Correction On That Trailer (And More On That Trailer)

An astute reader informed me of erroneous data I included in recent Hudseen articles regarding the food trailer parked on the truck route.  While I got a measurement wrong by a foot and a half, the conclusions I drew from that incorrect number are, I think, still valid and worthwhile. Maybe even still accurate!

I had been claiming that the trailer was 10 feet wide even though it is precisely 8 1/2 feet wide (the widest a cargo trailer is allowed to be, it turns out).  I got lazy and was relying on the memory of a measurement I took weeks ago when the trailer was parked more than a foot from the curb. For this I apologize.

Yesterday, the trailer was parked 5 inches from the curb, thus claiming 8 feet 11 inches, or 107 inches, of the width of our truck route. Since Columbia Street is 30 feet wide (and it is!), that means that the parked trailer takes up 30 percent of the width of the street. I had claimed that it was taking up a third of the street, meaning I was off by just 3 percentage points.

For a little context on the trouble a parked trailer potentially causes,  these two dumpsters on Columbia Street (and sidewalk) are both exactly 94 inches wide, 8 inches narrower than the trailer (102 inches).  One is supposed to be issued a permit to park a dumpster in the street (and on the sidewalk), of course, and the permit holds the city harmless should an accident occur because of the dumpster. 

A typical designated (lined) parking space in downtown Hudson is 91 inches wide, or nearly a foot narrower than the trailer. It is a ticketable code violation to park a vehicle in a metered space without being within the designated lines.

Tractor trailers, the ones so common on our truck route and constantly passing one another both day and night, are also limited to a width of 8 1/2 feet. Two tractor trailers being driven in opposite directions and attempting to pass the parked trailer at the same time would have a really difficult time doing so without making contact somewhere. This is absolutely not the case when passing parked cars, which happens constantly on the truck route without incident.  The average width of a car these days is just shy of 6 feet, according to online sources.

This will be the last word for a while on the parked food trailer (unless, of course, I discover that it has caused an accident!). The $25 NO PARKING ZONE ticket it was issued by HPD one week ago (and which fell to the ground) was recently voided by the Parking Bureau. Last night, the truck did not receive a ticket, though it was parked in the same area of the truck route and in the same Thursday night NO PARKING ZONE. Go figure!

Why is any of this important? Our streets could be safer if City Hall would just make an effort to do so! We are being failed!