The topic of “safe streets” is perhaps too broad, but it involves 4 principle points:

1. Management of what is called the “streets” department

2. Equitable distribution of street maintenance and road-building resources

3. Rational traffic planning

4. Law enforcement

Management of the “streets” department

The workers in the streets department don’t pave roads or build sidewalks. That work is done by contractors. These workers need to be reorganized as part of a holistic public works department and be given the tools and resources to perform whatever work is needed. Let’s quit pretending we have a “streets” department and treat the workers with some respect.

Randy lives closer to the city’s core than some in the district and his business is located on the boundary between Midtown and Downtown. Randy, on most days, walks the 2 miles from his home to work, so he gets a worm’s-eye view of our streets.

The program of street sweeping needs to end. At great expense in personnel and equipment, the city “sweeps” the streets. Though it is mostly ineffective, it continues. This city council approved the purchase of 2 new sweepers in the past 18 months.

Few in the 5th District benefit from this make-work project. Some, of course, have to deal with an onerous no-parking regime for particular times during the week, and many of those residents have incurred annoying parking fines. These street sweeps (and the fines), are wholly unnecessary and the continued expenditure on street sweeping raises great suspicion in the minds of many people.

Where work is needed is in the clearing of storm drains. In 2011 and beyond, the costs of keeping those storm drains cleared should be paid for out of stormwater fees we all pay – not primarily from property taxes.

Equitable distribution of street maintenance and road-building resources

Most people believe the city builds and repairs roads. It does, but primarily through contracts with paving companies who bid for the work. The city council has, over the last 8 years, neglected to fund an adequate street repair and maintenance program – that is why our cash reserves remain at such a high level.

In the meantime, we have been paying a silent tax. It has been estimated that pothole-ridden streets add about $800 per vehicle in insidious costs borne mostly by New Albany residents. Some of that is in excess wear and tear that diminishes the resale value of our cars. And some of that comes from more accidents, poorer gas mileage, and more frequent replacement and repair to our cars.

If the city council were to propose an $800 a year tax on every car in New Albany, residents would march on city hall. But when the city council neglects our roads and fights multiple administrations who have tried to implement a consistent, comprehensive maintenance program, no one makes a sound.

Randy will bring a pragmatic, true cost perspective to the city council deliberations when he takes office. It is the absence of this kind of analysis that has caused the 5th District to be underserved by our streets program.

The 5th District is not a blighted area, so it is ineligible for Community Development Block Grant money, for the most part. Historically, few grants are made for streets in the 5th District. Randy will make sure that the 5th District gets its share of streets funding.

Rational traffic planning

New Albany continues to be a laughingstock for its indefensible one-way streets, particularly in its downtown districts. These streets were designed for 2-way traffic. Countless studies have shown how one-way traffic patterns encourage high speeds and reckless driving, and the safety of pedestrians is made 23 times worse by 1-way traffic patterns.

The continuation of 1-way traffic patterns, now discredited by all urban planners and most traffic engineers, is another hidden tax on businesses already fighting hard to restore the economic vitality of our downtown.

What’s more, neighborhoods like Elm and Market Streets have to deal with enormous external costs from speeders. And Spring Street west of Vincennes is just a fatality waiting to happen with high speeds and confused visitors driving east on a westbound street. It happens every day.

Randy will support the prompt reversion of downtown traffic patterns to the original designs. The traffic-calming benefits will strengthen those neighborhoods and bring new vibrancy to the commercial and retail interests who provide jobs and taxes to make our city safe.

Law enforcement

55-mph speeds in a 25-mph zone, without a credible threat of citation, breeds contempt for the law. Our system, as designed, still provides disincentives for the enforcement of speeding ordinances, with most enforcement being subsidized by state grants and most fines being forwarded directly to county and state coffers.

Calmer traffic patterns will restore and stabilize our neighborhoods. Enforcement of speed limits on Slate Run Road, a major outlet for most of us in the 5th District, will make that road safer and prevent the kinds of tragedies we continue to see along that stretch of New Albany’s roads, with notorious hit-and-run incidents something every driver and resident has come to fear.

We must make sure that the proposed widening of Slate Run Road includes inbuilt traffic calming measures, too, or it will become even more of a speedway.