi. of Mason County of 30,000 people, while LPD covers the 10 sq. mi. of Ludington City of 8000 people. 

And LPD rarely considers public concerns, because it is ran by appointed City Officials, not by an elected sheriff.  This is why we get less bang for our buck, and little accountability.

[Willy]

If this was a rare occurrence and they had someone directing traffic and pedestrians around the truck,  I wouldn't give it much thought but the blatant and shameful display of selective enforcement by the LPD is mind boggling. X gets a ticket for a piddly minor bike infraction and the store downtown gets a notice for parking in the alley to unload but the police completely ignore this obvious violation which I assume happens on a regular basis. These are the kinds of situation that cause citizens to lose faith in local police departments and cause negative feelings toward them. I agree with Aquaman. I hope the store owner downtown uses this information for his case.

[XLFD]

I finally got it out today but here is my most recent call for help in mitigating this problem sent to the sheriff.

 

CC:  [e-mail]   Steve Begnoche

 

Saturday, June 9, 2012 1:53 PM

Sheriff Fiers,

 

I recently received your campaign flyer, and was very impressed with what you have done, and what you plan on doing.  I hope you get your job back.

 

I know you are probably busy with your campaign, and I don't want to interfere with that, but I petition you for helping with a safety problem that affects many here in Ludington.  Yes, I know we have our own police force, but I have been told by our police chief that he would not respond any further to any of my complaints, and he has proven a man of his words in that respect.

 

Here's the safety problem in pictures and words on this link:  http://ludingtoncitizen.ning.com/forum/topics/ludington-daily-nuisance

 

I have also sent a complaint to MIOSHA and expect to seek more help from other agencies in alleviating this troubling safety issue in my community and just down the street from you, if neither of you, working with the business who inflicts this hazard on us, can find a solution. Thank you very much.

 

Tom Rotta

The Ludington Torch 

[AQUAMAN]

I also recently read Sheriff Fiers campaign flyer. I was very impressed with his message to the voters. He has successfully restructured the entire staff and establishment, making it more efficient, while cutting unnecessary costs, and keeping a balanced budget with the County Commission's money allocation per year. A lot to be said for all this, plus the open door policy of transparency. And the department has all been updated too, with new software for patrol cars, including digital cameras, new zodiac boat, new dive team equipment, and much more. I for one appreciate this particular Sheriff for being so efficient in this economy of woes, not crying for more money and bond issues, while keeping the county safe for all. And he steadfastly refuses any financial contributions to help get re-elected, who could ask for more? JMO

[Marty Redman]

Ive seen that situation before and it is inexcusable.  I hope that it can get fixed before someone gets hurt.  Good job in pointing this out, X.  Its not like the COLD News is going to report it anytime soon and that picture of the LPD vehical is priceless.