LIVE BETTER? With All These Tractor Trailers Passing Through Town? On Green Street? On State? On 5th? On Columbia? On 3rd? Crossing Warren Street?

It's not unusual for anyone living on upper State Street to see, HEAR, and sometimes feel the passing of an enormous and heavy 18-wheeled, 70-foot long (or more) vehicle heading west to get the hell out of town to make their delivery on time or to just get home. (The semis are rarely headed east.)  People living on, say, Allen Street or Union Street, might be up in arms if it happened as often on their streets. 5 blocks of State Street -- from Green to 3rd -- are part of the de facto Truck Route Alternative (and State Street Speedway). You get used to it as best you can, and the police don't seem to mind, either.

What is unusual, for me at least, is to be able to follow one of these errant diesel rigs and document its winding, unwelcome and dangerous path out of town.  Green to 3rd on State?  Happens all the time, no news there!  Green to State to 5th to Columbia to 3rd?  Now that's what I call absolutely nuts (and unacceptable)! Fortunately, at least I hope, that much errant-ness doesn't happen every day.  But it did yesterday afternoon.

I first saw the Wal Mart Save Money Live Better tractor trailer (trailers are usually 53 feet long, the maximum allowed, and tractors at least 20 feet) as it left the Green Street portion of the Truck Route to head west on State Street.  Soon after snapping a picture of the rig proceeding through the intersection of 6th & State, the driver, probably obeying his/her GPS to get back on the truck route, then took a left turn onto 5th Street.  VERY SLOWLY.  I could practically hear the driver cursing.  The green mailbox at the corner survived!  No mirrors of parked cars were swiped!

I was able to get a few pictures as the tractor trailer began to turn right onto Columbia because the driver had to stop for about ten seconds to allow at least one eastbound vehicle stopped at the light on Columbia to back up out of the way.  Inching forward, the driver made the turn without incident and without rolling up on either of the two corners.

I arrived at 3rd & Warren about 30 seconds before the Wal Mart behemoth did.  It would be at least another minute, passing two short green lights, before the driver stopped cursing.  The question is, was that the driver's first time through Hudson, or was that their regular route?  That's the question a Hudson cop should have asked the driver.

But even if a Hudson cop had seen any portion of the errant semi's route that I witnessed yesterday, they wouldn't have bothered pulling over the driver to issue them a ticket for straying off the signed truck route (it is a ticketable traffic violation!). First of all, "pulling over" a 70-foot-long, 18-wheeled vehicle for five or ten minutes on any of our narrow streets and without the aid of a shoulder is to be avoided. Stopping a tractor trailer just makes things more dangerous for everyone, including the cop. Second, can you blame the driver for being off the truck route? The signage for the route, like most signage in town, is inadequate, nonexistent or impossible to read. And third, who wouldn't rather drive on State Street for at least a few blocks to stay off of Columbia Street? And what about that 5th Street with all of its historic houses, too? Give the drivers a break, they're taking the scenic route through our historic little city!

My bigger question is, what, if anything, did Margaret Morris's (disbanded?) Truck Route Committee do to decrease the number of tractor trailers and trucks driving through town, as well as trucks straying off of the truck route? I'm pretty sure the answer is NOTHING.  My guess is that if as many errant tractor trailers and large trucks were heading up and down Union or Allen Streets as we have on State Street, Morris would have done something about the problem by now.  Too bad she doesn't live on State Street.  Too bad no 3rd ward council members live on upper State Street now and for at least the next two years!  

A few years ago.

Well, at least the Comon Council passed a law yesterday trying to limit the number of parked vehicles in the city idling their engines for more than ten minutes!  Thank goodness for that!  I'm sure the Hudson Police Department will be more than happy to ignore that vehicle and traffic rule, too!