Have You Noticed Lately How Our Already Dangerous Streets Are Getting Worse?

Recently, I have most definitely noticed an increase in the number of vehicles driving in the wrong direction on one-way streets in downtown Hudson.  I'm thinking it can mostly be explained by distracted drivers, which are a common sight on all streets -- far too common for my liking.  But Hudson DPW needs to install more signs at some intersections if it wants to stop this craziness before someone is seriously hurt or killed. Something awful is going to happen sooner or later, and DPW is not doing enough for us to prevent the inevitable.

Yesterday at about 6 pm, I stepped out from behind a parked car in front of the bodega in the 700 block of Columbia Street to mount my bicycle.  It being a one-way street at that point, I only looked back west to check for approaching traffic, then got ready to shove off without thinking to first look ahead for traffic.  As I turned around and simultaneously began rolling in the street, I noticed a car about 15 feet from me headed my way.  Startled and aghast, I stopped as the car rolled by me probably going 15 or 20 mph, just 3 or 4 feet away.  I could have easily rolled in front of that car and been hit.

The woman driving the car had just crossed a yellow line meant to force traffic at the bottom of the Columbia Street hill to head to the traffic light at the intersection and away from the other side of the triangle (the yellow line is faded and should have been/should be repainted this year).  She also drove between two huge DO NOT ENTER signs, as well as to the left of one KEEP RIGHT and three black on yellow arrow signs pointing to the right. All of that still wasn't enough to get her attention. Though she didn't appear to have a phone in her hand, her car did have Florida license plates, which might explain something. Or maybe she was really bombed. When the driver reached the end of the triangle, she turned right and proceeded past the traffic light and down Green Street. This scared the crap out of me.

Green means go, you are headed the right way!

About ten minutes later, I came to North 5th Street by way of Prison Alley.  As I dismounted my bicycle to walk it on the sidewalk toward Columbia, I saw a car ahead of me headed NORTH on 5th Street slowing down as it approached Columbia where there was a green light.  Yet another car headed the wrong direction on a one-way street!  The driver must have realized that they had made a mistake, because they slowed down at the green light to make the turn very cautiously.  

At every intersection with a traffic light where a vehicle might enter a street in the wrong direction, there needs to be a DO NOT ENTER or WRONG WAY sign hanging next to the light.  A working traffic light gives wrong way drivers the impression that they are driving in the proper direction and are not in imminent danger of creating an accident on a ONE WAY STREET!

A few weeks ago, at the intersection of 6th & State, I watched as a car turned off of State and headed south on 6th, driving in the wrong direction on the one-way portion of 6th, of course.  Near the middle of the block, a car headed north had to slow to a crawl and move over to allow the wrong way driver to pass.  A few honks of the horn from that car did nothing to slow the wrong way driver down.  The car got to the traffic light at Columbia (for some reason there is no green on that light facing north), and took a right onto Columbia, barely slowing down.  I have seen several cars headed in the wrong direction on N. 6th, but this was the most frightening.  At 6th & State there are no ONE WAY signs meant for drivers on State thinking about turning onto 6th to go south in the wrong direction.  There are just two DO NOT ENTER signs facing southbound traffic on 6th.

While walking in Albany today, I noticed 6 signs each at two intersections at the end of one-way streets (with the same traffic patterns as 6th & State).  There were 2 DO NOT ENTER signs and 4 ONE WAY signs.  Drivers in all 3 directions approaching the one-way streets are amply warned with 2 signs facing each direction.  This is not the case in Hudson.  It is well past time to get serious about this problem that Robert Perry is ignoring.