Here are a couple of comments on my part: 1. The city department to call is City Engineering (CE in Dryer's email.) They deal directly with the construction crews and contractors. They are likely in daily, if not more frequent contact with the permit holder. Note that there is a requirement that there be a 24-hour number to call. We as citizens are not going to get that number, but Engineering certainly has it, so during business hours, a call to Engineering might get it fixed right away.
2. The permit clearly states that the bike lane is to be kept open. City staff is doing what they are empowered to do - yell at the permit holder and tell them to shape up. They aren't ignoring the problem. They just don't have a big enough hammer. (See next point) 3. Any rule or permit - no loud parties, use of the pubic right of way for construction staging, speed limits, paying sales tax on out of state on-line purchases, etc. - can and will be violated based on several factors: A) How careful, honest, or community-minded a person or group may be, B) the chances of both getting caught, C) the consequences of getting caught, and D) whether violating the rule/permit is more advantageous than paying any fine or punishment if one is caught. It seems that, although the chances of getting caught are good, the consequences are not high enough to prevent the violation. Another possibility is that there are individuals working on the site that are violating the permit, and the company is not able to control those workers well enough. 4. Some cities make keeping access open not just a requirement, but a violation punishable by a fine from the city. some cities also make damaging trees or making too much noise at the wrong hours punishable by a fine. Perhaps that needs to be looked into. (I think the noise violation is already on the books, and I seem to have heard about a tree-protection requirement as well.) 5. There are plenty of instances where motor vehicle traffic is also blocked in violation of a permit. I've seen it myself in construction areas. No sign, no warning, but suddenly the lane ends. it is usually only temporary, but it does happen. Pedestrian access is also routinely violated. Happened quite a bit with the projects along University Ave. City Engineering was out there on a regular basis telling the various construction companies to not block the temporary walkway, bike access, or other rights of way. Ditto with blocking access to businesses. Happens all the time. The difference? The people who are being blocked or inconvenienced are much more assertive in complaining. (See next point.) 6. We as user of the public right of way can do a number of things to deal with a blocked bike lane (or any other violation of a street permit.) a) We can just get in the car lane and inconvenience the drivers, who will then complain loudly to the city, if it happens for hours on end, and the city will fix it. Drivers are very assertive in complaining about traffic conditions. I realize this tact is not for the feint of heart, but nobody requires that we stay in the bike lane if there is no bike lane, or it is blocked by debris. b) We can call the construction company or contractor directly and complain. The phone number or web site is normally on some sign at the site. Again, I know this is inconvenient, but we need to stand up for our rights as a group. Businesses that have their accss blocked do this all the time. I'd make sure to also cc the city on any emails. c) We can complain on a regular basis to the city, press, neighbors, alders, and other road users. Construction companies and contractors hate bad press. Now that we know they are violating their permit, make it public to anyone that will listen. d) We can take another route. If you are not the confrontational sort - and sometimes we are just too tired to make a big deal out of something - just stop using that route. Use Mifflin, in this case. We all know motorists take different routes when construction happens. Businesses don't like it, but people go to other stores if getting to one is too tough. So, to sum up, I think maybe the city needs to put some fines behind the violations, we need to speak up on a regular basis, and/or we can avoid the area and take a detour, but then the problem won't get fixed for other people. P.S. I'm cc'ing Bridget, so she knows there's a problem in her district. Robbie Webber Bike Walk Madison Steering Committee www.bikewalkmadison.org Join our group on Facebook! On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Rummel, Marsha <[email protected] > wrote: > Hey All- > > One of my constituents emailed me and TE staff wondering what the > responsibility of contractors is to maintain bike lanes during construction. > The location in question is Blair at E Johnson. > > "Today, for the fourth time in about a week, the bike lane was blocked on > East Johnson. Right in front of the Krupp construction project--sorry I > don't know the cross street, but it should be obvious. This is very > dangerous, a sudden block of a path with no warning, and heavy traffic > speeding by (far over the speed limit). This isn't the first time this has > been a problem with construction blocking a bike lane. Specifically as this > site, there is often debris (sand, gravel, etc), vehicles, and materials > blocking the path." > > David Dryer sent the attached pdf files with the following comments: > > "This is an on-street bike lane, TE reviews and makes conditions for two > types of permits, Street Opening, and Street Occupancy. SOpening permits are > administered by CE and SOccupancys by BI (for now). When there is a > violation of the permit and TE is made aware-as people think these are TE > permits, we contact the contractor and request compliance, we read em the > riot act, the whole drill---often times they say they will comply, some do, > some do for a period of time, some do not, and some repeat. TE does not > have any authority to terminate a permit, to kick a permittee out of the > street, nor do we have any authority to write a citation. We do have the > “threat” of not signing off on a permit renewal. It is often cheaper for the > permittee to use a street than to make accommodations for themselves on > private property. We do recognize that in an urban setting often there is no > alternative than the publics space, in those cases then we want > accommodations made for the displaced public users. They are told this. > Attached is a scan of this permit. In this instance you can see the blue > line on the plan that shows the bike lane is to remain open and outside the > WZ fence." > > My constituent responded after getting the above: "Seems to me that it's > clearly not working, and that contractors have no incentive (positive or > negative) to keep public spaces open and safe. And a good example of > enforcement, review, and control being disconnected. Can you imagine if a > construction site just randomly closed a car lane during rush hour--I'm > guessing then there'd be some consequences." > > TE read the contractor the 'riot act' but it does seem like there is a > disconnect...I'd like your advice on this. > > Thanks > Marsha > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > >
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