Off To A Fantastic Start At The Stewart's Corner!

After finishing the previous article, I decided to ride to the intersection of Green Street and Fairview Avenue to see how things were progressing.  I'm glad I did.  It was entertaining, to say the least.

Because of National Grid's recent gas line replacement project on Green Street, traffic has been controlled by two flaggers so that only one direction of traffic can proceed at a time.  Long lines of vehicles have to wait a minute or two to proceed.  On my way to the Stewart's corner today, I came across an accident at the bend in Green Street, really a fender bender, no doubt due to the traffic backups.  A Hudson cop was there taking information from the drivers, and one car (the one who did the rear ending) had lost all of its radiator coolant, it seemed.  Yes, National Grid's Green Street project and the Stewart's corner project coincided!  Onward!

Notice the two traffic lights, one for each 
lane of traffic, even though there is only 
one lane of traffic.

This time at the Stewart's corner I really wanted to make sure that the one lane configuration was operating properly. Right away, I noticed that it was not. Cars and trucks headed east on Green Street wanting to take a left onto Fairview were regularly lining up at the red light on the left side of the freshly painted double yellow lines!  In other words, they were waiting at the light in the opposing traffic lane (sort of). Why were they doing this? Well, the drivers were just used to being in that lane from years of driving there and (something I had not noticed before) there was still a traffic light for them just like there always had been in that turn lane and it included a green turn arrow just like always. In other words, nothing has changed at the intersection in terms of traffic flow or lights, it's just that SOMEONE INSTALLED THE DOUBLE YELLOW LINES IN THE WRONG PLACE!  

As before the "improvements," there is a traffic light for eastbound traffic headed to 23B (or turning right onto Fairview Extension) and one for traffic turning left onto Fariview.  There should be one lane for each of those lights, but someone screwed up. I think that would be our friends at Colarusso. They were the contractor hired to do the intersection "improvements," even if they hired someone else to stripe the pavement.  Or perhaps the project manager, DPW Commissioner Peter Bujanow, is to blame.  My guess is that Peter, who does not live close to Hudson, was not there for the pavement striping, the final step of the project! Whoever is to blame, it's so beyond ridiculous.  

The twenty minutes or so that I was at the intersection, there was a white HPD vehicle parked idling in the street blocking a portion of the Stewart's exit, making things dangerous and difficult for drivers exiting Stewart's, with an officer inside doing absolutely nothing.  It was as if he were just waiting for the inevitable accident.  I asked the cop what he was doing.  He told me that he was "working."  Then the HPD officer who dealt with the accident rolled up, parked, and just sat there, also seemingly doing nothing.  Pretty soon the two were chatting at the black car.  Such a great use of taxpayer money and HPD resources!

At Monday's Common Council meeting, Peter Bujanow told everyone that once the pavement was marked, the Stewart's corner project "should be all completed."  Friday afternoon, I rechecked one non-functioning pedestrian crossing signal that I had noticed about a week prior (and mentioned to Peter in an email).  It is still not working, and it is still no help in getting pedestrians safely across Green Street.