Editorial

The Big 4 Bridge will be completed in a year or two, if we can find $12m for the Indiana ramp. But why should we build this bridge? Read more...

Check out the LEO fatlip blog which is covering the PETA KFC chicken statue saga. The city has denied PETA's request to place the statue citing sidewalk-right-of-way issues.

Sidewalk statues can be really annoying. About time someone stood up on this issue!

Though we haven't looked at the site in question, this has been a nagging general concern of ours for a few years.

1.

Photo Credit: Rolf Eisinger

:D

 (click "Read More" to see all 5 hotspots)

For fun, I decided to do a rush-hour traffic count of the only intersection between me and my primary grocery. That's the corner of Baxter Ave and Goddard Ave, for my internet stalker fan-base. In that hour, I recorded 1167 crossings. 

• 95.7% were in cars (including 2 commercial trucks and one paratransit van)
• 0.8% were on motorcycles or scooters
• 1.3% were on bicycles
• 2.2% were people on foot*

The people on foot had a very hard time crossing Baxter - 77% were the victims of failure to yeild by motorists.

& asks for Sidewalk Diversions to become a standard tool in the design of worksites

Accomodating walking needs to be standard operating procedure not just on Main Street, but in the entire city.

Thank You!

Thanks go out to Louisville Department of Public Works & Assets and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for moving quickly to address this important issue! Thanks also to Phil Miller at the Mayor's office, Terra Long at Councilman Owen's office, and Rob Haynes at Councilman Tandy's office. The thanks are for this!:

Read more below the fold...

Protest Planned For Friday

UPDATE: check out the exciting news about Main Street.

Downtown Louisville has the most important sidewalks in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Not only are the walkers here incredibly numerous, but they're also the economic engine that keeps the state afloat. The business deals, the bus stops, the remote parking lots, the lunch meetings - all these trips have a walking component. So you would think that we would take special measures to keep walking downtown safe and dignified - it's just common sense.

Our elite cadre of CART photographers recently took to the streets to see how we're doing on that...

Here you see the long-standing Arena construction site. We're looking at Main Street between 2nd and 3rd. You can see they've blocked the sidewalk with a fence and some orange-and-white barricades (they're technically called "longitudinal channellizing devices" or LCDs).

Main Street, between 1st street and 2nd street. Sidewalks are closed on both sides of the street in the dead center nucleus of Louisville.

"[Thomas] Jefferson, believing that the taming of the horse had resulted in the degeracy of the human body, urged the young to walk for exercise."

from: Undaunted Courage by Stephen E Ambrose        

[editor's note: I bet Jefferson would be quite saddened by today's state of affairs]