HUDseen: There's A Right Way And A Wrong Way To Do ONE WAY!

Continuing with my effort to highlight the failures our DPW makes in keeping our streets as safe as possible, let's look at some one-way streets and ONE WAY signs around town. ONE WAY signs are particularly important (even if often ignored) as anyone who spends time walking and/or driving in downtown Hudson knows all too well that drivers headed the wrong way on our one-way streets is a common problem. Surely, Robert Perry at DPW must be aware of the issue and doing his best to prevent wrong way drivers and accidents. (I won't even begin to assume that Shane Bower is aware of this issue or would even care about it if he were aware of it.)

To understand DPW's approach, let's begin with an intersection where vehicles are permitted to turn onto a ONE WAY street -- at N. 5th & Prospect Streets. There are two conspicuous double-sided ONE WAY signs at this intersection which make it abundantly clear to drivers that it is acceptable to enter the 500 block of Prospect. Contrary to how drivers often encounter and react to ONE WAY signs, these signs are not preventing anyone from entering the one-way street. Rather, the signs act as some kind of reminder that it's okay to enter the street, announcing, in essence: "In case you were unsure, you may proceed." (Are the signs even necessary? 4 of them?). Those 4 signs are not meant to prevent wrong way drivers or accidents and they never will.

Okay, what about other intersections with one-way streets where DPW does not want anyone to turn because doing so will cause a vehicle to be travelling in the wrong direction and increase the chances of an accident, potentially a really bad one? If an intersection where drivers are allowed to turn has 4 posted ONE WAY signs, surely intersections where drivers are not allowed to turn will have at least 4 posted ONE WAY signs (and possibly a different type of sign), right?

Wrong!

I recently took a picture from the vantage point of a driver headed east on State Street waiting at the red light at 4th Street where there is just one double-sided ONE WAY sign meant to prevent drivers from turning onto one-way 4th Street. Can you find the sign facing west? No, you can't find it, and a driver wouldn't even see it. I suppose if there were a passenger, they might notice the sign (as if that would help!). It is as if Robert Perry would prefer drivers headed east not to see the sign and that he feels drivers headed the wrong way on our several one-way streets is an issue not worth taking seriously.

"What ONE WAY sign, officer?"

Are drivers expected to see the only ONE
WAY sign facing west, even when the
sun is shining? How about at midnight?

Here is DPW's incoherent approach to safe one-way streets: 4 (not so important) signs at 5th & Prospect that will not prevent an accident or prevent drivers from heading in the wrong direction. But just 2 of the same (though now really IMPORTANT!) signs are posted at 4th & State, one of which is difficult or impossible to see, both meant to keep drivers and passengers safe by preventing turns. This is how seriously our DPW takes vehicle and pedestrian safety -- at best as an afterthought.

If Hudson City Hall were serious about keeping drivers from heading in the wrong direction on 4th Street (and elsewhere), there would be a sign hanging from above -- the no turn type with a bent arrow and a slash through it -- that no one can claim to not have seen. As far as I can tell, there is just one of this type of sign in the entire downtown area, located at the quiet intersection of Dodge & Prospect. The city could afford only one of those signs designed to prevent wrong way drivers and accidents, so Dodge & Prospect was the lucky recipient.

A sign that is far too rare in Hudson

Let's move on to 4th & Columbia, an intersection that has had its share of accidents over the years. Surely there are 4 ONE WAY signs at that busy intersection along the truck route a block from Warren Street, right? Sorry, no! The intersection is not busy enough and there have not been enough wrong way accidents there to justify posting 2 double-sided ONE WAY signs there. One pair will do, even though the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices tells us that there should be a total of 4 signs at the two corners there.

Look at how easy it would be to miss the one small ONE WAY sign facing west:

4th & Columbia, along the truck route: no stop lines,
no crosswalks, no NO RIGHT (or LEFT) TURN signs.
Just one pair of ONE WAY signs where there should be two.

The intersection of 6th & State has no ONE WAY signs preventing drivers on State from turning onto 6th headed south in the wrong direction. There are two DO NOT ENTER signs, but those face north and are meant for the eyes of drivers on 6th Street approaching the intersection from the north. There used to be one pair of ONE WAY signs at the intersection, until last spring when the pole fell over and DPW removed it. Apparently, it wasn't important or helpful to begin with.

Here are the other intersections with just one pair of ONE WAY signs on a pole meant to prevent turns: Columbia at 7th; Warren at 8th; 5th at Washington; and Union at City Hall Place.

DPW (and HPD?) did get it right at 7 intersections where there are 2 double-sided ONE WAY signs to prevent turns. Columbia at 5th and at 6th; Warren at 4th, 5th & 6th (all too commonly unnoticed or ignored by visitors); Union at 5th; and Prospect at 6th.

In other words, they got it wrong about half the time. We all deserve better than 50%, don't we?

This lack of attention to matters of street safety boils down to this problem: Our DPW Superintendent is tasked with too much. He oversees the Water Department and the rest of the Department of Public Works (don't make me list all that entails), as well as the Cemetery Department. One person reigning over all of this as if it were some sort of fiefdom. Robert Perry's fiefdom. This structure may have operated just fine 50 years ago, but it no longer does. It's far too much for one person to handle properly and efficiently, so some things have to go ignored. For one, that would be street safety -- for drivers, passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists, you name it. Our streets (and sidewalks!) could be so much safer and respectable if there were someone who had the time to pay attention to them and manage things properly and professionally. That person is obviously not Robert Perry -- he's got far too many other important things to deal with, especially water and sewer issues. And if Mr. Perry is relying on the HPD Commissioner to handle what he can't find time for, we really are in a pickle that just normalizes the dysfunction, perpetuates poor decision making and, as I have shown, allows for poor signage around town that endangers people and vehicles. The solution, or at least a change in that direction, is simple: Someone should supervise the Water & Sewer Department, and someone else should supervise the DPW -- two completely separate, and separately supervised, departments. This is how it is done in the real world, even in Greenport, where their Highway Department and Water & Sewer Department are not supervised by the same person! Doing otherwise would be foolish of them.

When will Hudson enter the 21st century?